6 ms·

Documenting an 1115 ft radio tower climb

223 points by geerlingguy 2y ago

tylerflick 2y ago
He sort of touched on this, but an aspect of tower rigging that most people don’t think about is how long it can take to climb a tower when you are the first one up with the line. It’s absolutely exhausting work. Another side fact, wasps are attracted to building nests on the towers for some reason. I never knew if it was all the EM radiation being put off or just the heat.
- aetherson 2y ago
  Almost certainly the heat.
  - Xenograph 2y ago
    I don't think it's the heat, rather, the wasps seem attracted to the radio wave EM radiation. I'm not sure why, but I've seen it first hand when turning on high powered outdoor point-to-point WiFi antennas (eg. airMAX LiteBeam 5AC). The moment I connected the power, several wasps immediately began crowding around the antenna.
    - KeplerBoy 2y ago
      The wasps are of similar size to the wavelengths of 5 Ghz RF frequencies. It seems plausible that they experience the absorbed energy quite differently. Maybe it's like a pleasant warmth from within and they just fly towards the direction of increasing warmth. I guess it wouldn't take many dBms of absorbed power to slightly heat a wasp.
      - baggy_trough 2y ago
        Monkeys like to be microwaved; may be a similar effect.
        saagarjha 2y ago
        Very curious how you get IRB approval to microwave monkeys.
        hyeonwho4 2y ago
        There is no IRB for monkeys. The animal equivalent to an IRB is usually an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), but the laws they are subject to vary with jurisdiction, and their use is optional if your grant provider (i.e. NIH) or academic publisher do not require them.
        0_____0 2y ago
        I beg your pardon?
        baggy_trough 2y ago
        Try it: you'll see. Low power recommended.
        SoftTalker 2y ago
        Humans like to sit in saunas.
        golem14 2y ago
        Humans, too: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2012.3787 https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2012.3787 I remember treatments like these happened in GP's offices in the 1980s.
    - walrus01 2y ago
      It's a useful small tool for low cost Ethernet bridges but a sub $200 ubiquiti 802.11ac point to point bridge is not a high powered radio, electrically they max out at something like 200 milliwatts, the rest of the eirp comes from the gain of the antenna.
- Q6T46nT668w6i3m 2y ago
  I used to do this and, for me, the time it took was entirely dependent on the gear I was provided and whether the climb was enjoyable. The gear isn’t exactly what you think of when you think climbing gear and, frankly, it’s infuriating. It might be manufactured by Petzl but the weight and utility are terrible relative to their alpine and mountaineering products. Hell, I was expected to wear work boots that were extremely heavy and climbed poorly. As far as scenery, everyone, myself included, would treat these climbs as climbs and would enjoy ourselves if the views were scenic. The work itself wasn’t hard relative to the trips we were guiding during the climbing season.
  - jasinjames 2y ago
    How would someone get into this work?
    - walrus01 2y ago
      As a person that hires tower service companies, I seriously would not recommend it as an entry level employee... The pay is horrible, the benefits suck, you'll be travelling 75%+ of the time. The bar to entry is very low if you're physically fit. If you don't have any DUIs and can pass a drug screen you are already ahead of many candidates. Most of the recruiting takes placein social media these days, for instance there's probably 20 or so tower climber related groups on Facebook. One of the reasons for the extensive use of social media is that to put it as politely as possible, the talent pool they're recruiting from are not highly educated, often don't own laptops or any device other than their phone. Many cannot put together a grammatically correct cover letter or CV. There is a very high turn over rate in people with less than 2 years experience. You will be working with (and sharing the cheapest possible motel rooms with) some very crude and uneducated individuals, with whom you might have nothing in common. All that for a rate of pay about the same as Dicks Burgers pays in Seattle to literally flip a burger, and Dicks has much better benefits. The majority of the work will be mundane cellular tower and monopole stuff, unless you are hired by one of the more rare and specialized broadcast industry tower companies. The tower erection specialists are also a whole different ball game from the cellular industry contractors and subs. The industry in general is a frustrating race to the bottom in subcontractors, turf vendors, subs of subs, unpaid invoices, and similar. It's very much like getting into any other hard labor construction job like roofing. For the person in the thread here that said drones can only fly to 400 ft, not quite, the faa has specifically addressed this. ==== https://pilotinstitute.com/drone-altitute/ https://pilotinstitute.com/drone-altitute/ The relevant rules under Part 107 are summarized within Section 107.51. This section is entitled “Operating limitations for small unmanned aircraft” and contains a set of limits associated with speed, altitude, and visibility. Pertaining to altitude, item B of the Section states that: “The altitude of the small unmanned aircraft cannot be higher than 400 feet above ground level unless the small unmanned aircraft is (1) flown within a 400-foot radius of a structure, and (2) does not fly higher than 400 feet above the structure’s immediate uppermost limit.”
MrMcCall 2y ago
My kids and I have watched tons of documentaries over the years. One they (and I) enjoyed very much was "World's Toughest Fixes", which was hosted by a rigger named Sean Riley. In episode (s1e6) he helps a crack team of guys replace the top broadcast pole (name?) at the top of a 2000ft antennae. It's really extraordinary how they are working above the top of the actual tower to replace the old pole with the new one. His entire series was excellent, but the episode mentioned is here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1339028/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1339028/ (Series on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Toughest_Fixes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Toughest_Fixes)
- albert_e 2y ago
  Cool Rabbit Hole: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDLT_tower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDLT_tower > Replacement of the beacon bulb at the top of the digital tower was featured in an episode of World's Toughest Fixes in 2010.[6] In 2015, amateur drone video footage of a man changing the light bulb on the analog tower went viral attracting more than 19 million views on YouTube and garnering attention from CNN and a newspaper in Britain.[7][8][9] On learning of the drone footage, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) forbade any further flights; without its approval, drones are restricted by law to a ceiling of 400 feet (120 m), far lower than the height of the tower.[10] And the referenced viral video ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1BgzIZRfT8#t=47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1BgzIZRfT8#t=47
- geerlingguy 2y ago
  I remember in high school having my Dad invite me to watch the process of installing the antenna with a gin pole. A fairly risky operation that requires a ton of planning, as you're lifting literal tons of metal up the side of a guyed mast, which is designed for straight-down loads, not loads hanging off the side! It doesn't always go well, for example the Senior Road Tower collapse.
jlarcombe 2y ago
This video did the rounds many years ago now, still quite an uncomfortable watch especially when he gets to the top! I understand they don't allow 'free climbing' any more... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgO4Gd4RhvM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgO4Gd4RhvM
- ddoolin 2y ago
  This makes me physically very uncomfortable to watch. What a thrill.
- isoprophlex 2y ago
  I am afraid of heights. I had to go back halfway through going up the Eiffel tower. Jesus fuck this video has me on edge. I don't know what moved me to click that link, haha. These people have balls of tungsten, that's for sure.
  - HL33tibCe7 2y ago
    These people presumably aren’t scared of heights, so I’m not sure we can really comment on their balls
    - fecal_henge 2y ago
      I'd say their balls have a relative density in between bromine and tungsten. Uranium = customer service roles.
    - Intermernet 2y ago
      People who work at heights usually have just enough fear of heights to not do something stupid. Those with no fear of heights tend to make fatal mistakes. Source: 35 years of climbing and 10 years of industrial rope access :-)
      - mordechai9000 2y ago
        To quote Jim Whitaker, once upon a time a famous climber and founder of a well known mountain guide company, "If you're not afraid of heights, I don't want to be on the mountain with you".
whatever1 2y ago
Nope. Just nope.
CITIZENDOT 2y ago
Watching Fall (2022) made me extremely wary of these kind of stunts.
- geocrasher 2y ago
  I had dismissed that movie, based on the previews, as just silly B-movie with better production. Is it actually good in the sense that the plot is plausible and the acting is decent?
  - microtonal 2y ago
    It's a pretty bad movie with bad acting. I did like it for some of the height shots which can be dizzying (I had no issues with 20-30m indoor climbing walls).
phaedrus 2y ago
From the article: "Some broadcast engineering tasks are a bit too daunting for me to consider. Climbing the massive towers that power radio and TV stations is one of them!" I work for a team in a government agency that does engineering support for RF based navigational aids. Because we're short staffed (Congress underfunds us), everyone fulfills more jobs than their official title. (There's an elastic clause in government worker job descriptions, "and other duties as assigned.") Anyway. I live in fear of the day I'm called upon to climb a tower because they need me to do that. My regular job is software development! Obviously I'm not going to do it, but I'm unsure what my rights are / what will happen if and when I refuse. Unfortunately my position isn't union protected because my older peers didn't sign on when the (non-computer science) engineers did.
- sizzzzlerz 2y ago
  Thats like being asked to fill in for the guy on the bomb squad who called in sick. Being forced to fill a role that is dangerous and for which you are untrained and unqualified sounds like grounds for a lawsuit.
- alexjplant 2y ago
  > everyone fulfills more jobs than their official title. (There's an elastic clause in government worker job descriptions, "and other duties as assigned.") That's boilerplate language for pretty much every job description in the United States (which is where I'm guessing you are). It isn't unique to government jobs. Almost everybody that doesn't work under super-strict bureaucratic oversight has to do work that isn't explicitly called out in their job description. > I live in fear of the day I'm called upon to climb a tower because they need me to do that. My regular job is software development! Your boss isn't going to come to you saying "go climb a tower or ur fired lol" while pointing to that clause. Tower climbing requires many special considerations like training, permits, insurance, and so forth that you don't have. They will contract that work out or hire somebody to do it specifically at the appropriate rate. > my position isn't union protected Last I checked government positions have about half the turnover that private-sector ones do. You're already doing well as far as job security (reorgs, funding SNAFUs, furloughs, etc. excepted). I can only infer how you came to any of the conclusions that you did in your post but it sounds like you might have uninformed coworkers saying these things. If this is the case then stop listening to them.
axegon_ 2y ago
I'm really glad to see Geerling branching out of his initial niche coverage on everything-raspberry-pi(which I personally find a bit boring 95% of the time).
lxe 2y ago
You have to check out the author's other youtube videos exploring this tower in depth. Fascinating stuff! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_u8x8V4YYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_u8x8V4YYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ-XqQchwEw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ-XqQchwEw
remlov 2y ago
It blows my mind that HN post submitters don't do a simple spell check on their post titles.
- curiousObject 2y ago
  That mistake ‘an’ is in the original blog title. I assume this was posted by the blog author A simple spellcheck won’t detect it but grammar check might. Edit: the reason is probably that the writer is saying “eleven hundred”. It sounds OK but looks strange in writing
  - quesera 2y ago
    The "an" is correct, if you read the number as "eleven hundred and fifteen".
    - geerlingguy 2y ago
      Yeah, it's a fun edge case of writing numbers in numeral form... it could be wrong or could be right, depending on how you read the number!
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
aaron695 2y ago
[dead]
h_tbob 2y ago
I think they should make it so the stuff is on an “elevator” that can be moved up and down. For safety.
fliglr 2y ago
Why don't they design the towers so they can be laid down flat and fixed on the ground and then pushed back upright again?
- SpaghettiCthulu 2y ago
  Because then you need a 1115 ft stretch of flat ground to lay it on?
  - _2d30 2y ago
    Then make it collapse in a spiral. Then, assuming you can make it infinitely thin, you can collapse into an arbitrarily small area.
- kaikai 2y ago
  I can’t tell if this is a serious question. Towers this size are built in place, being able to handle the strain of being lifted from horizontal would be wild. Much easier and cheaper to pay a climber.
  - capitainenemo 2y ago
    Ok. Lowering a huge tower to the ground pretty silly. How about designing the array at the top as a platform that could be lowered. Too much extra weight/cost?
    - quesera 2y ago
      Some very large towers do indeed have platforms at the top. And some even have elevators. But the vast majority do not. Very expensive to build.
- ozim 2y ago
  If I think about all the things that ca go wrong with folding huge tower, sending people to climb one seems like a fair trade.
- 2y ago
petters 2y ago
I climbed a 200m+ radio tower when I was a kid. Started really early so no one would see me. Saw the sunrise at the top but still felt like summer night when I got down. Best view I’ve ever seen

223 points by geerlingguy 2y ago

He sort of touched on this, but an aspect of tower rigging that most people don’t think about is how long it can take to climb a tower when you are the first one up with the line. It’s absolutely exhausting work. Another side fact, wasps are attracted to building nests on the towers for some reason. I never knew if it was all the EM radiation being put off or just the heat.

aetherson 2y ago
Almost certainly the heat.
- Xenograph 2y ago
  I don't think it's the heat, rather, the wasps seem attracted to the radio wave EM radiation. I'm not sure why, but I've seen it first hand when turning on high powered outdoor point-to-point WiFi antennas (eg. airMAX LiteBeam 5AC). The moment I connected the power, several wasps immediately began crowding around the antenna.
  - KeplerBoy 2y ago
    The wasps are of similar size to the wavelengths of 5 Ghz RF frequencies. It seems plausible that they experience the absorbed energy quite differently. Maybe it's like a pleasant warmth from within and they just fly towards the direction of increasing warmth. I guess it wouldn't take many dBms of absorbed power to slightly heat a wasp.
    - baggy_trough 2y ago
      Monkeys like to be microwaved; may be a similar effect.
      - saagarjha 2y ago
        Very curious how you get IRB approval to microwave monkeys.
        hyeonwho4 2y ago
        There is no IRB for monkeys. The animal equivalent to an IRB is usually an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), but the laws they are subject to vary with jurisdiction, and their use is optional if your grant provider (i.e. NIH) or academic publisher do not require them.
      - 0_____0 2y ago
        I beg your pardon?
        baggy_trough 2y ago
        Try it: you'll see. Low power recommended.
      - SoftTalker 2y ago
        Humans like to sit in saunas.
      - golem14 2y ago
        Humans, too: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2012.3787 https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2012.3787 I remember treatments like these happened in GP's offices in the 1980s.
  - walrus01 2y ago
    It's a useful small tool for low cost Ethernet bridges but a sub $200 ubiquiti 802.11ac point to point bridge is not a high powered radio, electrically they max out at something like 200 milliwatts, the rest of the eirp comes from the gain of the antenna.
Q6T46nT668w6i3m 2y ago
I used to do this and, for me, the time it took was entirely dependent on the gear I was provided and whether the climb was enjoyable. The gear isn’t exactly what you think of when you think climbing gear and, frankly, it’s infuriating. It might be manufactured by Petzl but the weight and utility are terrible relative to their alpine and mountaineering products. Hell, I was expected to wear work boots that were extremely heavy and climbed poorly. As far as scenery, everyone, myself included, would treat these climbs as climbs and would enjoy ourselves if the views were scenic. The work itself wasn’t hard relative to the trips we were guiding during the climbing season.
- jasinjames 2y ago
  How would someone get into this work?
  - walrus01 2y ago
    As a person that hires tower service companies, I seriously would not recommend it as an entry level employee... The pay is horrible, the benefits suck, you'll be travelling 75%+ of the time. The bar to entry is very low if you're physically fit. If you don't have any DUIs and can pass a drug screen you are already ahead of many candidates. Most of the recruiting takes placein social media these days, for instance there's probably 20 or so tower climber related groups on Facebook. One of the reasons for the extensive use of social media is that to put it as politely as possible, the talent pool they're recruiting from are not highly educated, often don't own laptops or any device other than their phone. Many cannot put together a grammatically correct cover letter or CV. There is a very high turn over rate in people with less than 2 years experience. You will be working with (and sharing the cheapest possible motel rooms with) some very crude and uneducated individuals, with whom you might have nothing in common. All that for a rate of pay about the same as Dicks Burgers pays in Seattle to literally flip a burger, and Dicks has much better benefits. The majority of the work will be mundane cellular tower and monopole stuff, unless you are hired by one of the more rare and specialized broadcast industry tower companies. The tower erection specialists are also a whole different ball game from the cellular industry contractors and subs. The industry in general is a frustrating race to the bottom in subcontractors, turf vendors, subs of subs, unpaid invoices, and similar. It's very much like getting into any other hard labor construction job like roofing. For the person in the thread here that said drones can only fly to 400 ft, not quite, the faa has specifically addressed this. ==== https://pilotinstitute.com/drone-altitute/ https://pilotinstitute.com/drone-altitute/ The relevant rules under Part 107 are summarized within Section 107.51. This section is entitled “Operating limitations for small unmanned aircraft” and contains a set of limits associated with speed, altitude, and visibility. Pertaining to altitude, item B of the Section states that: “The altitude of the small unmanned aircraft cannot be higher than 400 feet above ground level unless the small unmanned aircraft is (1) flown within a 400-foot radius of a structure, and (2) does not fly higher than 400 feet above the structure’s immediate uppermost limit.”

MrMcCall 2y ago

My kids and I have watched tons of documentaries over the years. One they (and I) enjoyed very much was "World's Toughest Fixes", which was hosted by a rigger named Sean Riley. In episode (s1e6) he helps a crack team of guys replace the top broadcast pole (name?) at the top of a 2000ft antennae. It's really extraordinary how they are working above the top of the actual tower to replace the old pole with the new one. His entire series was excellent, but the episode mentioned is here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1339028/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1339028/ (Series on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Toughest_Fixes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Toughest_Fixes)

albert_e 2y ago
Cool Rabbit Hole: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDLT_tower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDLT_tower > Replacement of the beacon bulb at the top of the digital tower was featured in an episode of World's Toughest Fixes in 2010.[6] In 2015, amateur drone video footage of a man changing the light bulb on the analog tower went viral attracting more than 19 million views on YouTube and garnering attention from CNN and a newspaper in Britain.[7][8][9] On learning of the drone footage, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) forbade any further flights; without its approval, drones are restricted by law to a ceiling of 400 feet (120 m), far lower than the height of the tower.[10] And the referenced viral video ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1BgzIZRfT8#t=47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1BgzIZRfT8#t=47
geerlingguy 2y ago
I remember in high school having my Dad invite me to watch the process of installing the antenna with a gin pole. A fairly risky operation that requires a ton of planning, as you're lifting literal tons of metal up the side of a guyed mast, which is designed for straight-down loads, not loads hanging off the side! It doesn't always go well, for example the Senior Road Tower collapse.

jlarcombe 2y ago

This video did the rounds many years ago now, still quite an uncomfortable watch especially when he gets to the top! I understand they don't allow 'free climbing' any more... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgO4Gd4RhvM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgO4Gd4RhvM

ddoolin 2y ago
This makes me physically very uncomfortable to watch. What a thrill.
isoprophlex 2y ago
I am afraid of heights. I had to go back halfway through going up the Eiffel tower. Jesus fuck this video has me on edge. I don't know what moved me to click that link, haha. These people have balls of tungsten, that's for sure.
- HL33tibCe7 2y ago
  These people presumably aren’t scared of heights, so I’m not sure we can really comment on their balls
  - fecal_henge 2y ago
    I'd say their balls have a relative density in between bromine and tungsten. Uranium = customer service roles.
  - Intermernet 2y ago
    People who work at heights usually have just enough fear of heights to not do something stupid. Those with no fear of heights tend to make fatal mistakes. Source: 35 years of climbing and 10 years of industrial rope access :-)
    - mordechai9000 2y ago
      To quote Jim Whitaker, once upon a time a famous climber and founder of a well known mountain guide company, "If you're not afraid of heights, I don't want to be on the mountain with you".

whatever1 2y ago

Nope. Just nope.

CITIZENDOT 2y ago

Watching Fall (2022) made me extremely wary of these kind of stunts.

geocrasher 2y ago
I had dismissed that movie, based on the previews, as just silly B-movie with better production. Is it actually good in the sense that the plot is plausible and the acting is decent?
- microtonal 2y ago
  It's a pretty bad movie with bad acting. I did like it for some of the height shots which can be dizzying (I had no issues with 20-30m indoor climbing walls).

phaedrus 2y ago

From the article: "Some broadcast engineering tasks are a bit too daunting for me to consider. Climbing the massive towers that power radio and TV stations is one of them!" I work for a team in a government agency that does engineering support for RF based navigational aids. Because we're short staffed (Congress underfunds us), everyone fulfills more jobs than their official title. (There's an elastic clause in government worker job descriptions, "and other duties as assigned.") Anyway. I live in fear of the day I'm called upon to climb a tower because they need me to do that. My regular job is software development! Obviously I'm not going to do it, but I'm unsure what my rights are / what will happen if and when I refuse. Unfortunately my position isn't union protected because my older peers didn't sign on when the (non-computer science) engineers did.

sizzzzlerz 2y ago
Thats like being asked to fill in for the guy on the bomb squad who called in sick. Being forced to fill a role that is dangerous and for which you are untrained and unqualified sounds like grounds for a lawsuit.
alexjplant 2y ago
> everyone fulfills more jobs than their official title. (There's an elastic clause in government worker job descriptions, "and other duties as assigned.") That's boilerplate language for pretty much every job description in the United States (which is where I'm guessing you are). It isn't unique to government jobs. Almost everybody that doesn't work under super-strict bureaucratic oversight has to do work that isn't explicitly called out in their job description. > I live in fear of the day I'm called upon to climb a tower because they need me to do that. My regular job is software development! Your boss isn't going to come to you saying "go climb a tower or ur fired lol" while pointing to that clause. Tower climbing requires many special considerations like training, permits, insurance, and so forth that you don't have. They will contract that work out or hire somebody to do it specifically at the appropriate rate. > my position isn't union protected Last I checked government positions have about half the turnover that private-sector ones do. You're already doing well as far as job security (reorgs, funding SNAFUs, furloughs, etc. excepted). I can only infer how you came to any of the conclusions that you did in your post but it sounds like you might have uninformed coworkers saying these things. If this is the case then stop listening to them.

axegon_ 2y ago

I'm really glad to see Geerling branching out of his initial niche coverage on everything-raspberry-pi(which I personally find a bit boring 95% of the time).

lxe 2y ago

You have to check out the author's other youtube videos exploring this tower in depth. Fascinating stuff! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_u8x8V4YYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_u8x8V4YYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ-XqQchwEw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ-XqQchwEw

remlov 2y ago

It blows my mind that HN post submitters don't do a simple spell check on their post titles.

curiousObject 2y ago
That mistake ‘an’ is in the original blog title. I assume this was posted by the blog author A simple spellcheck won’t detect it but grammar check might. Edit: the reason is probably that the writer is saying “eleven hundred”. It sounds OK but looks strange in writing
- quesera 2y ago
  The "an" is correct, if you read the number as "eleven hundred and fifteen".
  - geerlingguy 2y ago
    Yeah, it's a fun edge case of writing numbers in numeral form... it could be wrong or could be right, depending on how you read the number!
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

aaron695 2y ago

[dead]

h_tbob 2y ago

I think they should make it so the stuff is on an “elevator” that can be moved up and down. For safety.

fliglr 2y ago

Why don't they design the towers so they can be laid down flat and fixed on the ground and then pushed back upright again?

SpaghettiCthulu 2y ago
Because then you need a 1115 ft stretch of flat ground to lay it on?
- _2d30 2y ago
  Then make it collapse in a spiral. Then, assuming you can make it infinitely thin, you can collapse into an arbitrarily small area.
kaikai 2y ago
I can’t tell if this is a serious question. Towers this size are built in place, being able to handle the strain of being lifted from horizontal would be wild. Much easier and cheaper to pay a climber.
- capitainenemo 2y ago
  Ok. Lowering a huge tower to the ground pretty silly. How about designing the array at the top as a platform that could be lowered. Too much extra weight/cost?
  - quesera 2y ago
    Some very large towers do indeed have platforms at the top. And some even have elevators. But the vast majority do not. Very expensive to build.
ozim 2y ago
If I think about all the things that ca go wrong with folding huge tower, sending people to climb one seems like a fair trade.
2y ago

petters 2y ago

I climbed a 200m+ radio tower when I was a kid. Started really early so no one would see me. Saw the sunrise at the top but still felt like summer night when I got down. Best view I’ve ever seen