Climbing and Maintaining Antenna Towers

LARC Clubhouse (4420 NW 41st St, Lincoln)

Presentation by Eric Schoenleber, KØMTV

Summer is full of excitement and activities, and it tends to be the ideal time weather-wise for antenna work. When that work involves altitudes beyond what a ladder can practically reach, as in the case of a tower-based installation, it’s often necessary to climb to install, maintain, or decommission one or more antennas or the mounting equipment or associated cabling. For July’s club meeting, I’ll be giving a high-level view of what that entails, safety things to keep in mind, and tips and tricks.

I’m by no means the most experienced climber or tower technician who’ll even probably be in the room, but I did a tower for Future Technologies, which is now Nextlink, which provides internet access to the club building and 16,000 square miles of Nebraska. I’ve been in an IT-related field since 1996 and have installed, maintained, or decommissioned quite literally thousands of outdoor communication devices in that time.

It should be noted that this is not meant to ensure anyone is ready to climb and perform these tasks, nor is it meant to dissuade you from taking them on. It’s just a presentation of some ins and outs of what I’ve encountered and some generally good things to know.