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so i was meandering around last night and came across this sign on the fence of an "A" i have had my eye on.

Has anyone seen a sign like this before? (attached image) is it just a standard warning or should i be worried about interrupting signals if I were to climb it?

The object has no surveillance that i could immediately see. there are 2 large round drum transmitters on the object and what look like transmitters like the ones on cell towers at the top. the utility building below is about the size of a street vendors cart and it is located out on farm land well away from any farm houses or roads.
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another object i have looked at has a sign that says video surveillance on premises but i could not seem to find any while looking through the fence. is this common to have a sign alone as a deterrent? this was at a cell tower.

not uncommon tactics. Many will have similar signs. here's another scary sign.

most are meant to deter rednecks and copper thieves

DHS has sensors on some A's that will alert them (if the A is climbed or perimeter breached?). I only know this because a buddy was busted on an A after he somehow set off one of those sensors...he had a pretty big crowd watch him land...they were all law enforcement.

Don't jump towers that have anything to do with the federal government. There are almost no plea bargains with the feds and I have never heard of probation with the feds.

"I swear I didn't attempt to disrupt the facility, just wanted to jump from it"

There is an a with a sign just like that where I live. Im not going anywhere near it. Felony reckless endangerment.10 yrs.

ManagingPrime & 460 are right .

99.9 % of Antenna/guy Mast have the (No-Trespassing & prosecution warning) on perimeter fencing .

BUT this Warning in the Pic. is definitely different ( FAA ) & ( Possible loss of LIFE ) for being found ( IN Compound & On Antenna ) .
that = Fed. & Homeland Security/DHS . Prosecution under Reg. & guidelines set by Homeland security .

The possibilities of you being SHOT are pretty scarce & minimal . but the possibilities if busted & of 'Max. Sentence' allowed by law, are High .

also look for little box's above the trap door to climb Ladder, or above the pedestal/base area . ( Motion Detectors ) .
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Could these sensors be avoided by taking a "less traveled" approach? By that I mean going where most people would have no reason to be. By that I mean using an access point other than the main gate/fence that is well away from all equipment. Also, it'd probably be safer climbing the side of the antenna away from the ladder until you get high enough that there would probably be no motion sensors (highly cost ineffective to have them all the way up the damn A).

Thoughts?

I understood it to mean that if the service of FAA equipment is disrupted then the loss of human life in terms of aircraft may occur. Not to the person who disrupts the service... that would be unconstitutional

Maybe that is all it means ?

Still . If it has 'Anything'. to do with FAA then it 'IS' regulated by Fed. DHS for Penalty of law if you get pinched there .

Anything that is connected with FAA or connected to Port of entry like Airport or Marine Port . Is under full DHS Oversight .
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edit to add :
quote . ... " that would be unconstitutional ."

That is Debatable to DHS .
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from reading your Post . Does NOT sound like you have climbed many Antenna or Guy Mast . ??? or have much BASE experience ?
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but this is what I would tell you if I thought you did .

Does not sound like in Post 'this' is a very big Tower . So I wonder if it is worth the effort for a hop&pop or Static .
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( if sensors ?) , Usually There is Nothing set-up for sensors above the Trap-door of the Ladder access for climbing .
( If it has Motion Sensors ? ) . that's where they are usually at . & Ya the IR Beam of the sensors would be pointed-out & down in direction @ Not for long distance for IR Beam . & if your were to walk into the Tower pedestal area out climb up to the Trap-Door to Ladder . Sensors would pick up on it .

You would have to enter the Ladder/climb area ( Above the Sensors ) .
& about the only easy way would be if the Roof of the building in the compound has something ( for example) electrical Pipe/conduit or something else that runs to the Tower above the Sensors for you to cross .
Or from the Building Roof . shoot a drag-string for pulling a rope So you could Travers over & above Sensor .

And This Post makes it sound like the Fenced Compound area is real small & tight with a Real small building . (So if there were Sensors there ? ) . You would be Screwed .

BUT Who Reads warning Sign ? or takes them seriously ?
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Think about this way. A tower with that kind of warning is what is called "critical infrastructure." There have been jumpers who have disrupted communications on towers before, with a handful of notable examples. Losing radio communications for FAA needs could result in loss of life. Only a fool would pull the tail of Satan to jump such a object with no prior info. If not for legal reasons, then ethical reasons. "Hey, what if I hit the tower, etc. and the transmitters have to be turned off?"

The object is a 400ft A with Guy wires. small building and small perimeter. it has a sweet landing area if the winds are just right which they commonly are in this area but the sign alone has done its job. i will have to write this one off. i would be more worried about actually disrupting a signal for a system like air traffic control and causing real danger to others by doing so then getting caught by the feds.

everything was falling in place on this one until i read the sign. oh well. on to the next one.

400ft A with Guy wires

Yeah keep looking, there are better objects
out there with less hazard and less potential
legal problems.

I'm sure there is a Nicer Antenna everywhere you Look . If you look for them with ( Always Nicer somewhere else ) attitude .

a 400 ft. 3-Guy wire . That's a nice Antenna for Nice hop & pop . especially if there is a good landing area .
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ALSO :

HEY Fuckers . I am kind of changing my Mind now on this Warning Sign Shit . Just because I am getting older cautious and more Pussy-like does not mean that I should influence your Jumping decisions & drag down your experience .
I say " Go Do It " . That's what BASE jumpers DO . They step out over the edge & FUCKING JUMP .

I humbly Apologize & Don't know what the Hell I was saying or thinking before in my previous Posts with that SafeAss & sacrilegious Non-BASE bullshit talk I was spewing out my fucking pie-hole .
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Only, for REAL BASE JUMPERS reading beyond this point .
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A 400 ft. Antenna with a small fence compound & good wind directional landing area outside fencing .
You should be IN, Up & OFF that thing in 30 Minutes . With a lot of fly-time for doing a 180 turn into the wind for a nice safe landing with a hand-held or stowed Hop & Pop . That Antenna is a sweet piece of Cake .
Fuck that warning sign Shit & especially if it's out of the way place & easy access .
GO Do It ! .
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I disagree with most of your posts,
these last two definitely included,
and I yes, I know it is mutual.

Nonetheless... you recommend a
new kid with 20 jumps, 2 objects
to go STOWED from a 400 feet
antenna with guyed wires and
an unusual FAA warning sign

irony, squared.

Irony squared my ass . I am sure We All Agree that he will show good judgment on this Jump & will Not be jumping Solo & Jump along with a more experienced Jumper . Then both of you Homo's can live your lives On-Line Vicariously threw a Real BASE Jumper who shows good instincts & Know a good object when he sees it .
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-Sheriff Station is about 15 miles from object.

-City Police is about 20 miles from object.

-State police is about 45 miles from object (At least the one that has a helicopter)

- im guessing the feds have a a office somewhere in the 50 mile radius to the object with a helicopter.

- one would need to hike about a 1/2 mile to access the object from a farm road. (parking just off the road)

So in order to be in, up and off that would take 30 minutes from the time of the breech, a minute or 2 to free fall it, land, stash, 3-4 minutes to run 1/2 mile back to car and drive away.

35-36 minutes and driving away from the middle of nowhere to pretty much nowhere.

If this critical infrastructure has a sensor on it i would think the authorities would have plenty of time to get there in time to watch me throw a triple gainer low pull and land on the back of a bull and rid off into the night.

NO THANKS. Does that mean im not a real Base Jumper then?

Man I really think you are starting your BASE carrier with, ' Glass Half-empty Outlook on things ' .
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Fuck Me . So Really the reason you don't want to jump this 400 ft. Hop & Pop is Not the Rusty old Sign in original Post ?
But now your just afraid that 4 different LE agency's ( city, county, State & Federal ) are just around every corner poised & waiting to Catch you If you jump .

Man the Problem here is pretty plain to see . You Came to BASE.com for BASE jumping advice & got mind fucked to Pussy status .
I DID in the beginning Play a small part in the mindfucking you to PussyVille thing & I did humbly apologize for that in the earlier Post to you . But NOW I am trying to set you strait & bring you Back to BASE Jumper reality .
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No not at all. i don't want to jump for the exact reason of the original post. Loss of life man! in Pussyville that is bad. REAL BAD! whether it is me or some schmuck on an airplane, being a citizen in pussyville carries responsibility. not only am i afraid of the 4 LE agencies, what about GOD. he may show up too and judge me on the spot.

in all seriousness, I like you. we should get together and maybe i could learn some things about real base jumping. but, i think you had it right the first time. this object was not a good one and I made a judgement call not to do it... all sarcasm aside.

so where we meeting? have rig... will travel!

Hey Unfortunately that's the way thing are going a little more & more as time goes on . More & more Rusty Warning Signs will be put-up to discourage bad boys & girls from BASE jumping good objects .
& Really there is no signs on any Antenna Compound Fences that are going to be an invitation for you to Jump . Everyone draws the line somewhere on what there going to do . You just need to hang around people with more of a Bad influence type of quality .

You can come out to Oregon anytime & I will help you . Summer weather is around for a little while more . Or come by with a vehicle for travel & some open days to learn .
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Haha. I'm not a real BASE jumper either, but I would jump the shit out of it. Fuck it, I'd day blaze the hell out of that shit. Probably safer during the day when cops are busy doing "real" cop things. People are acting like there is a red light that flashes on the bat phone as soon as you start climbing.

PS, I'm not real smart, no longer a cop, and probably a below average BASE jumper. But it sounds jumpable to me, and I'm conservative. If you're scared jump it in a priest collar.

That's the way it is . The more you ponder & think about 'what If ' . What if you could get Caught or something goes wrong or what If you or Go-In Then you Don't Jump & Life is full of What If's . The more you out-think yourself you mindfuck yourself to PussyVille & right out of being a Real BASE Jumper.
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Avenfoto typed: irony, squared

Which was funny and accurate because on
my journey I have done way more sketchy
jumps in worse situations with much less
experience than the original poster.

Example: Jump #12: first Solo, first S/L,
first Crane, first Urban, Tightest LZ then,
it was my lowest jump then, and all on a
Dagger 266 that I had only jumped four
times with a dry weight of 185 LB.

So yeah Ray, I am a real BASE jumper who
also makes bad long term decisions for the
short term benefit of getting my rocks off.
But I do not casually suggest it to others or
call them pussies for not making the same
mistakes I occasionally make.


Back on topic, I have jumped/reconned 40+
antennas and every single one has had some
type of Warning sign but none of them had
any saying FAA, loss of life, etc. Anyone else?

That's a nice Log of statistics . But I am to the realization that I was not giving good advice in this Thread for a BASE jumper looking to Get info about a Tower to Jump . But was just giving him internet excuses on why NOT to be a BASE Jumper a Do the Jump & why & How to be afraid .
& it MAKES NO Difference if he has 20 BASE jumps like this kid or 1000 BASE jumps . Plain & Simple . Screw the Warning Sign that is wired to the Fence . ( If the Need or Want is there ) Even if it is just for 1 more monotonous Log statistic or an added # for your number of Jumps Logged or your 1st Tower Jump . Then the Tower Should be Jumped .

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I saw a similar sign (deadly force authorized blah blah blah) on a tower near a military facility... it had been decommissioned for a long, long time though.

Hasn't the "it's there, we're real, cool and tough base jumpers, jump it now, FUCK THE MAN" played out yet? Maybe after a while said jumper will be more comfortable with his ninja skills and more familiar with the area/facility/security and he'll be jumping that sweet tower at will, or he can choose again to leave it alone. So what?

400' guyed? There's probably another one at least that big nearby blasting out a PBS channel to an audience of 3 people...

p.s. I am neither cool nor tough, just a pussy.

All 'Life Critical" FAA systems have 'belt & braces' back-up systems as do all commercial aircraft etc. Do you really think there would be a critical single point of failure in the form of a remote antenna that could send the whole ATC system crashing down in the event of a power failure, lighning strike, base jumper object strike etc?? If there was an installation that was this critical, it would have 24hr engineers on site as a minimum.... But even then there would be a back up!

Go do it!

Not commenting on whether it should be jumped or not, but knocking even a single ATC tower offline would be a serious pain in the ass to ATC and all of the pilots involved, and potentially dangerous.

Even with the backups and overlapping towers, there is a span of time that the pilot does not know that he is out of contact. Once he figures it out, he will go back to the last frequency assigned or just grab the nearest ATC frequency, but in an already overloaded environment, that gap of time when he is uncontrolled can put him in "already occupied airspace".

All that said, how bad do you have to fuck up to actually knock one of these towers offline?

I would like to add that, to the best of my knowledge, all federal communication equipment that is a permanent structure and pertinent to regular emergency communications is double fenced. (like State police relays along major freeways, and ATC radar outside of controlled or patrolled areas) If it has a single fence, It I would start my ground work. The work put into opening an object is the best part, the jump itself is just the reward.

Good point, but in the highly unlikely event that you disable the tower (which is likely only a repeater), and as TCAS (& EGPWS/TAWS) override ATC instruction, a mid-air between commercial air traffic or CFIT in the event of a comms failure would be highly improbable. (But a comms failure would cause few headaches and piss a few people off for sure!)

Ok, as a pilot i say stop worrying about hurting the tower. For fuck's sake no airplanes are going to explode out of the sky or be forced to divert into derkaderkastan if you scuff it with your han wags. just don't be a douche and touch the big transmitters, crash your canopy into them because you suck, or unbolt them just to watch them smash into pieces after they fall hundreds of feet, like that alarm clock i hated in college and threw off a balcony.

now, i'm not saying you won't be sent to a federal-pound-you-in-the-ass prison when they bust you. that would suck. if they catch you.

I've seen similar posts on here a lot about all the work that it takes to open a new object. I've refrained from saying anything in the past, but since I've been drinking, I'm going to post.

Do people really spend a lot of time scouting and doing other BS just to open an A? I've opened or reopened at least 15 A's in my area and all I ever do is find the site online, look at it in person, and jump it. Three sites I found just by driving, seeing them near a highway, then coming back at night and jumping them. Two sites I found from an airplane while skydiving, Did no research, just went out there later and jumped.

As a lurker with the great book of base and some common sense fresh in mind, I just have to ask if you at least know how to differentiate between antennas that are transmitting anything themselves and the ones with specific transmitters up high?

And I actually kind of hope you come down on how stupid I am for making such a question, when all real basejumpers have practiced this in infinity.. or something like that.

Otherwise do you know if the ones with special transmitters are on or off? I'm really fucking paranoid about cancer so If the day comes in my possible future to jump an A I would like to be really fucking sure that it's off in all possible ways.. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

The FCC keeps pretty good records, which
include the height, field elevation, type of
antenna, and who owns it.

The owner, as well as shape and 'things'
on it, give an experienced jumper a good
idea of the kind of exposure he or she
would expect to be subjected to.

Here is my own approach:
Decommissioned - the best
FM, TV and Cell - have fun
AM - avoid them, not worth it

Also when you are on antenna that has
domes, dishes, horns, whips, etc. the
two fresh common sense ideas are:

1. Avoid them, don't touch them
2. If you have to climb near one
then rest below it, then sprint up
past it, then rest above it.

If I end of dealing with cancer it means
I avoided dying from parachuting

FYI - there are several older threads
about different antennas with input
from very experienced BASE jumpers
who also worked a bit as tower rats.

Well, one point is that towers that carry specific transmitters have, well, specific transmitters on them! Stingers, mobile phone dishes, cylindrical antennas at the top etc. On the flip side, radiating masts, being live structures, should be visibly insulated from the ground, both at the base and on the guy wires.

Good point.

Yes I do know how to differentiate between types of towers. I stay away from AM towers, so far at least . I try not to spend much time near the transmitters on other towers, and I don't step in front of mono directional transmitters, if they're live.

EM radiation is what you are exposed to and the level of exposure varies drastically. EM radiation is present around anything that carries an electrical current. My understanding is that it is only thought to be harmful in high doses, with constant exposure, and/or when close to the brain. Examples would be people who live near high voltage power lines have been observed to have higher rates of certain types of cancer, some studies have found a correlation between cell phone use and brain tumors, high voltage electricians have been observed to have higher cancer rates, and short term high dose exposure can lead to nausea and vomiting as some BASE jumpers have attested from climbing AM towers.

It is my opinion based on the research I've done that most BASE jumpers have nothing to worry about as long as they get up and off quickly and avoid AM. I say this because even extremely active A jumpers who follow these rules will likely be in close contact exposure with transmitters for less than an hour a week, and your BASE jumping career is most likely going to be less than a 1/4 of your life' if you live long enough to worry about cancer. Also, I think there are much more pressing issues to worrie about on a BASE jump than cancer.

Thanks for good answers :)
I know the question was a bit badly formulated, I just thought that maybe there would be am transmitters with dishes on as well or something.. I just reacted a bit to how nonchalant your attitude seemed in the first post, like If it's high i'll jump it no matter what. I see clearly that this was wrong :) Everyone still seems to be so conscious. Wondering a bit where all the assholes one reads about sometimes are.

 
Just tossing out a couple of thoughts here. I'm fully in favor of a through scouting of a site. I always liked toget a good close up look at it during the day before coming back at night. Haveing said that the closest I ever came to getting busted on a tower was on a scouting trip during the day.

I don't know how you woud ever spot all the things you would need to know just driveing by on the highway during the day. I would want to walk the place in the light not just show up in darkness. One day you might get a rude suprise like finding a stray winch wire under canopy. That stay cable that some times runs out to an anker in the middle of one side? That's a tag line for a winch. Not the easiest thing to spot at night. Some times they strap it down to a tower but some times they just stretch it out to an anker it the middle of one of the face. I know I'm a big fat pussy but if theirs one there I still like to know how it's set up. and if there's any thing nasty out there in the tall grass, bits of metal, equipment, old spools etc I kind of like to know about where they are before jumping in the dark. It's just little shit like that that gives me peace of mind.

Lee

I forgot to mention that I did actually take the exit and looked at the field from my car on the side road.


I've heard of these, but have yet to see one. My understanding is that they are temporary and found on guyed towers when work is being performed. Couldn't you just as easily go to a site you frequent and find that one of these has been added?


Again, couldn't such things show up in the tall grass on objects you frequent, though I admit less likely.

I do think it's a good idea to walk the lz during the day if the site permits, and I have done this. I do sometimes walk the LZ before jumping at night. I prob left this out of my original post because as I said in the post, I had been drinking. However I stand by the spirit of my post, which is that opening As has required very little work for me most of the time.

I did get a rude surprise once. After jumping an A at night that I drove by in the day, I was approached by a herd of cattle, led by a bull with some mean looking horns. I don't think they wanted to hurt me, but they scared me and I cut my hand lunging over a barbed wire fence to get away from them. I'm not sure more scouting during the day would have helped, as they were not in that field during the day.

You guys do realize that this thread could be rendered useless if the jumper does a proper recon on a night before he jumps it? If you think theres censors, then go try to set off the fuckers and find a hiding spot and see if anyone shows up. If it's out in the middle of nowhere and they don't find anyone they will most likely think it was just some wild animal or something.

You're right but I also believe that "It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you."

just go out to the tower without gear. Climb a little ways up it and then climb down and sit in your car for about 30 min. If the police show up, tell them your in an arguement with your gf and went for a drive and stopped to piss. worst they will do is tell you to leave. If no police show up after 30 min. jump it.

Jumped it!

Nice .
was it as illegal & scary as you 1st thought it was ?
It sounded like a fairly good object .
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Legally, hasnt changed... scary, yes but for very different reasons. fuck the sign! the exit was the scary part!

Funny thing is that i had ended up climbing it 5 times with 4 of them climbing down for various reasons. wind, cows, cold hands, being a pussy, etc.