Smoking clothing attracts $10,000 fine

How would you feel if you were climbing a radio tower to perform a repair when suddenly the clothing you are wearing started to smoke? That's what happened to one tower climber when he noticed that his pants were actually smoking.

No, its not a laughing matter. In fact, that smoke will cost a
broadcaster several thousand dollars in fines. Amateur Radio Newslines's Evi Simons is here with the rest of the story:

Three brand new Notices of Apparent Liability have been issued by the FCC. They went to the Cumulus Communications, Infinity Broadcasting and the Entravision broadcast group. All involve apparent violations of basic human exposure to RF radiation rules. The Cumulus case may be the most signifigant.

According to the FCC, on June 5, 2003, a tower maintenance climber and a Cumulus engineer agreed to turn off the KEKB, KBKL and KMXY FM station transmitters so that tower repairs could be made. Once the transmitters were powered down the rigger proceeded up the tower. Along the way he turned off his personal RF monitor and also removed the hood from his protective suit. The understanding was that the Cumulus engineer would keep the transmitters off the air until the rigger finished his work.

About forty minutes later the climber felt a burning sensation on his lower legs. Another three of four minutes went by and he said that he saw smoke coming from the bottom of his protective suit. He attempted to contact the Cumulus engineer but was unsuccessful so he descended down the tower to what he thought was a safe place.

According to the Cumulus engineer, he did indeed turn off all the transmitters but indicates someone must have turned two of them back on. He says that when he heard the tower climber yelling about the radiation level, that he immediately ran back to the transmitter building and discovered that the KBKL and KMXY transmitters were back
in operation. The engineer indicated that the main breaker for the transmitters was back on and he quickly turned it off.

But more important, the Cumulus engineer acknowledged that due to the sense of urgency on the part of the tower crew, that he failed to explicitly follow the established procedures. Nor did he notify all of those who had access to the transmitters feeding antennas on the KEKB tower of the repairs that were taking place.

And now the FCC says that the powering on of one or more of the transmitters without warning to the tower climber while he was in the proximity of the antennas was a major mistake. And because of this Cumulus has been hit with a hefty $10,000 fine. The company was given the customary time to pay or to file an appeal.

Evi Simons, Amateur Radio Newsline, in New York.

By the way, the Cumulus case is unique in that it is the first-ever forfeiture notice issued for tower climber exposure. More is on line at www.fcc.gov/eb/fieldnotices/

(CGC Communicator)

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