AM Radio tower, bad for you?

[scanner90]

If someone were to climb one of those AM radio towers while it was active would you be hurt by the strong radio waves? Obviously this would be a dumb idea and definitely illegal but would be that close to the tower cause an harm?

I'm talking about the tall skinny AM tower, with support cables.

 

[avguy]

Have you ever fried anything?
That's what your insides will be doing if the transmitter is active.

Forget that you'll set off several alarms by the time you reach the base of the tower.

A typical AM radio station is 50 KW.

 

[RayAir]

I touched a mobile antenna once when I had it keyed up. The power was only 45 watts and I sure felt it.
I know, don't ask me why I did it. :roll:

 

[durango5550]

Picture your brains boiling inside your skull and coming out as steam right out of your ears!

 

[mikepdx]

Have you ever fried anything?
That's what your insides will be doing if the transmitter is active.

How is maintenance done an an AM station's antenna? with 24 hour a day transmitters.
(i.e. Light changes, replacing hardware, inspections, etc)

Do all 24/7 AM stations have a second (backup) antenna they switch to while this maintenance takes place ?

 

[mtindor]

What avguy said... and unlike your local public safety TRS or local PD (which uses antennas that are isolated from the towers), the AM towers _are_ the antennae - They load up the actual towers.

Mike

 

[zz0468]

How is maintenance done an an AM station's antenna? with 24 hour a day transmitters.
(i.e. Light changes, replacing hardware, inspections, etc)

Do all 24/7 AM stations have a second (backup) antenna they switch to while this maintenance takes place ?

If they don't have the luxury of a backup antenna, they'll shut down while maintenance is done. This usually happens in the middle of the night.

 

[prcguy]

Once your on the active tower there would be no problem at all, your body is such a small portion of a wavelength at AM broadcast frequencies that it would have no effect. Now getting on a hot insulated tower could be a problem without getting severely burnt. If the tower was grounded and shunt fed you could climb right on with no problem.
prcguy

 

[mikepdx]

Thanks zz0468 & prcguy.

This site is VERY interesting:

Hot AM Tower Climbing

RF Protective Clothing

"...the common practice of doing tower rigging, beacon replacement and painting on active (hot) AM radio broadcast towers".

 

[poltergeisty]

Some AM stations meant for city broadcasts are no more than a small pole as high as a light pole. Attached is a staleness steel box with equipment all programed remotely for the transmissions.

Outpower is 10 watts.

90.242 - SHALL TRANSMIT ONLY NON-COMMERCIAL VOICE INFORMATION PERTAINING TO TRAFFIC AND ROAD CONDITIONS, TRAFFIC HAZARD AND TRAVEL ADVISORIES, DIRECTIONS, AVAILABILITY OF LODGING, REST STOPS AND SERVICE STATIONS, AND DESCRIPTIONS OF LOCAL POINTS OF INTEREST.

 

[trimmerj]

"How is maintenance done an an AM station's antenna? with 24 hour a day transmitters."

Most AM's have directional arrays. You can go reduce power and non directional on one tower for a short time. Normally tower maintenence is done after midnight

 

[Don_Burke]

We normally go to reduced power and a nondirectional pattern, although you can work on a tower hot if the power levels are low enough.

Some of our contractors used to work hot on the towers for a 5kw station. That would not be for me.

All of our towers are base fed, so there is a considerable amount of voltage there, which makes getting on the tower interesting if you want to work hot. Once in a while a deer jumps one of the tower fences and gets nailed.

Some stations use shunt fed towers which would be less of a problem.

 

[rfradioconsult]

Back in the 60's I worked at a 1 KW directional station, the tower guy would work it hot. He would set a 8 ft. step ladder by the base have someone hold the ladder stand on top of it and jump to the tower. Of course back then OSHA and FCC exposure rules were not around; you were limited only by your own stupidity.

 

[chrismol1]

Hell, I've touched my finger to the connector base on an old Radius portable, I felt things get a "little warm" on the tip of my finger

 

[FFPM571]

I was shown by the engineer of WMVP AM1000 how to shut down the tower with a set of jumper cables in an Emergency. They have breaker that when the tower sees ground it shuts off and since its a 3 tower array it will switch towers in the matter of seconds.

 

[kb2vxa]

I'll put it quite simply so even you can understand. When you shake hands with the devil you may expect to get burned.

 

[poltergeisty]

Hell, I've touched my finger to the connector base on an old Radius portable, I felt things get a "little warm" on the tip of my finger

It's a great way of getting rid of fingerprints by George! :lol: I've done that to with only a 5 watt hand held.

 

[trimmerj]

Made the mistake of touching an ungrounded tower in an array, even though I had switched to another tower .There was enough Induced RF on the dead tower to burn the hell out my hand

 

[Don_Burke]

Made the mistake of touching an ungrounded tower in an array, even though I had switched to another tower .There was enough Induced RF on the dead tower to burn the hell out my hand

If we go non-directional, we have to use jumper cables to ground any other tower we want to work on.

While the induced RF is nasty, I suspect the static buildup is pretty impressive as well.

 

[trace1]

If you see a DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE sign, or something similar, that be a good clue...