Niles Man, (KE4PM) Dies After Falling from Ham Radio Tower:

$\'\'$

$\'\'$

$\'\'$

eHam.net Forum : Articles : Niles Man, (KE4PM) Dies After Falling from Ham Radio Tower:

Forum Help

1-10 of 11 messages

Page 1 of 2 Next

Niles Man, (KE4PM) Dies After Falling from Ham Radio Tower:	Reply
by N4KJF on June 29, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
My prayers for him and his family.

Niles Man, (KE4PM) Dies After Falling from Ham Rad	Reply
by W3LK on June 29, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
My condolences to the gentleman's family. 73, Lon - W3LK Naugatuck, Connecticut

RE: Niles Man, (KE4PM) Dies After Falling from Ham Rad	Reply
by W4VR on June 29, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
A very good reason why I've always had tree-supported wire antennas which I put up using a sling shot and casting reel!

During an Antenna Installation Competition	Reply
by AI2IA on June 29, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
"Prelog and several others were competing to install antenna towers that receive amateur radio transmissions from around the world." FOR YOURSELF AND FOR YOUR FAMILY, PLEASE DON'T DO THIS. Amateur radio can be fun, but there are some deadly serious aspects to it. Antenna installation anytime, and especially in regard to towers, should be TASK ORIENTED NOT COMPETITION ORIENTED. The only place for competition should be on-the-air pile ups. Play safely. Enjoy life. Remember your family and friends.

Niles Man, (KE4PM) Dies After Falling from Ham Radio Tower:	Reply
by K8MR on June 29, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
This is of course a most unfortunate incident. However this headline doesn't exactly match what was described in the article: KE4PM did not fall from the tower, rather the tower fell or collapsed with him on it. This apparently happened at Field Day, which is indeed a radio operating contest, not a tower erecting contest. But towers are often viewed as necessary for competing. This is true in most contests, but so much on Field Day I've been part of very successful operations using dipoles in trees. One can't tell the details from the article, but given the temporary nature of Field Day installations, there are all sorts of things that could have gone wrong at a Field Day site that would not likely have gone wrong when doing a permanent tower installation. I've not used towers at FD in many years, and incidents like this make me glad that has been the case. RIP, KE4PM.

RE: During an Antenna Installation Competition	Reply
by KR4WM on June 29, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
The article writer confused the purpose of Field Day with the competitive installation of antennas. I think anyone who has participated in Field Day realizes that there was no speed-competition for installing antennas used for Field Day, and that the "competition" mentioned by the author was actually the 24 hour Field Day event where people compete to make contacts, not to install antennas! Another bungled article by a non-ham who isn't familiar with our hobby! -KR4WM

RE: During an Antenna Installation Competition	Reply
by KD5TAN on June 29, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Exactly. Hams can deduce what happened, but ham radio itself is misrepresented to the public because of this inaccurate information. The original author emailed me back the same minute I emailed him, offering to pass on my response to his source, the Sheriff.

RE: During an Antenna Installation Competition	Reply
by NN4RH on June 30, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
>> the "competition" mentioned by the author was actually the 24 hour Field Day event where people compete to make contacts << Of course we don't know exactly what they were doing at this event - but I wanted to point out that there is a Field Day rule that would tend to encourage putting up antennas in a hurry. There is a Field Day rule #3.1 that lets A or B stations run for up to 27 hours, instead of 24 hrs, if they don't start setting up until 1800 on Saturday. In other words, if you wait until 1800 Sat and then throw your antennas up in a hurry, you could be allowed to operate a couple of hours more than 24 hours, giving you an edge in the scoring. Conceivably, if some club were trying to take advantage of this option, shortcuts might be taken in the erecting of temporary towers. Again, there's no way based on this story to know whether or not that's what happened here.

RE: During an Antenna Installation Competition	Reply
by KB9BIT on June 30, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Here's a story that written a little better. It focuses more on what happened and who Larry was. Sounds like he had quite a bit of experience with towers. Very sad. http://www.wndu.com/localnews/headlines/49469117.html

RE: During an Antenna Installation Competition	Reply
by K9FON on June 30, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Thats why i dont climb towers. Too dangerous for me. I get an expert to do it. Or if its under 50' i use a bucket truck or a boom rigger.

Page 1 of 2 Next

Next Topic: HamRadio 2009 -- Friedrichshafen 2009
Previous Topic: W1AW Announces 2009 Field Day Bulletin Schedule:

This discussion is regarding an item in the Articles area of eHam.net.

View the item being discussed

Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this topic.

Check our help page for help using Forum, or send questions, comments, or suggestions to the Forum Manager.

$\'\'$