Accidents With Antenna Work
I just read this story on the ARRL web page where three people were killed putting up an antenna and my first thought was "these people were incredibly stupid."
I do feel bad for them and their families, but you have to stop and think - what they were doing was pretty dumb. They tried to put up a 50' vertical antenna at night near power lines. That is just asking for trouble right there.
The three were not ham radio operators. My guess is that they didn't have a good understanding of how antennas and electricity work, but I can't be certain.
For anyone else working on antennas, or thinking of working on antennas, think through what you are doing and by all means - stay away from power lines! Working near power lines is about the stupidest thing you can do with an antenna. At least if something goes wrong somewhere else you can probably run, playing with high voltage power lines doesn't give you that. If something goes wrong there is no time.
I do feel bad for them and their families, but you have to stop and think - what they were doing was pretty dumb. They tried to put up a 50' vertical antenna at night near power lines. That is just asking for trouble right there.
The three were not ham radio operators. My guess is that they didn't have a good understanding of how antennas and electricity work, but I can't be certain.
For anyone else working on antennas, or thinking of working on antennas, think through what you are doing and by all means - stay away from power lines! Working near power lines is about the stupidest thing you can do with an antenna. At least if something goes wrong somewhere else you can probably run, playing with high voltage power lines doesn't give you that. If something goes wrong there is no time.
posted by Steve at
12:41 PM
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