Hot Climb, Heavy Breathing

I hadn't climbed in 10 or 11 weeks but I had one guy on vacation and a need to get a microwave path optimized so it was left to the "old man" and Garrett, the not quite "old man" to do some aligning. To keep this video short I stopped it at about 17 minutes. I will publish a Part 2 showing the use of a wonderful piece of test equipment called Path AlighR (Path Aligner) which makes dish alignment much easier and in some cases the only way to keep from wasting hours in the effort.

[@Northerncalwolf]

Hi John! I really enjoy seeing your videos. I have alot of respect for you and your profession. I worked for a company called Chatham Technologies waaay back in 1998 til 2000. We built the AT&T 884 RBS systems. We had a few guys that climbed the towers and did the installs. Fascinating work.

[@jhettish]

It is interesting work and even somewhat addictive. A long time tower worker who suddenly can't climb for some reason usually longs for the time he could. For me it's really strange that I can still do this work at 72. I tell people that I'm blessed that I can and cursed that I have to, but that's only in jest. I see the humor in almost anything. I truly appreciate you taking time to let me know and that you enjoy the videos. My third (new) tower worker is quitting after four months. He's found a government job in an office and it seems to me he'll do well there. It will also require me to be with the crew more often since he's left. If I'm on the tower making videos for KZbin consumption becomes easier. The story-line forms in my head much quicker making editing easier. John

[@Keith_1]

Good to see you back with another excellent video.

[@thegregors8484]

John good to see your doing well...you are always so modest in your videos I appreciate the work you do and have a deep respect for your job take care and keep posting.

[@jhettish]

Thanks for the comment. I once had a commenter who said, "You look stupid in all your videos". My reply was, "Thanks for watching *all* my videos". As far as I knew it could have been a 12 year old kid hiding behind a screen name. There's no reason to get upset over negative comments and there's no good reason for me to lead the subscribers to believe the work seen in these 149 videos is all *me*. I have great employees and without them I'd probably not even be working, much less climbing. It's a team effort. I know that's a sort of business cliche but in my case its really true. So, whoever does the work is going to hear mostly positive comments from me. By the same token, if the mess up I'm also going to address it. Rather than blaming someone for something that occured in a time that no longer exists the emphasis is on either how to fix the problem now or what we should have done. When having sessions like this I seek input from my employees. I also tell them to bring things to me that might not be so great. Tell me what's going on. Don't just say what you think I want to hear. The whole thing is sort of egalitarian. All of us are to some extent equal in this enterprise. That's probably why I'm a horrible businessman and not rich. It's always been about the work and never about the money. John

[@bhaines210]

Love your videos, sir!

[@actthree34]

As others have noted, excellent audio. Your narration makes the video even more interesting.

[@mynameisbond224]

Always enjoy watching your videos, thanks!.

[@jhettish]

Thanks for the comment. I try to come up with watchable videos with some sort of story line. That what keeps me from posting raw video constantly. John

[@stanpatterson5033]

Hi John, great to see you "back on the air" so-to-speak... Also great to see that you are well. Always enjoy watching your footage, and listening to your running commentary. Wish you and your guys sunny skies and gentle breezes !

[@jhettish]

This time of year sunny skies require stiff breezes in order to keep the tower worker cool. His revenge comes by being on the tower in the summer. It's much cooler above the tree line. On the ground it can be absolutely miserable here in the south where the temperature and the humidity often match in the 90s. Even in the latest video I wasn't hot working on the dish and radio. I had a very gentle breeze. When climbing below 50 feet it was quite hot and uncomfortable. Above 50 it was ok. John

[@Fireship1]

Great to see another video from you John. Interesting to see how microwave dishes are aligned and the equipment used to do the job. I've never aligned microwave dishes, but I've swept lots of coax with the same Sitemaster you've shown, and now with my company's newest toy a Bird Sitehawk SK4500. Looking forward to seeing part two.

[@jhettish]

As you probably have noticed by now I don't upload raw video. I edit and editing takes a lot of time. Work is more time consuming now than in the previous 34 years. I hope to have the second part up soon but I'm going to have to find that elusive substance that once you lose you can never get back, "time". Thanks for the comment. I did some coax troubleshooting using the 331D and hope to make a video from that if the camera caught the screen well enough. John

[@Motham51]

Hi John! Another awesome video!

[@jhettish]

Thanks for the comment. It gratifies me to know you liked the video. Jhon

[@benchedthatpiece]

Your videos are always first rate and they never disappoint. As a bonus in this one I heard a train horn about the 1:35 mark? ; ) Fine video John, I enjoyed every second of it!

[@jhettish]

The train horn was not an audio ad-in. It was real. That site is not far from a main track with a lot of road crossings so the horn is something heard all the time. The track in question is what the North and South were fighting over during the Civil War. Obviously it's not the same steel and wood as would have been there 145 years ago but the right-of-way is the same. There were two major battles in Murfreesboro, TN during that war all over communications. Back then the railroad and it's telegraph lines were a major form of communications. John

[@thelightninghunter23]

Welcome back, John! I thought about you the past few days since the FTB324s on a local tower have been stuck in day mode at night. Literally makes low clouds look like lightning.

[@jhettish1945]

If the 324s are stuck in day mode it is likely that someone has left the test switch on the master in "day" or the photocell isn't working. Of course there's always the chance that there's a trigger board problem also.

[@thelightninghunter23]

John Hettish Uppermost beacon and lower markers are dead, upper markers are presumably always on and the two middle beacons are in day mode 24/7. I'd assume it's a main controller failure of some kind.

[@jhettish]

There's a site I go to every so often that has high intensity strobes. Several years ago they would suddenly go into day mode around 3am. Day mode for a medium intensity like the 324 is 20,000 candella. Day mode for a high intensity strobe is 250,000 candella. You could take photos with that light. Just hold the shutter open. :-)

[@johnteague136]

Dang....take a break, better yet, the elevator...stay hydrated.. 😊😎👍

[@jhettish]

There's only one elevator in Middle Tennessee and I haven't done anything there in about six months. This was the first time I'd climbed in 10 or 11 weeks due to adding a crew member. Today he came in and told me he had a new job with the City of Murfreesboro, working the Codes department. He did ok and we'll miss him but life goes up, or is it on?

[@lewiemcneely9143]

Well, you said next week or next month. If it has been cooler it would have been better. 104 ain't good, no matter where you are. And Soi-ten-ly you need to talk to yourself. A bird just wouldn't get it! Glad you're still at it!

[@jhettish]

Thanks Lewie. Sometimes we've just got to talk to ourselves. When I have a camera and a microphone and an intent to put video on KZbin that makes it ok to talk to myself. I guess I've now talked to 933 people 7/28/2017.

[@yellowlab5624]

That single safety cable and device can really do the job?

[@ErikPAPATIE]

This tower is self support and is amazing

[@jhettish]

Here's a video of the last section of this tower going up. We erected the tower I'm on in 2012 John

[@ErikPAPATIE]

John Hettish wow you have erect this tower is New this and is have a led or strobe beacon

[@ErikPAPATIE]

John Hettish im wait to see the video

[@trisinx]

Hey, John. You've got some great footage on this channel. I'm about to graduate from college and was considering getting into this field. About how many hours a week would you say the average tower climber works? I saw several people on reddit say that they worked 60-70 hours and I know that wouldn't be able to handle that haha.

[@jhettish]

Most tower workers in the US are driven by deadlines, especially those installing and maintaining cellular antennas, coax, fiber or the radios themselves. My company is a Two-way radio Sales and Service company so our work is generally a little less stressful. Most don't get paid unless they're climbing. Statutory, long term, employees are in the minority. Most cell antenna and line workers will be laid off when the project is finished and it could be years before another opportunity arises. My guys are guaranteed 40 hours per week doing some aspect of our work. We provide broadcast services, Public Safety services, Utility Services and communication to the manufacturers in Middle Tennessee. Tower work is merely another income stream. My lead climber was paid for 2120 hours over twelve months from September 9 2016 to September 4, 2016 and climbed only 162 hours out of that time span. That's 7.64% of his working time. He also got two weeks of vacation. Our company is not typical. Now, the Boss, the highest paid (by totals) person on the payroll worked 60 to 70 hours per week on projects for the company during that period. and he hasn't had a vacation in about 6 years. Of course that's me. I love my work and I love having some place to go each day. I'm still young, 72, so I've got the energy to do what I do. My advice would be if you really like structural aspects of our business go ahead and join some crew or see if a two-way radio shop needs a climber. Stay healthy through good safety practices and above all be AWARE at all times. It's sort of like true defensive driving. Then, get your engineering degree. One of my guys quit suddenly about ten years ago. About two years ago he called me. He had gone back to College and had got his engineering degree. He now works for a good company in their engineering department. Newly minted engineers often get boring work but if you are inventive an want to improve the world you can excel with an engineering. John

[@scheetz69]

nice vid

[@jhettish]

Thanks, Glad you liked it. John

[@MikeWmusic10]

Is that a reverse thread on the connection from the radio to the dish coax at 12:22ish? If so, why?

[@jhettish]

I was attaching a Type-N male connector to a Female-Female in order to make the connection to the antenna. It just looked as though the thread was reversed since it was on the opposite side of the F2F adapter. It was just a standard Type-N thread. John

[@jaa93997]

For the life of me, I could never make those shit boxes work right 😄

[@jhettish]

I do pretty well with the Trail Blazer but the Long Haul has been a bit of a problem.

[@la5984]

Do u guys get pay hazard

[@jhettish]

I guess you could say that except for the boss and that's me. John

[@zachmorningstar9598]

Come back to work John!

[@jhettish]

Thanks for the reply. I have retired now as of October 31, 2023. A week or two before 10/31 I was a young 78 and climbed about 150 feet in order to re-aim a microwave dish. I can still climb but I've sold my business, mt2w, to Clime when I retired. The business is now focused on two-way radio. When I ran it we focused on two-way radio and tower work. Mark was a partner in Middle Tennessee Two-way Inc (MT2W.COM) and it's his now. I have to say though I'm bored out of my head.

[@infinitecanadian]

They shouldn’t make people climb in hazardous weather such as high heat.

[@jhettish]

There is no "they" when it comes to climbing. I'm the boss in my company so I decide when I climb or not. Take a look at this video if you haven't already. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pX6TeYmLiq2fmaM Tower Work in the Rain. John

[@SivertOnGopro1080p]

Hey john how are you? I would love to hear your opinion on this tower video:m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1103016209800359&id=177162395719083 It is very very overdramatized in my opinion, and who the hell is in charge if safety? Cant remeber the last time we had a death in our line of work, must be years.. Anyway good to see you in your natural habitat again! :) Edit: im speaking for norway, death wise.

[@jhettish]

There have been deaths and the data can be seen on www.wirelessestimator.com . Craig Liketus has a background as an investigative reporter and when an accident occurs he's on the phone to all the local people at the accident location trying to get information on the event. He's kept accident information since 2013. Looking at all the results of his effort it's not surprising to me that the vast majority, maybe more than 90%, have been cell antenna and line workers. If you can't find the accident data on that web site let me know and I'll send you the link. As I'm sure you know NATE has a policy of not discussing or disclosing accidents, a real shame in my book. NATE is an organization of company owners and doesn't represent tower workers individually. I'm a pilot and pilots study accidents. Accidents to airplanes, passengers and crew are studied vigorously by the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and we can learn a lot from them. While the NTSB is a federal agency it is not associated with the Federal Aviation Agency or any other government entity. They're independent. Too bad there isn't an independent agency that could really dig into the causes of tower accidents and render unemotional fact based opinions.

[@jhettish]

If you want to see a really good documentary on tower workers take a look at this one. www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/cell-tower-deaths This one is accurate and was shown on PBS Frontline. It does play up the dangers but it also tells the world just how cell work is done. I believe the video in the link was part of the "Tower-Dogs" series a few years ago on one of the major networks, CBS, NBC etc. The major networks are all about drama. I know I've seen it before. I even know one of the guys in the video. He runs a company in Nashville. I'm pretty sure these guys are cell antenna and line workers but their may be a few broadcast, public safety types as well. My crew and I have never been in a bar after work. I did some of that stuff years ago but would always leave before everyone else. The guys says if some tells you they're not scared while they're up there they're lying. Ok, here it goes. "I'm not scared while I'm on a tower and I'm not lying" One guy talked about the Adrenalin rush. Whenever I get an Adrenalin rush it's telling me there's something wrong. I think that anyone who is scared every day due to tower work they need to find another job, seriously. I do think about death but I'm 72 years old. I think about it for a few seconds almost every day but it's mainly a curiosity thing. The key to a long tower career is awareness and a mature attitude in reference to the work. Just because someone is on a tower does not mean they are going to fall off or are required to fall off. In my company we say, "Falling is *not* an option." To be safe on a tower and not to have a paralyzing fear only requires the desire not to fall and the awareness to be able to be sure you won't fall. Yep, that video was all about drama and promoting the idea of "The most dangerous job in the world". I know and have known some really neat people in my business and I can assure they don't do it because of any sort of thrill. Thrill seekers are not what's needed in the tower business.

[@SivertOnGopro1080p]

Ah yes, there is alot of cellworkers here from other countrys, ive even found garbage bags full og beercans in sites after mostly polish and sweedish workers, also seen a lack of safety gear, but still no fatal falls far as i know in norway these last years.

[@jhettish]

Many of the European countries seem to do better avoiding the fatal accident. I believe the UK uses a lot of bucket trucks to install antennas and possibly don't have very tall towers to work from. I haven't been to the UK since the late 90s and was in the passenger seat of a friends car looking at all the various things to see as we drove around the country. I don't remember seeing any towers taller than 100 feet (30 meters).

[@jhettish]

By the way, I don't use the GoPro. I see the top of the helmet as the only reasonable place to mount it. I would probably bash mine before it got too old. I use the "Contour" cameras mounted on the side of the helmet and have not broken one yet. John