Tower Safety

Antenna towers combine two of the most serious hazard categories a ham radio operator will ever face outside of high-voltage equipment: falling from height, and contact with overhead power lines. Both are entirely preventable with the right equipment and the right procedures, and both have caused real fatalities in the amateur radio community — not because the information was unavailable, but because someone skipped a step they thought they could get away with skipping. This lesson covers the specific equipment, clearances, and procedures that turn tower work from a serious hazard into a manageable, routine task.

100% tie-off means at least one lanyard stays attached to the tower at every moment of the climb, including while repositioning the other.

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Fall Arrest Equipment Requirements

A full-body harness, not a simple waist or positioning belt, is the minimum acceptable equipment for any tower climb. This distinction matters more than it might seem: a fall arrested at the waist alone (by an old-style belt) concentrates the arresting force on the abdomen and lower spine, can cause serious internal injury even in a survivable fall, and can allow the climber to fall out of the belt entirely depending on body position. A full-body harness distributes arresting forces across the shoulders, thighs, and pelvis and is designed specifically to keep an unconscious or injured person properly suspended after a fall, which a positioning belt is not designed to do.

A complete fall arrest setup includes a full-body harness rated for fall arrest use, a shock-absorbing lanyard (which limits the peak force transmitted to the body during a fall by extending slightly and absorbing energy), a separate positioning lanyard used for work positioning while both hands are needed for a task, a climbing helmet rated for the work being performed, and footwear appropriate for the tower's step or peg spacing. Every component must be inspected before each use — webbing checked for cuts, fraying, or chemical damage, stitching checked for integrity, and metal hardware (D-rings, carabiners, shock-absorber packs) checked for cracks, corrosion, or deformation. Any component that fails inspection, or whose service history or age is unknown, must be taken out of service rather than used "just this once."

Fall clearance — the vertical distance available below your tie-off point before you would hit the ground or an obstruction if a fall occurred — must also be considered before starting work. A shock-absorbing lanyard extends under load, and the combination of free-fall distance, lanyard extension, and harness stretch can add up to several feet of total fall distance before arrest is complete; tying off too low on the tower, with insufficient clearance beneath you, can defeat the entire purpose of the fall arrest system.

Working Around Power Lines

Before erecting, raising, lowering, or working on any tower, mast, or antenna, identify every overhead power line within a distance well beyond the maximum height the structure could reach in any orientation during the entire process — not just its final, installed position. A tower or mast being raised by hand or with a gin pole rotates through a range of positions before reaching vertical, and a piece of aluminum tubing being carried across a yard can contact a line that is invisible against the sky or easily misjudged for distance. Plan the entire raising and lowering sequence, including every intermediate position, with a generous safety margin from any line — professional guidance commonly recommends a minimum clearance of at least the structure's total length plus a substantial additional margin, in every direction the structure could move or fall.

If a tower, mast, or antenna does contact a power line, or comes close enough that arcing occurs, treat the entire structure, and anything touching it (including the ground near its base, in some soil conditions), as energized at line voltage or higher. Do not touch the structure. Do not attempt to free it yourself. Keep everyone well back, and call the utility company and 911 immediately. If a person is in contact with the energized structure, do not touch them directly — this is the same separation principle from M22A, scaled up to a much higher and more dangerous voltage with a much larger contact area.

Tower Grounding Requirements

Every tower installation requires a proper grounding system, serving two related but distinct purposes: providing a safe path for fault currents and static buildup under normal conditions, and forming the foundation of the lightning protection system covered in full detail in M22F. At minimum, this means a dedicated ground rod (or, for larger installations, multiple rods bonded together) driven at the tower's base, with each tower leg bonded to that ground system using appropriately sized conductors and corrosion-resistant connectors rated for direct burial or outdoor exposure.

A tower's grounding system should be installed and inspected as part of the initial construction, not added as an afterthought once the tower is already standing — retrofitting a proper ground system to a tower already in place is possible but considerably more difficult than doing it correctly during the original installation. Corrosion at ground connections over years of outdoor exposure is a real, ongoing maintenance concern; periodic visual inspection and resistance testing of the ground system is good practice for any permanent tower installation.

The Never-Climb-Alone Rule

No one should climb a tower without a second person present at ground level for the entire duration of the climb. This is not a suggestion for convenience — it is a direct response to a specific, time-critical medical risk. A person suspended motionless in a harness after a fall arrest can develop suspension trauma (sometimes called harness hang syndrome) within as little as 10-20 minutes, caused by blood pooling in the legs while suspended upright and unable to move; this can become life-threatening well before a climber who fell alone, with no one aware anything had happened, would otherwise be discovered.

A ground-based helper should maintain visual or radio contact with the climber throughout the work, know the address and access details needed to direct emergency responders to the site without delay, know how to contact emergency services immediately, and ideally have at least a basic understanding of how to assist with a rescue or lowering procedure if trained and equipped to do so. Establish this plan, including a clear way for the climber to signal a problem, before the climb begins — not improvised after something has already gone wrong.

If a Fall or Power Line Contact Happens

For a fall where the climber is suspended in a harness: call 911 immediately, since professional rescue (rather than an improvised lowering by an untrained ground crew) is generally the safer option unless the ground crew has specific rescue training and equipment. If the climber is responsive, encourage them to move their legs periodically if possible to help circulation and reduce the risk of suspension trauma while awaiting rescue. If the climber becomes unresponsive or stops breathing once lowered to the ground, begin CPR immediately if trained, and continue until help arrives.