The online publicaton Wireless Estimator, which bills itself as “the premiere industry portal for the design, development, construction and maintenance of communications towers and other wireless structures,” has blasted the ARRL for the photo on its recent cover. It says:
The March issue of a well-respected magazine published by The National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL) will most likely latch onto the literal lunacy award for depicting in a photograph the most egregious tie-off violations one could imagine….it illustrates an unacceptable tie off procedure that could easily launch students off of a tower to their deaths.
Professionals will easily identify the host of 100% fall protection safety violations that are pictured such as an improper dorsal assembly system with an unacceptable knot that has its trailing end tied off with cable ties.
ARRL should know better than to promote such an unsafe photograph, recognizing that many of their members are now silent keys after they fell from a tower.
I’m certainly not a tower-climbing expert, and I didn’t think much of the safety issue when I first saw this cover, but the use of cable ties did seem a bit suspect to me. I’ve Googled around, but haven’t seen a comment from the ARRL yet on this issue.
Paul K5PAV says
I assumed it was a staged photo shoot and not to read anything into the rigging. I would hope that most amateurs would read up on safe tower climbing rather than use a front cover picture!
Thom (w8tam) says
I didn’t bother to log into facebook to find it myself, but…
https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/5tb1dr/only_the_best_in_tower_safety/ddlykos/
“Concerning the March QST cover image, this was one of those unfortunate situations that occurs occasionally in publishing where many eyes on the publishing team look at an image, but none notice the flaws. The QST staff will learn from this mistake and we will be more diligent about cover photography in the future.” – Steve Ford, WB8IMY, QST (Facebook post)
Rob W4ZNG says
And here I was, miffed that a Baofeng was the radio shown on the cover.
They went full Baofeng. Never go full Baofeng.
Bob K0NR says
Rob,
LOL.
Baofengs are my first choice when I fear I will drop the radio any distance.
Bob K0NR
Bob K0NR says
This cover photo has caused a lot of discussion in various ham radio forums. I am so glad they have such a critical issue to argue about. :-)
My read:
Poor choice of photo, QST.
This stuff happens
No one died
Move on
Dan KB6NU says
I hear you. We should go back to arguing about the licensing structure. :)
Dave New, N8SBE says
I can’t count the times that myself or friends ‘scooted’ up a short (less than 50 foot) tower in our younger (and more foolish) days with little or no safety equipment, mainly because none of us knew what was the proper procedure (and in high school and college, none of us could afford any of it, even if we knew).
To this day, my equipment consists of only a safety belt and rope positioning lanyard. I don’t recall any articles in QST in recent memory talking about exactly what is acceptable for climbing, but at least a search in the current 1000+-page ARRL Antenna Book 23rd Edition has a whopping 5 pages (with lots of pictures and sidebars) on the subject of climbing towers, which is part of a 60-page chapter on building antenna systems and towers.
The ARRL should take this as an opportunity to feature a big article on tower climbing safety, and they shouldn’t wait for their annual March antenna issue to do it.
Joe KG5KRZ says
Silly me, I didn’t notice the zip ties, the rope, the radio, or even the fact that she was up a tower…..
Robert Whitley says
It is the individuals responsibility to insure there safety, common sense is the key factor. I have climbed slot of towers and have always used a harness that would exceed the required rating, no falls, or significant incidents.