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I found this on an antenna I was scoping out. I'm a very new base jumper and wondered if anyone had any imput on it. It isn't an AM tower. Verizon has a leased spot on it and AT&T as well. Can it be an AM tower as well? Here is the notice:


Notice

Guidelines for working in radio frequency environments


All personnel should have electromagnetic energy EMEn awareness training

All personnel entering this site must be authorized

Obey all posted signs

Assume all antennas are active

Before working on antennas notify owners and disable appropriate transmitters

Maintain minimum 3 feet clearance from all antennas

Do not stop in front of antennas

Use personal RF monitors while working near antennas

Never operate transmitters without shields suring normal operation

Do Not operate base station antennas in equipment room

Hello,
You can ignore all that stuff if it is jumpable.
Avery

. . . And pay attention to it if it isn't jumpable?

Avery is right. The warnings are intended for (a) people who are working on the things all day, (b) meeting OSHA guidelines, and (c) avoiding lawsuits. If they were even close, most of us would be long dead.

That said, be sure you know how to tell an AM tower. Those really can be dangerous in the "instantly lethal" sense.

Thanks Tom, I appreciate you personally answering this post. I've been doing some homework on AM towers and telling them apart. Also, to cover my bases, I'm checking the towers out with other various Base jumpers that have experience with AM s so I know what not to jump.

Last thing I wanna' do is fry on an antenna.

Thanks again Tom.

If you are close enough to read the warning signs, you also ought to be able to get the FCC registration number (by law, it's supposed to be at the driveway entrance and at the fence gate). You can enter it into the online FCC database to find out if the tower is AM (and how much energy it's putting off, and it's GPS coordinates, and it's altitude, and a bunch of other stuff).

I've already done that, however I didn't know that you can see how much energy it puts off. Is there an "energy emmission" field on the fcc page that I should see?

I did see that in their "center of AM array" section it is blank. So it isn't an AM structure. Under EMI it says no.

I'm also trying my darndest to get a reg number from another antenna. I got nothing but a phone number that directed me to the FAA. Seems they own this antenna, but the reg number is in the building inside the gate.

Various signs are around this antenna including one that says it is used for FAA communications and that loss of life may occur if tampering of any kind is done to the antenna.

This made me think. Is this antenna a "hotter" antenna than say a Verizon tower? Seems like it is. Maybe it is one I should stay away from if the FAA has such a specific warning sign on it.

If you know where the tower is located, you can search the FCC database backward, by listing the towers in that area, and try to narrow it down. If you know the approximate height of the tower, that will help quite a bit, too.

Thanks Tom You've been a real help. I've been doing that, however their site doesn't work as well as I expected it to. Sometimes it gets testy with the "next" buttons when listing antennas and it won't come up at all.

I'll keep trying. Thanks again.

Keep in mind some of the other possible ramifications of jumping a federally owned tower--as in if you get busted by local cops.

Local cops might not have the jurisdiction to bust you-- but once you're caught, shut up and let your lawyer know, not the cops/persecutors.

Once you think you've found the right A in the FCC database, you can put the lat, lon into mapquest to make sure it's the right one.

Thanks Pope and Gweeks, you've helped a lot as well.

Captain Kim

If you read the report from Motorola on the Base WIKI site you'll see those are general reccommendations to workers for being around the towers.

I'm still trying to really understand it all, from what I gather is:

-don't climb AM towers
-stay away from the topmost stinger (usually TV) by at least 10 feet or so
-keep 3 feet away from each transmitter
-if you're resting while climbing, don't do it on level with a transmitter (go a few feet above/below).

The attached pic posted on a US site means there are transmitters with 10x or more power then recommended exposure present. In theory, they could actually heat the skin (near/at contact).

Not sure of the transmitter power? The ghosting and noise recorded on your camera when standing beside one is a good indicator it's got no bite

THe most important sign of all