Basejumper.com - archive

For starters, I am not asking for me to go jump anything. I am just curious. As I was driving from my home in Southern Jersey, up to the Poconos this past weekend, I saw quite a few "A's" that looked pretty jumpable. It got me to wondering- what are the criteria to make it jumpable? Such as- what's the minimum hieght? And short of getting right up to it, is there any way of judging hieght of an "A" from a distance? What shapes would make it unjumpable?
The other reason I ask, I like doing photography and video. So if there was anyone from my area that was jumping any of these, and wanted some extra photos or video, I'd be more than happy to lend a hand.
Thanks for any info.

The only criteria for making a tower jumpable is that it has a working elevator on it

Every & all Antenna are jumpable one time.
The information you are seeking is Very Secretive. You must know the secret password plus the secret BASE Handshake.
But the most important thing is. You must be a working BASE jumper. With the BASE knowledge when you walk up to a Antenna and make Visual Conformation and Assessment for a, good-to-go.
Because just -Anyone- who walks up to one. Can Jump an Antenna One Time.
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175 Views, and I get 2 responses- and non-serious responses to boot. I guess I should have known. Dont know why I expected to get a straight answer. Well I tried.

Height.
Landing area.
Wires.
A.M. -vs- F.M.
Hot or Not?

The reason you've only recieved one responce, well, if you were a jumper, you'd already know... i.e., it's kind of a dumb question.

A better question would be, "There's a tower near my house, I don't want to name cities but, it's about 300' high, there's no houses around it, but there is a fence with barbed wire and I saw a camera with no wires sticking out of it...., would you still jump it? If so, PM me, if you live near (insert vague city here) and let me know. I'm a photographer with no BASE jumps, but would love to buy you a beer, show you my portfolio, and see if you'd like a tag-a-long photographer to snap off some shots of your landing. If youd prefer no flash-bulbs popping off while you're trying to land, I'm more than capable of working a two-way radio and driving a car... "

20/20?

-smd7

edited to add - "otherwise, you sound like a fu(king cop, fishing for minnows eager for glory, in a bucket..."

     Well, rather than me post all of that- thats why I asked for some basic guidelines. If someone came out and said, the minimum height for an A is say 200', then I'd have more interest into looking into the A's that I've seen. I have no idea of thier actual height, or what surrounds them as far as landing area, and fences, etc. Also, you mention AM or FM, and hot or not. As a non-jumper, your speaking another language. I'm sure I can figure out AM or FM (but have no idea why one would be jumpable or not), but whether its hot or not? You got me stumped on that one. If you dont want to openly discuss it in the forums, thats cool with me- throw me a PM. As I said, it's part for my own curiosity. I'm always trying to learn something new.
I would say, I am a very amatuer photographer- meaning I know how to handle a camera. So sure, if there was anyone from , lets say, Southern Jersey (Sorry, cant think up any vaque cities to throw in there) i'd be more than happy to buty you a beer, and tag along to get some shots of you jumping (and I can work a two way radio and drive).
I'm not a cop- wanted to be one, but that never happened. Plus, I'm too much into quading (and if you know New Jersey) there's no legal place to ride that doesnt cost you $500/year. So I've had my run ins with cops before, so I know how to handle those situations too.
I hope that at least clears some of it up.
And monkey1031- thanks for the response.

 
>>Use a laser range finder and the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the height. Whether it’s tall enough is a judgment call on the part of the jumper.

AM towers use the entire structure as a transmitter. Essentially, when you hop onto one (and you do, literally, hop), you are climbing a live wire. It's possible, but not too much fun, and many people prefer to avoid them entirely.

It's easy to figure out if a tower is AM or not by inspecting the places it touches the ground. If they don't have big insulators, it's almost certainly not AM. But I'm sure you knew that, because it's discussed in another thread on the first page of this forum, and if you're interested in that kind of thing, you'll certainly be doing your homework.

I'm sure you've probably also seen, and read, the "jumpable antenna" discussion (on the first page of this forum) for clues as to what kinds of things people consider in making their decisions.

Do all AM towers have insulators or could you get a low power AM tower that wouldn't need them?

Pythagorean theorem??? I've been out of high school for 12 years. Algebra is but an ancient memory to me
Actually, I was thiking along those lines about determining height, but for the life of me couldnt remember how to do it. Thanks for the info.

you´ll need to know if its high enough that you´ll feel ok jumping off it getting a canopy and fly down and land safely.
that means you´ll need a Landingarea were you can land aswell.

The minimum high depends on the person one might feel ok jumping off 150 were others dont want to be below example 300,its kind of asking 100 guys on how the perfect boobs are,you might get 100 different answeres

Then aswell is it FM or AM tower?

you didnt got answers as its a pretty wide Q you have asked

I'm surprised you've asked this question. you registered in January and have posted over 400 times. (I'm not sure how many to the BASE Zone, but this is not your first post here...)

you seem intelligent. by scanning this forum you should have realized that people get hurt with only partial knowledge. others have said "I'm not going to jump," and then do.

also, site selection is quite personal. it's not a question if it's jumpable, it's would YOU jump it. heck, I've chosen not to jump sites I've previously jumped. every jumper creates their own criteria.

if a site is easily seen by people driving on a highway, how secretive would any jump be?

basic research (no pun) would have givin all the info you needed. this, and other forums have been open for years, and this subject has been talked about, and will be talked about in the future. Homework could of guided you to your answer, rather than a slap to the jumpers who responded, and disrespect to those who didnt. dont blame us for your shortfallings, that could have been avoided if you got yourself a search engine besides www.whuffo.com

there is no straight answer with BASE anyway.

just look for the elevator How hard can that be?

Bearing in mind that I have an unpleasant history with the OP, the Base Zone is not BLINC, but part of a forum that is open to non-jumpers, new jumpers and experienced jumpers.

I didn't get the impression that he asked the question because he plans on climbing a tower anytime soon.

A base or skydiving wuffo having an interest in jumping is not a bad thing. If misconceptions in the non-jumping population are to be corrected--and doesn't everyone bitch about this all the time?--it will not be so much by jumpers as by persons who do not have an obvious bias towards jumpers.

In other words, people who are sympathetic to parachutes are all to the good and curiosity should not be discouraged.

I'll agree, however, that his second post makes it sound like he has a chip on his shoulder, and it brought down upon him no more than the response he deserved.

rl

Basejumpers, parachutes and hard drugs.

And what Tree said...I lost half a bacon sandwich across my laptop when I read that.

Merry Happiness.

your sure it were on your laptop you dropped it

Thank you Rhonda. Whats in the past, is in the past (I hope). As I had said before, I have nothing at all against you- we just differed on opinions. I hold no hard feelings for you (as a matter of fact, when I see your responses, I usually read with interest).
You're right- my second response did come off bad- but had no intention of that. Even when an experienced jumper asks a question, they usually get a few smart-alec responses. I should have expected it (especially being that I have no jump experience).
As you said, I didnt ask, with any intention of making a jump. As I said in the first and third post- it was a curiosity question, and also, maybe to meet up with a BASE jumper from my are, to tag along, get to see a jump in person, and maybe get some photos for me and them.
And Treejumps- we've had this discussion through PM's before. Your opinion means absolutley nothing to me, so please, dont waste your time expressing it. Pants around my ankles? Was that a shot at me? Just wondering- because your attempt at humor doesn't impress me.

Funny, whenever I was asked to give the shake, I just grabbed the nearest guy's crotch and was allowed to pass. I guess I got it right.

Captain Kim

site analysis is too difficult to generalize even for something a simple as an antenna. more information is needed. guy wires, free standing, side structures, landing areas, height, AM, FM, repeater tower, downwind side, platforms, access, access in case of an accident?

I appreciate the reply- this was kind of the info I was looking for (among other stuff) AM/FM was pointed out before. I figured on landing area and accesibility. But never thought of repeater tower (dont even know what that is, but Ill look it up) down/up wind sides, platforms. I guess I was just looking for general +'s that would make it jumpable. I'll look into the towers I saw more closely, and see what I can find out. Thanks again for the info.

Hey Capt..Kimmy, If you were looking for your usual BASE Jump date. A Crotch grab might have worked with a few BASE jumpers that jumped here. I can pretty much guarantee though the only thing that will end up in your Ass when BASE jumping with Me. Will be my fucking Boot.
Hey bitch, give me a PM.
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