[PPRAANet] Rohn 25G Tower Climber Killed

[Steve KT0DX]

I can only take guess but I suspect what might of happen was they were 
using saddle clamps on the guy wires.  When the clamps were installed on 
the guy wire that failed they were not tighten all the way down and the 
bouncing of the tower from side to side as it was climbed allowed the 
guy wire to slip out of the saddle clamps.  Just a recommendation for 
anyone who climbs up a tower is to check and make sure the nuts on the 
saddle clamps are tight. They do loosen over time as I found out when I 
took down my antenna and the truss wires which use saddle clamps were 
all loose.  The best thing to use is proper guy wire size for the tower 
and the use of Big Grips at the both ends of the guy cable.

Steve (KT0DX)


On 10/13/2018 21:03, K3ILC wrote:
> Be very, very careful when climbing towers.  The person killed was a 
> professional tower climber.
>
> 73
> K3ILC
>
> Received this today from PVRC:
> ========================================================================== 
>
> On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 4:00 PM Tom K3TW via PVRC 
> <pvrc at mailman.qth.net <mailto:pvrc at mailman.qth.net>> wrote:
> There has been a discussion about towers lately.  Here is a very 
> tragic story.  Please check your tower guy cables before climbing:
> Climber Dies in Amateur Radio Tower Collapse
>
> A young Tennessee father of five is dead after the Amateur Radio tower 
> on which he was working collapsed due to a guy anchor letting go. 
> Thirty-year-old Ken Waddell was killed on September 29 while 
> attempting to erect a 70-foot Rohn 25G tower in Cookeville, Tennessee. 
> A professional tower climber, Waddell handled the tower job on a 
> freelance basis, rather than for his employer.
> According to media accounts, the new guy anchors were checked in 
> advance of putting up the tower. Waddell was getting ready to attach a 
> second set of guys at 70 feet when a guy at the 40-foot level let go, 
> taking him to the ground on the section where he was attached. He was 
> the only person on the tower when it fell, and died at the scene.
> Waddell was the sole financial provider for his family, and a 
> _GoFundMe campaign_ <https://www.gofundme.com/waddellfamily>has been 
> established. The _Tower Family Foundation_ 
> <http://towerfamilyfoundation.org/>and the _Hubble Foundation_ 
> <https://www.hubblefoundation.org/>have also reached out to assist 
> Waddell's widow, Cadie, and their five children. Both the Tower Family 
> Foundation and the Hubble Foundation are dedicated in part to 
> providing financial assistance and support to the families of tower 
> workers injured or killed in tower-climbing mishaps. /-- Media accounts/
> //
> 73,
> Tom, K3TW
> Lecanto, FL
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