TO: ALL WOOD COUNTY ARES MEMBERS (OFFICIAL)
ALL ARES AND NON-ARES AMATEURS ANYWHERE (INFORMATION)
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM ARRL DISTRICT 3
EMERGENCY COORDINATOR WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INC.
WOOD COUNTY ARES BULLETIN NR 21.19 DATE: May 9, 2021
SUBJECT: TOWER SITE CLEANING
Who is responsible for keeping tower sites clean? Did you know the going cost to rent tower space used to be around a dollar a foot per month. It may be up higher than that now. Example: If you install an antenna on a tower at 50 feet, and have to pay rent, you may have be paying on an average of $100 dollars, or more a month?
Now...who is responsible for keeping a tower site clean? If you have the good luck of having a tower site, and not having to pay for it, you should feel that it is your responsibility. Cutting the grass and keeping the limbs and trees away from the tower and building doesn't take that long, some times as little as three or four hours. And, you may only have to do it once or twice a year.
When you are cleaning a tower site be sure to have at least one other person go with you. Most of the tower site cleaning will be done in the summer and it's not raining, so the weather may be hot. Safety should be the number one priority when cleaning sites. A few things that can get you hurt are your motorized grass and tree cutting equipment, stinging insects, poisonous snakes, and falling items such as trees or tree limbs.
Be sure to take plenty of liquids, and not the alcoholic kind. Just cleaning around the tower and the building is not enough, clean around the guy wire anchors too. Vines have a tendency to grow up the guy wires and can cause them to become loose and rusted. These are just a few things to remember when cleaning tower sites.
Ken Harris WA8LLM
WCEC
Wood County WV