This fabulous radio/tv/telecommunications tower from the 1960's is being knocked down soon and replaced with something boring. I've loved the look of it forever and feel it befitting to climb as a farewell of sorts. No dates will be released of it being inactive and demolition is very swift in my area, so I have to face it being active.
I've done plenty of reading up on RF towers, etc, but would love any opinion on this, thanks



1.

It looks doable.

It clearly isn't an AM tower. On an AM tower the whole tower functions as the antenna, so they're very tall and typically don't have any other antennas on them.

Those microwave antennas are probably turned off, but you really won't be able to tell unless you have access to the telecom's equipment. RF will cook you from the inside out. Usually you won't notice until it's too late. Though, as long as you don't go in front of those parabolic antennas it shouldn't be an issue.

I did cell tower work for a local wireless ISP for about 2 years and we would climb with active antennas around us. You just have to be certain that you don't go in front of the antennas, and be mindful of any cables.

Have fun and be safe

Looks like they were nice enough to install a nice set of stairs for you to climb. It's almost like they want you to explore it, and to take some awesome night time shots from the top of it.

Just don't get cooked as the above poster mentioned.

Bring a bag of popcorn and put it in front of the antenna.

Thanks for the info!

I'll make sure I make some s'mores while I'm up there

Find out what frequencies are in use. 70 MHz is the most hazardous, the 30-300 MHz range is a dangerous range for humans.
You can cause serious internal damage if you get too near to a high wattage antenna in these ranges.

To know the safe zones you need to know the frequency, wattage and the pattern of wave propagation of the antenna to calculate a safe distance/zones. RF field strength is inversely proportional to the distance. There may be no safety zones at all after you start to climb if active.
Many towers aren't climbed when active... an RF field strength meter might be useful
First determine what frequencies you are dealing with. Stay clear of the microwave dishes if active.

It be wiser to wait until it was decommissioned.
You may face Federal charges if caught on an active Com site.
That alone should make you think twice.

I would agree with Piecat that it's probably fine, and it's clearly not a radiating mast. Is probably good enough for you? I don't think I'd do it myself, at least not without first consulting someone who actually works in the industry. It might even be worth it to try calling and asking for permission on this one, as a photographer or historian? Then you'll actually get to find out the date it gets shut down.

You may already know this, but you can always look it up in the FCC database:
http://wireless2.f...strationSearch.jsp

The information that will give you is usually quite technical and not all that useful to us mere mortals, but sometimes you can find the information you need in there with some additional research.

You can climb active AM tower but jumping on and off is the trick. AM radio waves are too long to effectively couple through the air with a human.
I wouldn't try it but some have.

If it has any active FM radio or TV transmission antennas, these are dangerous.


More on the dangers:
http://www.rfsafet...ower_Climbing.html

Posted by foxhollow Thanks for the info! I'll make sure I make some s'mores while I'm up there

These are large antennas, so this won't apply, but on smaller PTP antennas it's worth noting that if the antenna *is* active, you'll probably not want to put anything in the line of site, the NOC will notice and will likely investigate why their signal is down/degraded on a sunny/clear day.

Also I wouldn't want to put any metal directly in front of it either. It'll heat up like if you put it in the microwave oven.

Posted by blackhawk Find out what frequencies are in use. 70 MHz is the most hazardous, the 30-300 MHz range is a dangerous range for humans. You can cause serious internal damage if you get too near to a high wattage antenna in these ranges. To know the safe zones you need to know the frequency, wattage and the pattern of wave propagation of the antenna to calculate a safe distance/zones. RF field strength is inversely proportional to the distance. There may be no safety zones at all after you start to climb if active. Many towers aren't climbed when active... an RF field strength meter might be useful First determine what frequencies you are dealing with. Stay clear of the microwave dishes if active.

To my knowledge, Dishes like that are typically Microwave and up. Microwave is in the 3GHz-300GHz range, but that doesn't mean they're any less dangerous. Microwave is very directional, so you won't be in danger *if* the telecom set their antennas up correctly.

Lower frequency antennas will tend to be dipole and longer... They'll look like the TV antennas people put on their roofs, or the whole tower will be an antenna.

The reason the 30-300 range is especially dangerous to humans is because the wavelength (and harmonics) at those frequencies are close to the length of your body/limbs, so your body will act like a tuned antenna, efficiently picking up the radiowaves... Not a fun way to go.

Similarly, Microwave is so dangerous because it's wavelength is that of water molecules. The reason microwave ovens cook is the same reason those dishes will cook you- the water in your body gets heated until it boils. In accidents involving active microwave links, it isn't unheard of for the worker's eyes to burst from the eye liquid boiling. And even if you realize what's going on, chances are you'll have permanent damage to the lens.

Frequency is indirectly proportional with size, but output power is what matters the most

It be wiser to wait until it was decommissioned. You may face Federal charges if caught on an active Com site. That alone should make you think twice.

I forgot about this, but yeah, that's generally true. It's my understanding that trespassing is only a felony if the tower is used for phone/911 service, can be used as a link in times of national emergency/civil unrest, or transmits information to a government service (Military, NOAA, fire dept., DOT).

I'm sure Australia has similar laws in place.

Cheers for the extra advice. I'm not so worried about its future anymore, I contacted my brother who essentially works as the (less Nazi) Joseph Goebbels of the State Government and is close with the Premier. One call and it turns out that the Premier had no idea that the Telco company had plans to remove the huge tower. He, like me, loves the thing and has given it a National Heritage listing, meaning it can't be removed, so that's a win.

As for me, I think I'll admire my bizarre Meccano tv tower from the safe (and less federally felonious) distance of my 70-200mm lens :p

Thanks again, especially for giving a first poster such good info

Posted by foxhollow Cheers for the extra advice. I'm not so worried about its future anymore, I contacted my brother who essentially works as the (less Nazi) Joseph Goebbels of the State Government and is close with the Premier. One call and it turns out that the Premier had no idea that the Telco company had plans to remove the huge tower. He, like me, loves the thing and has given it a National Heritage listing, meaning it can't be removed, so that's a win. As for me, I think I'll admire my bizarre Meccano tv tower from the safe (and less federally felonious) distance of my 70-200mm lens :p Thanks again, especially for giving a first poster such good info

I wish it was always that easy to save a historic location! Can I send your brother a list??

Haha, well, if you come to Melbourne, Aus anytime soon I'm sure I can work something out, haha. Either that or I tell him to get the Premier to contact the Governor of Tennessee and brew up some nice international relations :p