Nick Rouskey, president, Broadcast Services Tower and Antennas, died tragically Dec. 26 when he was electrocuted while working on a cell tower in Bonita Springs, Fla. Rouskey was alone on the tower, Bonita Springs fire deputy chief Frank Giuliano said.

Rouskey, who had 20 years of experience repairing towers, was on the tower to replace a light, and was being assisted by his grandson, who was at the base.

Rescuers were dispatched to the scene at 4:40 p.m. and found him unresponsive 750 feet above the ground, according to Naples Daily News. A team of eight workers “untangled” Rouskey and lowered him to the ground. The rescue took five hours to complete.
A station engineer thought that he was changing out a beacon bulb at the time of the accident.

The guyed tower is set back behind Channel 30 Drive, along Old U.S. 41 in Bonita Springs.

The victim’s body reached ground at about 9:30 p.m., Giuliano said. Collier County rescuers were dispatched to the scene at about 4:40 p.m., joined by Bonita Springs fire responders, both county sheriff’s offices and other agencies.

A group of eight rescuers, including an Urban Search and Rescue team, worked to untangle the man and bring him down.

Officials cut power on the tower during the rescue mission for safety, having the FAA divert aircraft from the area.

They reached the technician about 7:30 p.m. Rescuers then discovered the man was dead.

“At that point it became a body recovery, as opposed to a rescue,” Giuliano said. “We slowed down and took our time.”

As they were preparing to climb the structure a sheriffs’ helicopter circled the tower and reported to rescuers that the man had been unresponsive for almost three hours.

medical examiners told family members that, according to an autopsy, Rouskey was electrocuted.

However, officials at District 21 Medical Examiner Rebecca Hamilton’s Office said they have not released findings and won’t issue a cause of death until results of lab tests are received.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation of the accidental death will not be completed until detectives receive reports from the medical examiner.

OSHA is also investigating the accident.

The 733-foot tower is owned by Super Towers Inc. of Manchester, Mass.

Rouskey, 61, lived in Cape Coral, Fla., where he and his wife, Kathleen, owned and operated Broadcast Services Tower and Antenna. He was a veteran of the Vietnam war and received a Bronze Star for his military service. He is survived by his wife, one son, Nick Rouskey; and two grandsons, Dylan and Ian; and other family members.

We grieve when these kind of events happen in our industry. The members of his family have our thoughts, prayers and condolences.

Tags: 2012, Broadcast Services Tower and Antennas, Fall, Fatality, Nick Rouskey, Technorati, Tower Climber

Matthew D. Goodner, 30, of Ford Dodge, Iowa died on Wednesday October 12 in Newton, Mass, the sixth fatality of 2011 in tower related deaths.
Goodner was a contractor who was installing a safety ladder and performing routine maintenance for the tower owner, Boston-based American Tower Corp.  During the installation Goodner was working at approximately the 1,000 foot mark on the 1,253 foot guy-wire tower.

Goodner was a member of a veteran crew of three men, working for Ultimate Tower, a Texas-based company.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of one of our contractors. Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family and co-workers during this difficult time. We are working closely with the relevant authorities and cooperating fully with all inquiries into the cause of this tragic accident,” said Matt Peterson, vice president of communications for ATC in a statement.

Peterson said the company suspended all work at the site pending a thorough review of the incident.

Although authorities have said the Goodner was at approximately 1,000 feet, Peterson said he had no information regarding the actual height.

Jessica Pastore, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said there were other tower technicians on the tower at the time of the incident, but none of them was injured.

American Tower issued a statement saying “We are deeply saddened by the death of one of our contractors. Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family and co-workers during this difficult time.

“We are working closely with the relevant authorities and co-operating fully with all inquiries into the cause of this tragic accident. We have suspended all work at this site pending a thorough review of this incident.”

Our thoughts go out to Mr Goodners family and friends as well as the crews of Ultimate tower at this time.

Tags: Cellular, Fall, Fatality, Massachusetts, Matthew Goodner, Newton, Technorati, telecommunications, Tower, Towerdog, Ultimate Tower

From Wireless Estimator

Tower contractors are being requested to identify if they have any 3M retractable lanyards that are being recalled because some of the units do not properly achieve lock up during the user pre-inspection 3M retractable lanyards being recalledpull test on the webbing lifeline as required by the user instructions and OSHA.

Last July, Petzl America Inc. voluntarily recalled about 375,000 Scorpio and Absorbica shock-absorbing lanyards that have been sold since 2002. Some of the lanyards are missing a safety stitch on the attachment loop, which could cause the lanyard to separate from the climbing harness.

Tags: 3M, Lanyards, Recall, Safety, Tech, Technorati, Tower Dogs

Put another climbing rig in the empty chair.
August was a deadly month for tower climbers. It’s a risky business. One with low wages for the danger that they participate in.

Via Wireless Estimator

August 9, 2011 – Services were held this morning for an 18-year-old tower technician who fell to his death last Teen tower tech is killed in North Carolina Wednesday in Hollister, N.C.

Keith Joshua Caleb Stull of Pinnacle, N.C. had been working on a United States Cellular Corporation self supporting tower at 40989 Highway 561 when he suddenly fell from approximately the 50 foot level of the 300-foot structure built in 2008.

He was transported to Nash General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Stull was employed by Sink Tower Erection Co., Inc. of Lexington, N.C., a company formed in 1995 by its president, James H. Sink.

Stull was the fourth tower technician to die this year from falling from a structure. View nine year history here.

North Carolina was the first state OSH to develop a communications tower standard and a fall protection standard in 2005.

The NCDOL approved a non-ionizing radiation standard the follow year.

The last fatality in the state of a tower tech falling from a structure was on April 18, 2008 in Frisco.

Born on August 8, 1992 in Snowflake, Ariz. to Charles Kenneth Stull of Pinnacle and Jhonda Anderson of Kentucky, Keith Stull was an avid wrestler in high school.

In addition to his parents he is survived by two sisters; Rhinna Stull of Idaho, and Victoria Stull of Pinnacle; one brother; Charles Michael Stull and girlfriend Amber Brickell of Pinnacle; two uncles Keith Stull and wife Kimberly, and Michael Stull all of Winston-Salem; Grandmother Ellen Graham of Winston Salem; two nieces Sarah and Elizabeth Stull.

A 21-year-old Topeka, Kan., man fell to his death August 14, while working on a tower in Missouri. A tower worker from Pinnacle, N.C., fell from a U.S. Cellular tower in Hollister, N.C., Aug. 3, five days short of his 19th birthday.

Jacob Von Kopfman became the fifth tower fatality in 2011.

Kopfman was employed by Hayden Tower Service. Previously, he worked for Blue Dot in Topeka, Schlafly Bottleworks and Northrop Grumman. He graduated from the Missouri Welding Institute in Nevada, Mo. Stull was employed by Sink Tower Erection of Lexington, N.C.

In another incident, a 25-year-old man who passed out on a tower August 3, in Texas had to be rescued by firefighters. He survived the ordeal and was listed in stable condition in a local hospital, according to a Fort Worth newspaper.

It could be worse. We could have had even more fatalities had the rescue not went smoothly on a tower that was recently energized while a crew was working on it.

The industry used to pay well. When I first became a climber back in 2003 the wage was a lot higher than it is now. Now crews are lucky to make $15 per hour in some cases. Forget benefits.

Fools who lock themselves on a tower, or free climb don’t realize the danger they are in and the knowledgeable ones who do so give a bad reputation to the rest of us.

I’m not a climber anymore, hell I’m not even in the industry now, but I can’t stand hearing about these types of incidents still.

Tags: Climber, Death, Fall, Fatality, Jacob Von Kopfman, Keith Stull, Technorati, Tower

Not to be confused with the Light Radio Cube

For those who don’t know there is a company known as LightSquared attempting to make a break in to the telecommunication market with something a bit different.

LightSquared is building the only national 4G-LTE open wireless broadband network that incorporates nationwide satellite coverage. Supposedly this new network will have a high bandwidth ability for such things like data and applications (something you smart phone users had best be paying very close attention too) Through its wholesale-only business model, those without their own wireless network or who have limited geographic coverage or spectrum can market and sell their own products using the LightSquared network—at a competitive price and without retail competition from LightSquared. Basically, Tom and Joe can form their own cellular network, using LightSquared’s backbone, the same thing you have seen happen in any other areas with Rural telephone landline companies.

But it doesn’t end there

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 4G, Backbone, Cellular, LightSquared, Piggyback, Technology, Technorati, telecommunications

When the show Tower Dogs came out for a whopping 2 episodes myself and others in the industry at the time turned off the TV within minutes.

Tower crews are hot dogs. They are the fighter pilots of construction sites. So putting a camera in front of them and saying “Act Normal” is like giving a 5 year old fireworks and a match while saying “Be careful now, ya here?” and then going inside and leaving them with it. In either case it doesn’t end well.

With a heavy hand by a manager a tower crew show could be something interesting, for about 2 minutes. Much of what is done is slow, agonizingly slow. A tall tower can take 30 minutes or more just in ascent, let alone the work itself. Do people actually want to watch us run a Anritsu test for eight hours due to a bad connector? But I digress.

The fab factor is the work, the height, and the danger and make no mistake. It is dangerous. In fact despite Discovery Channels heralding of Deadliest Catch as being the baddest job in the world, per OSHA it’s Tower Climbing.

So with all that in mind it looks like Mike Rowe and the gang at Discovery channel is going to give the tower industry another shot, with what sounds like a better crew.

Details after the jump

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Communications, Danger, Discovery, Discovery Channel, Great Plains Towers, Kevin Reski, Mike Rowe, National Association of Tower Erectors, Technorati, Tower, Tower Dogs, Tower industry

Two Texas tower technicians died yesterday, after falling approximately 340 feet off of a new guyed tower they were erecting for WXXB-Texas-Tower-Tech-Fatlities102.9 FM in Indiana.

The Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Department identified the two riggers as Ernesto Garcia, 29, of Laredo, and Paul Aliss, 32, of Mesquite.

They were working at the site with an additional three crew members for Chandler, Ind.-based ERI Inc.

The accident was reported just before 9 a.m. by their coworkers and emergency crews and police responded to the scene, which is near the intersection of County Roads 600 North and 900 East by Colburn. Crews spent much of the morning investigating at the site and the bodies of the two victims were not removed until close to 11 a.m.

Emergency crews spent much of the morning investigating at the site and the bodies of the two victims were not removed until close to 11 a.m.

Authorities said they fell while they were in the process adding a section or other accessory on the 500-foot tower; however, until IOSHA investigates the exact details will not be known.

“Two members of a three-man crew on the tower had apparently been working at 340 feet when the fell, along with a piece of equipment being used to add another segment to the tower,” said the Tippecanoe County sheriff’s office.

ERI is replacing an existing 498-foot tower constructed in 2001that is located about 1,500 feet from the new structure.

The workers were removing the near-500-foot tower due to construction on the Hoosier Heartland Highway. The tower, for station WXXB, was being moved to County Road 600 North near County Road 900 East.

The county’s Board of Zoning Appeals signed off on the new tower construction last August and the work started earlier this spring, according to John Schurz, general manager of the WASK radio group that’s building the tower.

The tower site is near the intersection of County Roads 600 North and 900 East by Colburn.

Founded in 1943 to develop antennas for military aircraft, in the early 1990s ERI began designing, manufacturing and installing broadcast towers.

It is not known if the erection crew members worked for ERI or were subcontracted to install the tower.

Garcia and Aliss were the second and third tower technicians to die this year after falling from a communications structure.

As always our thoughts and prayers go out to these climbers families and coworkers.

Tags: Climbers, Danger, Death, ERI, Ernesto Garcia, Fall, Indiana, Paul Aliss, Technorati, Texas, Tower Dog

A 43-year-old Georgia tower technician fell to his death from a 300-foot self supporting tower in Okeechobee, Fla. on Sunday February 20.

Michael Anthony Scott of Hazlehurst, Ga. was on the structure installing antenna transmission lines for South Florida Water Management, the owner of the tower. The antennas operate the locks along the river.

The victim and a co-worker were installing the wires on the tower for working for Davis Specialties of Waycross, GA at about 110 to 120 AGL when the victim fell to his death.

Scott was the first industry worker to die in 2011 from falling from a communications structure. The tower was constructed in 2009. The case is being investigated by OSHA.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, and to his coworkers. It’s never easy to hear about one of our brethren.

Tags: Davis Specialties, Fall, Fatal, Georgia, Michael Anthony Scott, Technorati, telecommunications, Tower, Tower Dog

There is no doubt about it. Turf pricing is insane.

The Market I ran in the southeast was 100% turf pricing, and every delay came not only out of my budget, but out of my hide. I saw very good companies, with good friends who ran those companies, go under trying to make the system work.

It didn’t.

In 9 months I watched three contracting companies go belly up due to the turf pricing system. I can tell you first hand that their project scheduling is nothing short of nightmarish. It makes my days working for a unnamed giant retailer seem like a cake walk.

That was over a year ago, and now it seems to be getting worse if this latest commentary from Wireless Estimator is any proof.

Each every driver matrix includes a long list of fine print. Grounding includes labor, a set amount of feet of wire, lugs, heat shrink, and a specified list of requirements on how the item should be placed, mounted, positioned and otherwise ran. That just for starters.

The worst part comes with the wonderful “pay when paid” system. In other words the contractor gets paid, when management company gets paid, which is when AT&T decides to pay them.

It’s a ugly situation, but one the editors at Wireless Estimator seem to have grabbed hold of very well.

AT&T used to successfully rely upon qualified contractors to develop and build their sites, emphasizing safety at all costs.

It’s now all about costs. So much so that when tower technicians are seriously injured or killed while working on an AT&T installation, the carrier doesn’t even contact the tower owner for information about the incident.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said yesterday that the carrier’s loss of its iPhone exclusivity has benefited the industry.

The loss of a worker’s life, possibly through pricing and scheduling pressures, benefits no one, Mr. Stephenson.

Go read the rest

Tags: AT&T, Cellular, Randall Stephenson, Schedule, Technorati, telecommunications, Towers, Turf price, Wireless Estimator

Imagine mobile phone base stations no bigger than a golf ball. Imagine not having towers every two to three miles along the interstate, the great steel monoliths I and countless others have helped to erect, climb, establish, tune, and place across the country.

Intro the Light Radio Cube, stage right.

In this undated photo provided by Alcatel-Lucent, Wim Sweldens, the president Alcatel-Lucent's wireless division is seen holding a lightRadio cube, a small cell-phone antenna that can be deployed on lamp posts, buildings, and other places that can't accommodate a full-sized antenna. The cube integrates much of the regular workings of a conventional cell phone base station, seen behind Sweldens. (AP Photo/Alcatel-Lucent)

The “Light Radio” technology, which will be tested by a number of mobile operators around the world including Orange, Verizon in the US and the world’s largest network, China Mobile, could halve network operating costs and do the same for power demands, said Wim Sweldens, head of Alcatel-Lucent company’s mobile business at a presentation in London.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alcatel, Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Labs, Cell Tower, Cellular, Communication, Dan Hays, Light Radio Cube, Mobile, PRTM, Technology, Technorati, telecommunications, Tower Dogs, Wim Sweldens

I’ve told you guys about sites being torn down.

I’ve told you about Green Peace Freaks trashing towers.

But a Cell tower Fire?

Actually it happens more often than you would think, and it’s typically not pretty.

Take this AT&T Monopole that was a multi-carrier unit (in other words, other carriers rented space on the tower for their own systems. A fairly common practice) that went up in flames in New Jersey.

Fair warning, there is some hard language.

For those curious, a monopole is effectively hollow, and the transmission lines run inside of it. So when a tower crew doing welding work accidentally ignited the transmission lines (which are basically 2 or 3 inch pieces of coaxial cable, and very flammable) they created a over 150 foot roman candle.

Hat Tip to Wireless Estimator

Tags: Cell, Cell Site, Celltower, Destruction, Fire, Monopole, Technorati, Telecom, Tower, Wireless Estimator

Amongst those of us who are in telecommunications, America has two tower icons.

However, one will end up in the junk yard this week and the other might gain national prominence and be assured longevity.

For those located in Hawaii, or in Tennessee both are landmarks that are easily remembered and well known.

The Honolulu TV Tower has been a landmark since 1962

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Cellular, Hawaii, Historical Register, History, Honolulu TV Tower, Radio Tower, Tear down, Technorati, telecommunications, Tennessee, Tower Dogs, Towers, WSM Tower

The media would have had an absolute field day.

Never mind warrant-less wire tapping. What the Obama Administration is pushing for is knowing where you are via your cellphone 24/7

And they aren’t stopping there either!

The administration has also asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reverse its August ruling requiring court warrants to affix GPS devices to vehicles to track their every move. The administration said Americans should expect no privacy “in the totality of his or her movements in public places.”

Emphasis mine
A full PDF of the hearing can be found here and a recitation of the rebuttal found here

Folks it is time to step up and pay attention.

No matter who you voted for or what group your affiliated with, this is wrong, period.

Tags: Administration, Cars, Case, Cellular, Court, GPS, Obama, Technorati, Tracking, Warrant, Wireless, Wrong

Incidents like this is what makes tower climbing a risky business. Sometimes its tom foolery. Sometimes its the morons who think free climbing is authorized. Sometimes it’s things you just can not do anything about, and those are the most dangerous because no matter how much your practice safety, how much you prepare sometimes things just go bad. Sometimes it’s poor management trying to crank out every red nickel they can from an exhausted crew to meet a impossible schedule.

Fortunately for every idiot we have 2 dozen safe tower dogs who will see another view, and climb another one.

Our prayers are with these.

Via Wireless Estimator

William Fox, 49, suffered severe facial injures, police said, and a hospital spokeswoman said he was listed in fair condition.

Kelly Dougherty, 30, suffered a foot injury, and he was being evaluated Monday evening, authorities said.

Gregory Campbell, 44, went to the hospital for evaluation and was discharged.
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October 25, 2010 – Two tower techs fell while working on a WCNY antenna on the WKTV tower on Smith Hill Rd., north of Utica, NY this morning at 11:30 a.m.

A third tower tech hit his head on a tower leg following the rigging accident, but was able to climb his way down and was then transported to a local hospital along with his co-workers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Climber, Fall, Technorati, Tower, Tower Dog, Utica, Wireless

There are a lot of scary meme’s going around about the FCC regulating the Internet effective November 30th.

Obviously someone has never bothered to do their home work.

The FCC, by their very definition on their inception, has regulated the internet since their creation in 1934.

I recommend that the Congress create a new agency to be known as the Federal Communications Commission, such agency to be vested with the authority now lying in the Federal Radio Commission and with such authority over communications as now lies with the Interstate Commerce Commission--the services affected to be all of those which rely on wires, cables, or radio as a medium of transmission. Message from Theodore Roosevelt to Congress, February 20, 1934

Underline Emphasis mine.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: broadband, Congress, FCC, high speed, Infastructure, Internet, regulation, Technology, Technorati, Wireless

The last tower climb video we posted did well. So I thought I’d post a few more as we go.

Here’s a group of guys climbing the Macau Sky Tower, located on the isald of Macau, part of the People’s Republic of China.

They started building it in 1998 and did not finish until 2001, and it features the highest bungee jump in the world at over 750 feet. From top to bottom in tower measurements it is 1,108.9 feet tall, but the usable floor halts at 731 feet.

From AGL:

Even though he appeared to be taking appropriate precautions and was wearing a safety harness, a technician fell 100 feet from a cell tower in Erie, Pa., on Sept. 7, according to the Erie Times-News. He did not, amazingly enough, hit the ground and is currently in a hospital receiving treatment.

Mystery surrounds the worker’s descent. The man was tied in when he fell, but his fall protection apparently failed when it was activated and he continued to fall.

The TowerSource database shows a 125-foot monopole, managed by Crown Castle International, at that address with transmitters belonging to AT&T.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the fall-protection equipment and the company’s fall-protection program, according to the newspaper. The man’s identity and condition were not available.

Tags: AT&T, Cell Tower, Climber, Fall, Tech, Technorati, Tower Dog

So you want to know want to know what its like to be a Tower Dog?

Well I can’t take you, so this will have to do

Damn I miss tower work.

Thanks for the reminder Fuzzy!

Tags: Climb, High, Technorati, Telecom, telecommunications, Tower, Tower Climb, Tower Dog