The Cellphone Tower Chronicles-Part 1

Did you sign the JHA?

October 2019

“Y’all mutha f*ckers need to grab yo cajónes and put those harnesses on!” yelled Tony, our instructor at the Center of Excellence. A Marine Corps Veteran, he had great dgaf energy. Our other instructor, I think his name was Apache. Also from the Corps, he was much more reserved but quick to light a fire. Probably 80% of the students here were all veterans, the other 19% cowboys, and the remaining 1% normal healthy people. I was told back in the day that the tower industry was built off of cocaine, raging alcoholism, and zero safety standards. Allegedly, things have gotten better after the invention of OSHA. In the beginning, we all had high hopes for this job and the company. They told us “We’re a family.”, but then later laid off everybody…Life goes on.

Our training tower is only 180ft(~55m). Tony yells “We used to make y’all mutha f*ckers climb 300 but too many y’all kept droppin out!” We have to climb to the top and squeeze the blow horn to signify we made it. 180 doesn’t seem like a lot of distance but straight up it makes a colossal difference. We go through a lengthy process to put our harnesses on. After a thorough inspection to assess its integrity, we have to make sure all the various buckles are connected and holding us together. You need to make sure the open loops are free from obstruction and additional carabiners easily accessible. We have various gear, ropes, and a cable to help attach us to the tower. Preventing ourselves from falling to our deaths is the greatest concern. A failure in attention to detail could spell The End.

It’s a full body workout going up. Add on the weight of the harness, other tools, clothes depending on the weather, and you will find yourself straining very quickly. The steel pegs are narrow and seemingly never ending. Perhaps 50ft up, I’m already feeling gassed, my muscles are not happy, and my brain thinks I’m going to die. My grip losses strength and I find myself hanging on with bone points and joints. “If you look down it helps!”, joked Apache, obviously reveling in our struggle. Some guys came from other companies, so their bodies were used to it. I watch them fly up the tower. “Use your legs and stop hanging on for dear life! Wrap your lanyard around the pegs so you can lean back and rest! You need to feel the ropes holding you!” shouted Apache, his tone now that of encouragement. I look up and still have a long way to go.

I’m on the right, feet dangling next to the rope that goes past the moon.

The adrenaline is firing on all cylinders now as I near the top and can feel the tower swaying in the wind. I try to shake out the trembling in my hands and arms but it’s no use. Every peg higher the burning in my muscles launches past a numbing point. One last push and I clear the final peg and grab the blow horn. It’s loud blast covering my own cheering that I made it up. I hang on the ropes for a minute and enjoy the view. The sun is shining. The skylines of Dallas and Fort Worth look amazing and seem close from up here. I can’t help but laugh to myself. From the Navy, traveling the world, and now my feet are hanging in the air. What other crazy things can I do in this life?

“If y’all mutha f*ckers thought that was hard just wait til y’all climb a real tower!”

So, you might be wondering, “Why Cellphone Towers, Brian?” The first answer is I needed money. Let’s rewind and I’ll explain the second answer.

December-2018

I was halfway through a 40hr train ride from Johannesburg to Cape Town. The scenery out here in the middle of South Africa is hard to describe, but its mesmerizing. My eyes were glued to the window. Lately I had been aloof in my thoughts. My travel budget was steadily getting smaller. I still had South America in my plans but after that I have to work again. What to do? I’ve always been attracted to trying something unique, something not common. If I had to work, I still want adventure. Not yet at a place in my life where I could settle for another day at the office.

In that moment the train passed by a wind farm. Dozens of them hundreds of feet tall. First time in a long time since I’ve seen them, and even more surprising to spot them out in the rolling savannah of Western Cape. I thought that was pretty interesting, it’s obviously someone’s job to work on them. Later in Cape Town at the hostel, I was doing some research and found a school called Airstreams Renewables Inc. in Tehachapi, California. I could even use my G.I. Bill for the trade. They teach safety and workplace fundamentals for wind turbines and cell phone towers. One of the training segments would start in the fall of 2019. Perfect I thought! Into next year I’ll do my South America trip, then finish my dream of visiting all 50 states. Doing a seasonal fishing job up in Alaska would be during the summer (another crazy story, article coming soon) then I go to this school and see what happens.

While at Tehachapi (which also deserves its own article), a recruiter came to the school, sat us down and said:

“If any one of you think you can climb a cell phone tower, you’re hired. Sign here. Our training facility is just outside Dallas. HR will be in contact with you soon.”

He didn’t even look at resumes.

As we walked out of the meeting I said, “Holy sh*t, easiest job I’ve ever gotten!” to my friend, Esteban. As future events would turn out however, it definitely would not be the easiest job I’ve ever had…

Back to the present moment

When I woke up the next morning at the hotel, feeling sore I went to the mirror and gazed at myself in awe. I am covered in bruises. Several on my arms, several across my rib cage, a couple on my things, and a few on my hips. My shoulders are also red from the harness. I look like I had gotten a beating. I pound a hand full of Ibuprofen and meet up with the others. We start early at the COE, and the Dallas traffic shows no mercy. I was designated as one of the drivers for the rental vans to transport us. The others enjoy some more sleep as I battle the 5:00AM rush. It would take about an hour~15 to get to school, and nearly 2hrs to get back. Long commutes are a way of life here.

“Y’all mutha f*ckers lookin like sad panda’s right now!”, yelled Tony cheerfully as we walked into class and grabbed some coffee. It’s 6:15AM, got to admire his attitude. We compare bruises like as if they were battle scars. Some guys are plastered with huge, dark, purple blots. One guy dropped out yesterday. A guy who was with me at Airstreams. Some gossip spreads on why and who might be next. Always disappointing to put effort into something and then seeing it fall short, but this line of work is definitely not for everyone. I didn’t even get to say goodbye. Reminded me of Boot Camp in the military when our division saw a dozen plus dropouts. You wake up the next day and they are just gone. The others who have been in this industry for a while silently observe us as the amateurs we are. One of them has been 2000ft up on a radio tower. The few words he said about it was in the realm of “it was spiritual man”. Didn’t know changing an airplane safety light bulb makes you a hippie, but I’ve seen the videos, and it is beyond surreal. Respect.

In class they had told us about the variations of towers we can expect to climb in this field. Yesterday was a Lattice Tower. Today will be the Monopole. Lattice is easier because there is just more to hold on to and position yourself. They have a larger base to climb up from. Think of a smaller frame version of the Eiffel Tower. The Monopole is like a narrow steel tree with only pegs to clear the open space before reaching the canopy of antennas, fibers, and coax cables on top. There are also Guyed Towers. They too are narrow but have bars crisscrossing its way up or if you’re lucky a ladder. So, you have plenty of steps and it is easier to wrap your lanyard around. They have cables fixed to them and anchored into the ground at various intervals. I look up at the Monopole and think “How the f*** am I supposed to climb that thing??”

“Should be easy”- Our Manager

It was pretty hard, I felt like my body would fail me and I would slip and fall. I had to remember to trust my harness and ropes. Even trying to wrap my work position rope around the pegs so I could rest was difficult. You have to keep aware the accessibility of all your gear because it’s common for things to get tangled up. Fumbling for a carabineer can cost you a lot of energy. Also, there is the worry of dropping something. One because of the safety risk of hitting someone below, the second being it could be too tiring to climb back down and up again to get something you need. We have a small safety lanyard that can hold our tools for example, but when installing certain components there are many small pieces such as nuts and washers. Those can easily slip off your fingers. One thing that was really cool however, was rappelling down the tower. For those of you who have done rock climbing, we probably use similar equipment. We place the Petzel I’D on the rope and push off. Only takes a few moments to descend back down. That was really fun. I felt like a BAMF.

"Next paycheck" was our motto

A quick mention about the 5G conspiracies/criticism. Honestly, I don’t know. Regardless, radiation is a risk. There were some instances when we were working and would end up crossing a live antenna. I don’t feel mutated yet. Will I get cancer? I don’t know. Seems like everybody is getting cancer from something these days. There is just too much money in phones, data, and internet access for the network to not evolve to the demand. How long does it take before most people start complaining about their Wi-Fi router not working? While installing the coax cables, some of the guys I worked with would joke around trying to guess how many terabytes worth of p*rn was flowing through their hands per second.

Tip of the spear

I ended up working this job all over New England. Literally my first official day of work was when I heard about C-19. We were designated essential though, so got plenty of work during that crazy time. What I really loved about the job was every other week we would go to a new location. So, in a way it was like I was still traveling. I got to see different cityscapes from various high-rise rooftops, and many landscapes from the towers summit. In Part-2, I’ll talk about the far corners I went to explore in my free time, as well as more stories about the job itself.

Thanks for reading!

-AbroadwithBrian