HUNGRY BIRDS
Birds of prey are notorious for getting ‘up-close and personal’ with technicians and towers.
Whether it’s to steal a sneaky sandwich or watch us swelter under the hot sun, they’re fascinated by what we’re all up to. They’re even more fascinated by the interesting towers and cables dotted across our skyline.
As experienced telecommunications riggers it is a regular occurrence for the team to be called out to broadcast towers for “damage control”. This month was a nice 40-metre climb to the top of the Christian Broadcast tower, where our feathered friends had done a number on the cables.
While we do this kind of work often (and love every minute of it), climbing a 40-metre high electrical tower isn’t exactly a walk in the park! Telecommunications rigging is a highly specialised and dangerous part of our industry. It takes very specific training and follows rigorous workplace safety standards.
The Christian Broadcast tower had been victim to some curious eagles chewing away at the cables. The damage was significant and was impacting heavily on broadcast quality. After a meticulous inspection we carefully replaced all of the damaged cabling; all while strapped into our rigging equipment hanging 40-metres off the ground.
This sort of damage is common, however there are things that can be done to prevent it happening again – such as the stainless steel water-proofing we installed for this project.
Once our bird-proofing mission was complete we could abseil our way back to land -thankfully without attracting too much attention from those hungry birds!
If you’re having your own issues with our local wildlife getting up and close and personal with your telecommunications equipment, get in touch