new site

[pringles]

Well I almost broke down and cried last night. I showed up at the local A last night and things weren't looking good. There were a bunch of construction vehicals, spools, wenching systems, and generators. All the lights were on in the building and it wasn't looking good. I hope that what ever they are doing doesn't ruin the site. We already lost one tower in the area to a Dopler ball it recieved about 2yrs ago. From what we have found it isn't worth jumping that A anymore. Now I won't be able to jump our regular for a while, from the looks of it. This really sucks with a second rig comming any day now.

My wife was along for ground crew last night. So I looked at her and said "well Im going to make a jump tonight no matter what!" She looked at me kinda confused because she knows most of the sites and had no clue where I planned on going. The other towers that she knows of are about a 2 hour drive from where we were. Then I said "If I can please have my balls out of your purse I think we are going to that tower right over there."

We went to a tower that we had looked at only once. This tower has a really sketchy landing area. I have wanted to jump it now for a while, but with a great big landing area right down the road why mess with it.

I climbed up and jumped and every thing went off without a hitch. This tower only has one jumpable side. So if we lose the other tower I won't be getting many local jumps any more.

So just a lesson to all out there. Treat your sites with respect. Don't burn one by day blazing it just because you have other sites in the area. Sites may become unjumpable for numerous reasons. It would really suck to have your sites change and have no where to go because you have burnt other sites.

Attached are pics of the two towers from last night. Guy wires are in red. LZ in blue. It was hard to see obstructions and trees in some areas of the pics so I filled in those areas with brownish green.

Edit: The pic on the left is the tower we hit all the time. One on the right made me pucker.

[Tom Aiello]

There were a bunch of construction vehicals, spools, wenching systems, and generators.

Could be good, too. Maybe in 8 months you'll have a new elevator that gets to the top in 4 minutes, and the tower will be 200 feet higher.

[pringles]

Could be good, too. Maybe in 8 months you'll have a new elevator that gets to the top in 4 minutes, and the tower will be 200 feet higher.

That would be perfect. It already has an elevator. Doesn't work though. We opened the pannel and tried the switches, nothing. Then we opened the back of the pannel and there were no wires. They had all been removed. Big Country helped with that one since we know nothing about elevators. If the elevator gets fixed with this project this tower would be worth the trip. I think its 1200'. I usually jump the crows nest from 350'. There is another crows nest around 900 thats nice too.

[zennie]

Just from what you've written I wouldn't be too terribly worried.

It sounds like they're setting up to put up a new transmitter. We've had the exact same sort of thing happen at our towers... equipment on the ground, spools, etc. It just means the workers are active on the tower. No biggie.

If the wiring to the elevator control box has been removed chances are either theyr'e taking down the tower (which, yes, would suck) or they're upgrading the equipment (yay!).

Here's to hoping it's the latter.

[pringles]

About a month in advance they had come through with those little flags that the stick in the ground to mark out the underground lines and stuff so that they can be careful when digging. Those things were all over the place, even out into the landing areas in some spots. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

[base311]

could be an HDTV upgrade... in which case things will probably be better in the long run.
gardner