Just curious...I never worked ATON as a BM but I am wondering how high some of the towers are that you have to climb, such as range lights, etc?

I HATE open heights so I was kind of wondering.

Stay safe,

Don

We have one at about 120ft from the water. Ship Island Pass Range Rear.

Well after I climbed the first 20-30', someone would have to come get me. Power to you all!

Don

The tallest tower in my AOR is 230ft above the water, though Sector EM's are primary on it. The tallest tower we have primary on is 75ft. I'm no fan of open heights either, though the climb doesn't bother me as much as rapeling down for tower rescue. Good Times.

BM1339,
Is that ranger you are referring to the Rappahannock Spit Rear Range located on the Virginia Eastern Shore? I believe it was 230' also one of the brightest in the country. I remember working the front range from the CGC CHOKEBERRY. Someone stole the lister generator from it. I'll bet someone from Tangier Is is running their crab shack with it.

The Rappahanock rear would be the one. I've heard it is the tallest aid in the U.S. located on the water, though I've never bothered to verify that claim.

The tallest range in my aor is 75', ANT St Pete has a range that is 196' (on land). I never climbed that one...75' is doable though. The thing is, it's not the climbing so much as it is replacing the 12KRW's - not usually an easy task. Luckily, most of your really tall ranges don't have boards.

Another good thing is tower climbing is an optional duty. I have not heard of any units that didn't have enough "volunteers" to perform their mission.

are you sure you were there in 97? I was there until Dec of 97 and I don't remember your name. (I have a pretty good memory)

quote:

Originally posted by Ohayesea:
The tallest range in my aor is 75', ANT St Pete has a range that is 196' (on land). I never climbed that one...75' is doable though. The thing is, it's not the climbing so much as it is replacing the 12KRW's - not usually an easy task. Luckily, most of your really tall ranges don't have boards.

The 196' tower is the one we had to climb to get qualified. They cant make you climb the whole thing i you dont want. When I was down there a few years ago we had a couple people go up about 75'. Therefore they were qualified to climb 75' (most of the aids in the AOR) but not the big one. I am afraid of heights as well but it wasnt that bad as long as you trust the equipment and the sturctual integrity of the tower. If you feel it is not safe then dont climb it. A good command will back you 100%.
Another good thing is tower climbing is an optional duty. I have not heard of any units that didn't have enough "volunteers" to perform their mission.

quote:

Originally posted by Ohayesea:
are you sure you were there in 97? I was there until Dec of 97 and I don't remember your name. (I have a pretty good memory)

Sorry my mistake, I was there from '99-'01, I mixed up the years of my first and second units.

Don ... For me it was Gull Island Light

It was the spring of 1969, most of the ice had melted and the weather was beginning to warm. Onboard the CGC Mesquite in northern Wisconsin, preparations were being made for the spring buoy run of taking out the winter marker buoys and replacing them with lighted bell buoys.

As an SNAN1 (for those who don’t know, SNAN1 is an E-3 seaman who has been trained at AtoN school Gov. Island to service lighted Aids to Navigation) the one thing you did not want to hear, you prayed not to hear at this time of year is that Gull Island Light has been reported extinguished and needs to be repaired and that is just what happened around the middle of May.

Gull Island is a small sliver of rocky land, barely breaking the surface of Lake Superior a scant ¼ mile off the Northeast point of Michigan Island. The light consisted of an open 50-foot high skeletal iron structure that is painted black to increase its effectiveness as a daymark. At the top of the structure accessed only by ladder is a 250 mm 12 volt DC battery powered optic which flashes a 10-second light seven miles across Lake Superior.



The reason you prayed the light didn’t go out during the spring is that thousands of seagulls nest on what we called Gull sh*t Island in the spring. As another seaman Doug and I approached the island in the Mesquite’s fifteen-foot Boston Whaler, a white cloud of seagulls started to rise from the island and began screaming at us overhead. The closer we got, the louder they got and the stronger the stench from all of the bird droppings became, strong enough to gag a maggot.

Once the Whaler was beached the seagulls started dive bombing us to protect their nests and to try and make us retreat from the island. It looked like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. To protect ourselves we were armed with brooms and hard hats. As we made our way through the nests kicking at seagulls that were trying to peck our ankles and swiping at dive bombing seagulls with our brooms we made our way to the light. Having survived that, I made the fifty-foot climb to the top of the tower to service the lamp changer and to check battery voltages while Doug remained inside the structure at the base. Although it made the bird sh*t stink all the more, fortunately the wind wasn’t blowing. Because when the wind blew you would have to hang on as the tower would rock from side to side. After replacing the lamp changer I made my way down the tower and then Doug and I made a run to the beach to the Whaler.

I made it to the whaler but as I looked back I saw that Doug had stumbled on the sh*t slippery rocks and fell flat on his chest in all the seagull crap. He got back up quickly and made it to the Whaler but the front of him was covered with crap and stench. We got in the Whaler and shoved off, but I couldn’t help but think as the Whaler gained speed that I wish I had thrown Doug overboard so I didn’t have to take the smell back to the ship with me.

When I was on the Kukui in 1965, 6, &7 we put up several new LORAN towers in the south pacific, Saipan, Batan and places that I cant pronounce or remember. They were only 139 ftrs. There were three of us on the ship that didnt mind the climbing job. We would do it 10 ft at a time with a gin pole. The ground crew would put the 10 ft sections together, we would bolt them on, climp up 10 ft and do it again. The only bad part was we went about 50 ft befor we put temp guys on, and even at that it was only Manila line tied to a Jeep bumper. Then we ran another set of temps at about 90 ft. When it was completely finished then we would attach the permanent guy wire on and cinch her down. We erected 6 or 7 of these towers during my tour. Actually I loved it, it beat the hell out of working cargo. Great job, lots of sun and beer, to say nothing of the local natives. Dave

Squiter,

I'd be standing watches with a .22 rifle just to keep those damned gulls from damaging the lights.

Like I said, I don't do heights. I love being in an open helicopter but climbing a tower...no thanks!

Don

Don,

As much as I hated dealing with the gull crap servicing Gull Island we were actually quite glad we had seagulls around and here's why.

By the mid 1960s alewives were so over populated especially on Lake Michigan that they outstripped their food sources and began dying in huge quantities. Billions of starved, dead alewives washed up on the shores of Lake Michigan.

It was so bad along the waterfront in Chicago that bulldozers were brought on the beaches and used to push the dead fish into huge piles. Then bucket loaders scooped up the dead fish and loaded them into dump trucks to be transported to incinerators.

Fortunately for us on the Mesquite we were far enough north on Lake Michigan that the seagulls served a very useful purpose in cleaning up the dead and dying Alewives. Besides the gulls were protected so we couldn't shoot them.

Squiter

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Squiter,

Tower climbing isn't all that bad, provided you don't mind the climb up and the climb down.

ANT St. Pete has the tallest I know of that is land based (Egmont Key RRL was the highest above water if memory sertves me correctly).

Port Manatee RRL fitted with two RL-14's and no dayboards. It was wired for AC during the daytime with a CG-4P and the good old standard CG-6P at 12V DC for night. The biggest pain in dee arse was hauling your kit up behind you. Considering it was only a small Pelican kit with the required tools it was no big deal. Once you get an aid that is battery powered with dayboards and you're changing those out it becomes something else entirely. I scaled that thing more than once but I didn't mind at all.

When the crew has to find a way to scare off Osprey's who decided to build a nest on thing thing was a great idea while you're climbing it, THAT becomes a different story altogether......

There was only one tower in the AOR that really bothered me and that was due to the very wide opening at the top and lack of attachment points for the lanyards once you got there. Come to think of it there wasn't even a ladder at the base of the SOB. You had to scale the base about thirty feet just to get to a ladder to clip in so you could climb up and service the thing.

The tallest towers are usually energized and used for LORAN. They run around 1000 ft high or more. Unless you get assigned to a CEU I wouldn't worry, you'll never get anything that big.

Bottom line....if you aren't comfortable climbing it, if you don't think it's safe, don't climb. Climb what you're comfortable with and leave the rest to everyone else who enjoys a great view. The more you do it, the higher you climb, you'll build your confidence and want to go higher. Servicing is a requirement at an ANT but climbing beyond your comfort zone isn't required. Your command will support and respect your decision.

It's actually pretty fun....don't let the hights get to you.

Man, just think of it like this ... every climb above eight feet high can easily kill you. So whether you're eight feet or eight hundred feet, either one can kill you just as dead. So you have to convince yourself that what you're really scared of, is the terror over falling.

So if it's those few seconds of absolute terror and horror and all-knowing belief that you're gonna die at the end of the fall that's stopping you from climbing ... you should look at it.

Objects fall at 200 feet per second. So, if you're under 200 feet, you've got a second or two to heel over, then another second to hit the ground and that's it.

Every 200 feet, add a second of final terror. At 1000 feet, that's five seconds.

So the question is, are you such a wuss that you're gonna worry about five seconds of knowing you're a dead man? So you might as well just pull a good Slim Picken move (you know, where he rides the nuclear weapon out the bomb bay of a B-52), wave your hat and enjoy the ride.

Otherwise, don't ever climb the roof of your house.

St Simons Entrance Rear Range was (probably still is) two 150' towers with an FA-240 atop each one, pointed just outboard of St Simons Light. The light house was the 'front gun sight', the towers were the 'rear gun sights'. Good thing the battery box was on the structure, 10 ga wire run to the light. Still was a long haul up there.

--Jim
Life is good!

SA;
Numbers way off there shipmate. A Human Being falls about 9.8 meters the first second, 19.6 more in the second (for a total of 29.4) etc until they reach a speed of about 54 meters per second. (160 feet every second) In three seconds, they have fallen over 200 feet.