[SOC] soc

[Fred Jensen]

Bert H. Cook wrote:
> Bob Krueger wrote:
>> >From bob, WB9UKQ.
>> Not so much a SOC story but something that a tower top worker might be 
>> interested in.  enjoy.
>>

Don't know when it was published, however while a student at California 
State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo CA, I had a job at 
KSBY-TV on the engineering and technical director crew [I had the first 
phone license].  I was in my late teens/early 20's, it was in the 58 - 
62 timeframe.  It was a good job, we did very little live production, 
and our new studio and transmitter were co-located on a 2,000' ridge 
overlooking San Luis.  I could study late in the evening between program 
breaks, and the CE worked my schedule around school.  I did vacation 
relief shifts for everyone in the summer, and I was able to support 
myself just fine [my younger brother was the "good son," he got private 
college and graduate school at Stanford from Mom and Dad, but I think I 
learned more about life than he did].

The tower was 500' triangular lattice steel with a 6-bay turnstile 
antenna on top.  The beacon on top of the antenna had a dual bulb and 
sensor thingy that would switch bulbs if one burned out.  The station 
hired riggers to change those and we went off the air for that.  The FAA 
had a rule then that we had to change the bulbs in the clearance lights 
twice a year, and the CE offered me $50 each time to climb the tower and 
do it [12 total, 4 sets of 3 each].  I think he knew I could use the 
money and $50 was a lot then, it would pay for maybe half or more of a 
semester's worth of used books.

The station had a belt, and I could climb inside the tower.  There was 
always a wind, and even in the summer, it was pretty cold ... until I 
got to the last set which were maybe 15  feet below the bottom of the 
antenna mast.  At this point, I would get warm and got the bulbs changed 
as quick as I could.  Today, OSHA would have a cow, I guess.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2008 Cal QSO Party  4-5 Oct 08
- www.cqp.org