Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Small Cell Deployment Prep and Background

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For the record I have been involved in small cells for the last 2 years, and it has been tough. The numbers didn’t ramp up like we thought they would. However, it looks like 2016 may change all of that. Let me explain.

It appears that the carriers have driven the deployment pricing down to a reasonable price. Originally all the models were based on a normal cell site. Let me put that into perspective. The carriers were going to be charged for site acquisition and installation and backhaul in the neighborhood of $50,000 to install a $5,000 unit. Does that make sense to you? The fact it may only serve 100 people or so at any given time also hurt the model. That is one of the problems they had to overcome. The payback in 3G just didn’t make sense, but now with LTE (4G) coming things are changing. Also, 5G will be higher frequencies making coverage circles even smaller. Plan ahead!

This is probably why AT&T Wireless pulled back on their outdoor small cell deployments, the economics and payback didn’t make sense, but ask them for the real reason. They still deploy indoor small cells from what I see.

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Now that we have 4G, LTE, it is making more sense to make sure that the carrier can supply broadband, especially the carrier’s broadband to use up all of that data each month. Wi-Fi is great for coverage at home but in the public it can be hit or miss or sometimes unreliable or not free! So the small cell is a great way to extend coverage as long as the economics make sense. Maybe even collocate it with Wi-Fi, although if they share the backhaul that doesn’t make a lot of sense, so backhaul planning is essential. Give people the coverage they want and need and also provide decent bandwidth for downloads! Stay connected! Now this could be indoors or outdoors, the name of the game here is to keep the customer connected as much as possible.

With LTE-U and LAA, Wi-Fi will become an important part of the Het-Net system and will be key to providing bandwidth. So make sure that they do not share backhaul! Otherwise they will have a common bottleneck.

Now the deployment costs are starting to make sense and the price of the small cell is dropping too, well under the original $5K that it started at. Most of them will be under $2,500 each and indoor units will be way cheaper. Femto cells are already dropping under $500 per unit.

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So what has changed that the deployment costs have dropped? Education and planning! Now that all teams are beginning to understand that small cell coverage should be cost-effective, the site acquisition costs have dropped considerable and the installation charges are reasonable. Backhaul, still an issue in the USA, but even that is being resolve. You have more options like DOCSIS, wireless, E band, 60GHz, sub 6GHz, and UE Relays to be used. Suddenly there are alternatives to fiber and copper.

With DOCSIS connections cable companies could really play a big part in backhaul if they want to. Some cable companies, like COX, are already doing testing with some of the OEMs and carriers. This is a great start to helping a mass deployment.

Companies like Crown Castle have also figured it out by offering everything at some of their small cell assets, like power and fiber already at the pole along with an existing box to avoid zoning issues. They really put a lot of thought into it. I think they understand 2 things, speed to market and to have a complete solution. They, along with many other asset providers, are taking this very seriously. They are providing a one stop shop for the small cell deployment. They also understand you can’t go into site acquisition for small cells with the Macro mentality.

So people ask me questions all the time about small cell deployments. They ask where they should start. I tell them to learn what is out there and what they want to deploy. The OEMs train people to properly install their equipment, that is a great place to start. Research what you can about the deployments because it may not be what you expect. For indoor deployments you need ladders and indoor tools and cabling tools. You may need to terminate fiber or CAT5 or CAT6. Make sure you’re teams are qualified to do what is needed. Also, make sure you understand the grounding requirements. Learn what PoE means, (Power over Ethernet). Make sure you know what permissions you need from the landlord and if any permitting is required.It’s a good idea to know the local zoning laws.

If you are deploying indoor systems, make sure the small cell is PoE because if it’s not then you need to run outlets wherever you mount the cell or you need to run extension cords or mount near outlets. Any way you look at it, costs go up without PoE! Also, make sure the router you’re running to has PoE ports available and make sure that they match up to the power required by the small cell. There are high power units and low power units, and the router needs to be able to handle the power rating.  Don’t assume the small cell (or the connecting switch) has PoE or you may look very stupid running extension cords at the last-minute.

If you bid the job, are you just installing or are you also required to help commission and test? This could add another 30 to 60 minutes to each visit. If you have 2 guys installing and you didn’t add in the extra 60 minutes, then you are going to lose 2 man hours on every small cell along with the schedule being impacted because you’re losing an hour at every installation. It adds up! Especially in lost revenue and lost time on the schedule. Read and understand your SOW.

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What about logistics? Where are you getting the hardware? Where will it be shipped? Do you have to pick it up or will it be shipped to your shop? Did you look over the drawings? Is there any RF Design information you need to be aware of? Do you need a device dedicated to test the cell once it is installed? Who did the site survey? Do you have documentation from the survey?

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Make a kit of potential mounting hardware you may need. It is pretty common and keep the kit stocked to the farthest you have to run is your truck or van because there may or may not be a Home Depot or Lowes nearby.

Review the survey and verify the questions that you need to answer. If you have more questions reach out to me, I am here to help. I do consulting for people that feel they need help. Let me know your thoughts. I am also writing some papers and training on the different aspects of deployment.

 Interested? Let me know about it. I will add you to my email list for more information.

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

A Quick Note on First Climbs

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OK, I thought I would share some information about how to handle the first climb. Not everyone goes to Tower Safety training on day one, (Tower Safety is my sponsor). The probably shouldn’t because if they go to tower safety class on day one then that will be their first climb, at the class. That’s OK if that’s your structure. But what if they hate climbing? Do they know that before they climb, not always.

By the way, Dr Hester of the Hubble Foundation is looking for comments on this,  bridgette@hubblefoundation.org.

This has sparked a lot of controversy when the information came out about the Stephanie Gurney, posted here and Wireless Estimator has it here.

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So with the first climb, what can you do to make sure the climber is safe? Do you just send them up the tower and hope for the best? That’s what I did when I went up the first time, and I would never let anyone do that again, it was stupid and I would like to think we have learned.

I would recommend this procedure.

  • Before sending someone up the first time I would recommend that they actually help out with a tower crew on the ground first so they are familiar with the hardware and structure of what is going on. How long is up to you. I think that 2 weeks is the minimum.
  • Then when you send them up the tower the first time I recommend that you take every precaution. I would send up the experienced person first and have them rig a safety line up high. Then make sure the new climber has a rope grab on them at all times. That way if they can’t handle the safety lanyard they will have the rope grab as a backup. I don’t care if it’s cumbersome and a pain to use, it insures they have a backup safety line no matter what. Make sure they know and understand how to use the safety lanyard and the positioning lanyard. Go up with them if possible.
  • Take the first climb very seriously. Make sure that the climber knows you are near.
  • Limit the climb to 50 feet or less until you know they are very comfortable.

Want to learn more Wireless, click now! Ω

OK, excuses:

  • We don’t have time!
    1. Will you have time to bury them?
  • That costs extra money.
    1. What does a funeral cost? What about a lawsuit? What about a life?
  • If they say they are ready, then they are ready.
    1. You won’t know until they do it.
  • I know this person, they have no fear.
    1. It’s not about just fear, it’s about skill!
  • They say they are ready.
    1. Wouldn’t you say that if you needed a job?
  • I don’t’ want to embarrass them in front of the crew.
    1. Do you want them to die in front of the crew?

To sum it up, I would be overly cautious, safety takes time and money. Unfortunately many companies just don’t care. However, many do care and to those owners I say thank you and keep up the good work!

One more note, when I got certified under Winton Wilcox, he had everyone wear a rope grab. It just made sense.  First guy up rigged the safety lines.

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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I sought my soul and my soul eluded me.

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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Fallen Climber Girl’s Mother hires Attorney for Wrongful Death

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Stephanie Gurney fell to her death about 3 months ago from about 200 feet up in Texas, more information found here. Now her mother has hired a lawyer to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit.

You see Stephanie was a first time climber, on a job with her boyfriend. In a report from Deputy Sheriff Abel Quezada said that she was working for Joseph Grimes who her boyfriend Stephen Butler also worked for, was working for Jostan Communications.

According to the article Grimes climbed up first, after the safety meeting on the ground, climbed, then went back to the ground where he was talking on the phone when he heard her hit the ground, very, very sad. Grimes immediately called 911 and then they waited for the ambulance which took her to the hospital, unfortunately she didn’t make it.

According to Grimes the lanyard hook was not connected properly, he could see it on the ground. He was not allowed to touch it because it had to be investigated, according to the sheriff.

So far there is no indication of who will be sued or how the wrongful death investigation is going.

SBA has some comments about how the tower leasing works in the article I link to below. Make sure you take the time to read it.

For more information go to http://sanangelolive.com/news/county/2015-06-22/wrongful-death-lawsuit-planned-family-tower-fall-victim.

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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I found this quote at the end of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

“I sought my God and my God I could not find.

I sought my soul and my soul eluded me.

I sought my brother to serve him in his need, and I found all three. My God, my soul and thee”

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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Small Cell Naming Overview

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I don’t know how many of you know but for the last 2 years I have been pretty focused on small cell deployment, indoors and outdoors, as well as Macro deployment. The HetNet deployments are going to start next year. I see the upgrades on the existing tower as well as deployment of the stand alone sites, mostly small cells but some higher power, 10 to 20 watts, cell sites for “densification” of LTE systems to help offload Macro sites.  So let’s talk about that.

All the small cell names can be confusing. It adds a great deal of confusion to the deployment teams as well as some of the carriers.

I worked on some AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless offers where they were very careful to use the proper names for the proper small cell. They made sure that a Femto Cell was used for home use and that a Metro Cell is used for outdoor areas and the Pico Cell was used for small to midsized businesses.

Of course I dealt with a few other carriers that just called them all small cells or pico cells, no differentiation at all.

I thought I thought it might be a good idea to put this chart together to help you out. Eventually they will all be indoor or outdoor small cells, but until then let’s look at the naming nomenclature. This will also cover some usage applications.

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Small Cell: First off, there is the small cell where the unit has everything, except maybe the router, but the BBU, (broadband unit) and the Radio Head are all in one unit. These are very common now. Generally small cells are under 5 watts. Many times if they are indoors they are 1 watt or less. Similar to Wi-Fi but on a licensed band.

Femto Cell: This is usually the private small cell. It may be something that a person would put in their home or a small business to improve coverage. Small loading and usually just for a few connections. Most of the time it just connects to the internet, like someone’s cable modem.

Pico Cell: This is slightly bigger than the Femto, usually for a mid-sized business, bus station, or a smaller stadium to connect maybe 10 to 100 connections at any given time. Possibly more, depending on the application.

Micro Cell: This is usually a bigger unit that can handle larger stadiums or a train station or airport. This term is not used so much anymore because they just call it a small cell.

Metro Cell: This term was used for larger outdoor metro areas where the loading could be greater than 100 users at any given time. But let’s face it, they are commonly called small cells.

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Indoor small cell: Just like it says, it is a small cell that is mounted inside a building. It could be the small cell or a RRH that is mounted somewhere it is needed. In today’s world it is about coverage and loading. Loading is very important in the LTE systems.

Outdoor Small Cell: It is a small cell mounted outdoors, same reason, to help with coverage and loading.

Distributed radio system: Then there is the RRH, (Remote Radio Head), that’s part of a distributed radio system. The RRH could be at the top of the tower, other parts of a building, or a few miles away mounted on a light pole. The BBU may be located on a different location than the RRH. This is pretty common in today’s world. You know that on the towers they put the BBU on the ground and the dog-tags_clearbackgrondRRH is up on the tower with the antenna. So just imagine now that they put the BBU in a basement and the RRH’s are spread throughout the building. They may also have the BBU in a closet at a building and spread the RRH’s all over town to get the RF where the people are, to distribute the radio heads and antennas. This could be part of a DAS system where they rely on the CPRI, (common public radio interface), to be connected to fiber for the “front haul” which is like the backhaul but to go from the BBU to the RRH, forward! Currently there are several limitations which mostly have to do with timing. They can only travel so far before they would time out. That limits distance at this time. The cloud may change that soon. When they locate many BBUs in a remote location for widely distributed RRHs, they call that a BBU hotel, a term that means that many BBUs for multiple locations are in one spot. I believe that with the cloud this may change because BBUs will be located farther and farther away.

DSCS: Distributed Small Cell System is where you would deploy small cells, (and maybe Wi-Fi) like you would with a DAS system. These would be stand alone all-inclusive small cells with integrated antennas. They would be connected with fiber or CAT5 or some type of wireless backhaul.

So as you can see small cells serve as a solution in many cases and there were many names for them. Today most people just say small cell for everything except the Femto. The Femto is a specific use small cell.

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I did not bring up DAS too much because it is something that could be a separate solution or this could be part of a DAS solution.

I would think that when CRAN takes off and is common then all you will need is a decent backhaul connection to connect anywhere. And there it is, backhaul, one of the major deployment problems with small cell. Sprint is trying to drive down the price of backhaul so they can reasonable deploy CRAN and small cells everywhere. Also because they probably don’t sell backhaul anymore!

Speaking of backhaul, another solution that could be rendered is a UE relay. (UE is User Equipment like your smart phone.) A way to use a carrier’s bandwidth to provide backhaul to a MACRO site. Think of it working like one of those devices that provide Wi-Fi using the carrier for the connection. I think it is a great idea, if you have spare bandwidth. I was hoping the FCC would push through the light licensed 3.5GHz band with more bandwidth; remember the citizen’s broadband radio service? We could use that for backhaul, if there is enough bandwidth, then we could see small cells in that band to be utilized for backhaul for other small cells. That’s my dream to see one system support the many other systems in this ecosystem. Sign me up to build that out, a backbone system of fixed wireless to support the mobile wireless systems. Just a thought about how to affordably extend the last mile without using the precious bands that the carriers paid so much for.

Interested? Let me know about it. I will add you to my email list for more information.

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

More Tower Accident Lawsuits

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OK, so here it is, more lawsuits are popping up. First the one in Nutter Fort, WV where the firefighter’s family is suing and now the deceased tower climbers families have filed suits against SBA and FDH Velocitel and 3 other subsidiaries. The new lawsuit is stating that faulty methods were used to shore up the tower while the guys worked on it, which we all know by now. Very sad that it happened but I will be interested to see what the outcome of this will be. That is if we ever know the truth, these lawsuits tend to be settled very quietly and with gag orders. Let’s see what happens this time and let’s see if we can learn from it. The industry can always learn from mistakes to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

Make sure that when you get assigned a job you review it and ask questions. Make sure you know what the risks are and that you understand the problems before stepping foot on the tower. Your experience should guide you.

http://www.theet.com/news/local/more-lawsuits-filed-in-deadly-harrison-cell-tower-collapse/article_f160c2d2-3208-51be-888b-b32b458db646.html?mode=jqm

http://www.theet.com/news/local/lawsuit-filed-in-firefighter-s-death-at-cell-tower-collapse/article_e50aa496-3764-5201-b48a-78d6378c3733.html

http://www.wboy.com/story/24608973/update-wrongful-death-lawsuits-filed-involving-2014-cell-tower-collapse-in-summit-park

https://insidetowers.com/lawsuit-filed-in-2014-tower-death/

http://wirelessestimator.com/articles/2015/%EF%BB%BFlawsuit-charges-contractor-tower-owner-and-its-engineer-are-liable-in-firefighters-death/

Ω Click here to learn more on Wireless

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

NWSA Needs Tower Techs for Board Seats!

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The NWSA, National Wireless Safety Alliance, is seeking tower technicians, tower climbers, to fill board seats for the Board of Governors. Want to know more? Let me tell you what is going on.

Here is the press release put out by NATE.

The NWSA was formed to create a national standard for training for tower climbers. They will have a national standard for tower technicians, foreman, and other positions in the industry. This is backed by NATE and several companies. The plan is to make sure every climber out there has a standard training certification before doing work. This is going to go beyond the training school to make sure all tower technicians understand the basics that are set national, very similar to Cisco training, Fireman training, and so on.

Ω Click here to learn more on Wireless

So they are looking for people who work in the industry, they are look for tower technicians to take a seat to help set the standards. Do you think you qualify? If so then make sure that you fill out the application, found here. The deadline is June 19th of 2015. Make sure that you apply today! Complete the application and send it to nwsa@nws-a.org as soon as you can!

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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OSHA RFI Response for Contracting, Oversight, and Economics

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Update on the RFI response: Thank you everyone who responded to OSHA tower climber RFI. Less than 500 people in the US that really want to help OSHA recognize the importance of tower safety in the wireless community. Congrats! For the rest of you, don’t worry, I realize I am beating a dead horse with no hope of getting him to move. So I will let it rest for a while. I was just so shocked that so many of you complained about safety but so many of you refuse to let OSHA know what their problems are. I just don’t understand, that’s all. I should have remembered my dad’s old saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”. In this case I can’t help those who won’t help themselves, even if they spend their spare time complaining about this very problem.

Here is my full response in a PDF. Click here to download it and look it over. This is what I sent to the FCC.

To update the RFI with your answers click here to go to Wireless Estimator or click here to go to the FCC site. You can submit anonymously if you want to. Deadline is June 15th, 2015!

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Contracting and Work Oversight

  1. Describe your role in the contract chain and the key safety-related provisions typically included in your contracts. How do contracting parties oversee or enforce those provisions?
    • Currently I help put together large offers that will require contractors to deploy large communication systems. Usually with larger companies a project manager will manage the contractor and follow through the work with them from inception to close out.

What are the consequences if a party fails to fulfill those contractual requirements?

  • If they do not present the certifications and safety plans they do not get the work. If they send uncertified people out to the site and the contractor hears about it they are not paid.
  1. What characteristics of past safety performance does your company use in selecting potential contractors and subcontractors?
  • Review contractor’s safety record as well as the required material.

What safety-related criteria does your company use in this selection process?

  • Ask for certifications up front but that is it. We should be asking for the safety and rescue plan as well.
  1. Are safety-related factors considered in determining whether to remove a contractor/subcontractor from an ongoing project or from future selection processes? If so, what specific factors are considered?
  • Yes, safety record and feedback from the end customer, landlord/tower owner and the PM. The subs employees are usually very honest and their feedback is also taken. If the feedback is very negative, then they are removed.
  1. What are the ways in which the multi-leveled contracting environment (i.e., where entities such as the carrier, tower owner, turfing vendor, subcontractor, and contractors hired by the subcontractor all have some role in the project) impacts employee safety at communication tower work sites?
  • As margins are added, the price that the actual crew doing the work is very low. It takes money to provide training and PPE to employees. It also adds delays to the schedules because the work required passes through many hands before it is released to the company doing the work. Compressed schedules cause the installers to rush increasing the chances of making mistakes.
  1. What practices might companies in the contracting chain adopt to encourage communication and coordination among employers at tower work sites? What obstacles stand in the way of communication and coordination between different parties in the contracting chain?
  • Many contractors are afraid to let the end customer or master contractor talk to the end worker but this should not be the case. There should be NDAs in place that allow the turf vendor or contractor to act as a placement company and open communication showing the certifications from the people on the field to the end customer. The obstacles are fear that the other contractors will steal the sub contractors. The other fear is that there could be confusion with all of the information being shared. There needs to be a way to streamline the information from the end customer to the work crew. Then, streamline the information from the field back to the end customer. It all comes down to program management.

Economic Issues

  1. The Agency seeks information on the number and size of firms that are engaged in communication tower work and on the number of employees employed by those firms.
  • The companies that I deal with are mostly 30 to 50 employee companies.
  1. The Agency seeks information about wage and turnover rates for employees who work on communication towers. The Agency is also interested in information about the experience possessed by workers currently doing communication tower work. Are they usually experienced in this type of work? Are there many new or inexperienced employees working on communication towers?
  • Experience – From what I see the experienced crews are doing the tower building and structural upgrades. The tower crews doing antenna and line installations are usually the less qualified people. These crews are usually less experienced and paid less. There are many inexperienced crews doing cell deployments and there will be again when the work picks up.
  • Payment – for carrier deployments they usually get paid from $15 to $30 an hour. For heavier tower work they generally get paid over $35/hour depending on experience.
  • General – I have personally talked to many tower techs that have worked in the business for less than 2 years, they are just learning the job and the issue is that they often are on a crew with the same experience and that is not the structure that we should have in the field.
  1. What types of equipment are used in tower work and how often is this equipment repaired and/or replaced?
  • Tools, winches, PPE, rope, cranes, vehicles, so much more.
  • It should all be maintained, repaired, and replaced as needed.
  1. The Agency seeks information from all employers in the contracting chain about the extent to which employees directly engaged in tower work are covered by workers’ compensation and/or an employer liability insurance policy.
  • I have worked on all sides. Insurance is handled by HR or finance. I do not have the best insight into this issue.

 Tell me what you think!

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End to End Safety: The Site Safety Audit

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Why is safety so important? If you need to ask it’s because we need to all that we can to make sure that the workers come home alive. Elevated work is very dangerous, look at this article in Paintsquare and listen to what FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said. Worker safety is job #1. Complacency is a killer, as is the killer schedules. The FCC knows it, OSHA knows it, and you should know it. But what’s easy to do is easy not to do, and safety can be easy to do, but just as easy not to do. I am going to give you an idea of what can help in mass deployments.

Special thanks to Tower Safety for their sponsorship! Tower Safety, where the best get better.

First, let me talk about how the end customer can make a difference in safety. I have it figured out. A way we can track the poor contractors, the dangerous workers, and poorly equipped climbers. This is something that the end customer, let’s use the carriers as an example. I am talking specifically about AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, and even FirstNet. Any end customer that will listen. Here is a way you can play an active role is saving live, eliminating bad contractors, and securing a good work force. It is to do safety audits on all regions you are deploying. I don’t mean all sites, pick a percentage randomly, but make sure you send someone out to do the audit while the contractor is still on site. This is not a close out package! This is an audit of the workers and what they are doing. You learn a lot when you show up unannounced.

It will cost money, I won’t kid you. You will need to make sure you build a budget for this, outside of deployment, and you must not have your GC or OEM or master integrator do it because they might cheat. You must do it as a separate project that runs simultaneously with the deployment. This is how the end customer/carrier can play an active part in deployment safety. Not just for the tower crew but for all of the workers in general.

While I think this is a great idea because 1) it will keep all of the contractors honest, 2) remove the incompetent crews, 3) keep all the crews on their toes for safety. Plain and simple, it’s a plan that will help you maintain the integrity of your deployment for safety and competence. An added bonus is it will show that you are serious about tower worker safety, right? If anything, this should alleviate you of accident liability because you are doing all that you can. This is a form of quality control!

Why wouldn’t you do it? To remain hands off so you can point the finger and stay at arm’s length to controlling safety. You probably won’t want to spend the money, which you will point to the shareholders and say they won’t let you do it. Meanwhile, what did you pay for safety people for support and what did you pay CTIA, PCIA, and NATE to resolve this issue? While they appreciate the support you can have more control here. This will look great in the eyes of OSHA and the FCC!

So what would the plan be? Here it is in a nutshell. Your next deployment will be planned out and you will hire the crews, the contractors to manage and run it and the OEM to supply the equipment. That will give you the schedule and the contractor’s names. So simultaneously have your safety people working on their project, independently, to create another separate RFP to do 10 to 25% random safety audits at the sites while the crews are on-site. This will have to be done independently of the tower work and GC because if you use them then they will warn the tower crews that an inspection will take place. Do not hire any of the deployment companies! That defeats the purpose.

Plan to put out a separate RFP to other vendors, ones that are not involved in your deployment or maybe safety teams. They can be safety vendors. Make the scope all about inspections of the tower workers while they are on the tower site working. Make the inspections random. Make it one guy that visits the sites to keep costs down. Plan on a percentage of sites, say 10% to 25% of the sites in that region. I will write the SOW if you need me too.

So when the guy goes to the site here is the high level scope.

  • Give the safety contractor a region.
  • Give the safety contractor a schedule of deployment, your PM should know what is going on. Make sure the safety contractor knows which sites the climbers will be working at.
  • Have the contractor go near the site to watch and record what it happening.
  • From afar, take video and picture for 30 minutes of the site, if possible. Log the workers actions from a safety standpoint.
  • Then have the contractor go on site, identify his purpose and show ID. Make sure to talk to the foreman or lead crew member. Ask for his and all crew members credentials and ID, record all names. Ask for all certifications but chances are good they will not have them along, so ask if they can email them to the safety contractor. Get all names, ask for each person’s ID if possible. Take notes while on site to log all activity, record all notes about work and safety. Wear all necessary PPE, like a hard hat.
  • This person visiting the site should not climb! Not his job, one person can do this. They need to take pictures and videos. If possible, use a drone to get the tower pictures and videos of the climbers in action with the foreman’s permission. Do not climb! Take plenty of notes, complete a form to log all safety information.
  • The person on site should compile the report and send to the office for completion, close out, and billing.
  • The office can compile the pictures and put in a deliverable format for the customer, end customer, and make a rating of the crew based on safety with the evidence of video and pictures and ID information. Include all names, ID information, and copies of certifications.

So there it is, if you are interested in learning more, I am writing a white paper on this subject. Let me know if you want a copy, I can send it to you if you leave me a message below. I think that we need to do something. This will serve many purposes. If you sincerely want to see the qualified contractors do the work, this is a good plan. I am sure you will tell me all the problems with this plan so feel free to comment!

Related blog posts: Large Scale Wireless Deployments, Are you in over your head?

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention to what you are doing. You need to arrive alive at the end of the day or week. You have family and friends and crewmates that want you around!

Here is my full response in a PDF. Go ahead and download it to look it over. This is what I sent to the FCC.

Tell me what you think!

Listen to  iTunes or Stitcher for more commentary! Podcast Download
https://youtu.be/pRY84DgXvsw

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To become a certified project manager you need to take your Project Management Professional Certification test. Then will be a certified PMP, Project Management Professional. If you are studying or preparing for it then my partner can help. Click Here!

When working in project management it really helps to have some templates to get started. I have a partner that has the toolkit you need! If you need some tools then I think this will help. Get some templates and tools that would help you improve your PM work. Click Here!

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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Worker injured on Baraboo Water Tank

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In Baraboo, Wisconsin, a water tank worker was injured while dog-tags_clearbackgrondworkers were cleaning and painting the water tank. I don’t have a name yet but he was rushed to the hospital immediately after the accident. So far he is alive. He appears to have been one of the painters but no confirmation at this point. New links below. OSHA will investigate this incident!

Word is that he fell about 70 feet from the stem of the water tank, the assumption is that he was inside when he fell but I am waiting on more facts to back that up.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/maintenance-worker-falls-into-water-tower-seriously-injured/33366426

http://www.startribune.com/worker-seriously-hurt-in-fall-at-baraboo-water-tower/305942911/

http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/One-person-hurt-in-accident-at-Baraboo-water-tower-305924281.html

http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/Worker-seriously-hurt-in-fall-at-Baraboo-water-tower-305945861.html

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/worker-hurt-in-fall-from-water-tower-in-baraboo-b99512558z1-305963911.html

http://whbl.com/news/articles/2015/jun/03/maintenance-worker-hurt-after-falling-into-baraboo-water-tower/

Feedback and information appreciated!

Listen to iTunes or Stitcher for more commentary! Podcast Download

 

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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Click me! Tower Safety – Where the best get better!
Hubble Logo
Support the Hubble Foundation! Click me for more information!

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SOW Training Offer
Click me for more on SOW Training!
Tower Worker Logbook Offer
Click here for more information about the tower worker logbook!
Wireless Field Worker's Offer
Click here for more information on the tower worker’s field aid!

⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓

Interested in gaining your CCNA? I have an affiliate with a great study guide! Learn more, Click Here!

To become a certified project manager you need to take your Project Management Professional Certification test. Then will be a certified PMP, Project Management Professional. If you are studying or preparing for it then my partner can help. Click Here!

When working in project management it really helps to have some templates to get started. I have a partner that has the toolkit you need! If you need some tools then I think this will help. Get some templates and tools that would help you improve your PM work. Click Here!

Click on the pictures below for Amazon deals!

Drones from Amazon, DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ V3.0 Quadcopter with FPV HD Video Camera and 3-Axis Gimbal (White)

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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Less Than 5% of Wireless Workers Contributed to the OSHA RFI!

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That’s right, less than 5% of the wireless industry contributed to OSHA’s Tower Safety RFI! I am talking actual contributors.

I originally was counting all the comments when I reported the earlier numbers. Someone pointed out that I was counting dog-tags_clearbackgrondcomments, not individual submissions or individual contributors.

You see before I was counting all the comments. A comment is what is just the response, not the contributor. On the FCC website, actually at http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketBrowser;rpp=25;po=0;dct=PS;D=OSHA-2014-0018;refD=OSHA-2014-0018-0001 where you can see and count each comment. This would be one answer or an answer for all 28 questions, just one submission. So I went through and looked at the names individually. Don’t worry if you submitted anonymously. I didn’t actually see your name, just that someone submitted.

To update the RFI click here to go to Wireless Estimator or click here to go to the FCC site. You can submit anonymously if you want to. Deadline is June 15th, 2015!

So, on there were actually 32 submissions, of that 26 of them were accepted and actual submissions, 1 was a proposed rule and 5 were supporting material. I counted each anonymous as a separate entry because they could be unique. So out of the 26 there are 22 unique entries, so 22 people submitted comments on the FCC page.

Now, on the Wireless Estimator page, found here, http://wirelessestimator.com/osha-rfi-2015/#!/. This took a little longer to build a list of unique names. It took me awhile but I came up with around 195 unique submissions, really a best estimate based on cut and paste and excel and asking around.

Learn more on Wireless Ω

So let’s add this up, 195 (Wireless Estimator) + 22 (FCC) =  217 people who submitted responses. That is probably high because some people, like me, submitted on both sites. So that would lower.

217 people in the industry were willing to help OSHA understand the danger associated with tower climbing. In the tower industry there are over 10,000 people, allegedly, working at tower sites, training, running crews, etc. So let me do a quick calculation, 195 of 10,000 would be 2.17%. So either the number for the workers is way too high or only 2.17% of the people want OSHA to understand what is going on in the industry.

If you want to make a difference, then go to Wireless Estimator or to the Regulations.gov websites and give your 2 cents. Let them know what is really going on. Read what others in the industry want to change.

Or do nothing, it appears that over 90% of the industry would rather just get up and go to work, keep the blinders on.

Ask yourself, are we better off now, or before OSHA existed? Nobody seems to care until someone gets hurt.

God only helps those that help themselves. Here is a chance to help the industry, or do nothing and see what happens.

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention.

Here is my full response in a PDF. Go ahead and download it to look it over. This is what I sent to the FCC.

 Tell me what you think!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRY84DgXvsw

Listen to  iTunes or Stitcher for more commentary! Podcast Download

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Tower Safety Logo
Click me! Tower Safety – Where the best get better!
Hubble Logo
Support the Hubble Foundation! Click me for more information!

⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓

SOW Training Offer
Click me for more on SOW Training!
Tower Worker Logbook Offer
Click here for more information about the tower worker logbook!
Wireless Field Worker's Offer
Click here for more information on the tower worker’s field aid!

⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓

  Interested in gaining your CCNA? I have an affiliate with a great study guide! Learn more, Click Here!

To become a certified project manager you need to take your Project Management Professional Certification test. Then will be a certified PMP, Project Management Professional. If you are studying or preparing for it then my partner can help. Click Here!

When working in project management it really helps to have some templates to get started. I have a partner that has the toolkit you need! If you need some tools then I think this will help. Get some templates and tools that would help you improve your PM work. Click Here!

Click on the pictures below for Amazon deals!

Drones from Amazon, DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ V3.0 Quadcopter with FPV HD Video Camera and 3-Axis Gimbal (White)

GoPro HERO

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