As a person that hires tower service companies, I seriously would not recommend it as an entry level employee... The pay is horrible, the benefits suck, you'll be travelling 75%+ of the time. The bar to entry is very low if you're physically fit. If you don't have any DUIs and can pass a drug screen you are already ahead of many candidates. Most of the recruiting takes placein social media these days, for instance there's probably 20 or so tower climber related groups on Facebook.
One of the reasons for the extensive use of social media is that to put it as politely as possible, the talent pool they're recruiting from are not highly educated, often don't own laptops or any device other than their phone. Many cannot put together a grammatically correct cover letter or CV. There is a very high turn over rate in people with less than 2 years experience. You will be working with (and sharing the cheapest possible motel rooms with) some very crude and uneducated individuals, with whom you might have nothing in common. All that for a rate of pay about the same as Dicks Burgers pays in Seattle to literally flip a burger, and Dicks has much better benefits.
The majority of the work will be mundane cellular tower and monopole stuff, unless you are hired by one of the more rare and specialized broadcast industry tower companies. The tower erection specialists are also a whole different ball game from the cellular industry contractors and subs.
The industry in general is a frustrating race to the bottom in subcontractors, turf vendors, subs of subs, unpaid invoices, and similar. It's very much like getting into any other hard labor construction job like roofing.
For the person in the thread here that said drones can only fly to 400 ft, not quite, the faa has specifically addressed this.
The relevant rules under Part 107 are summarized within Section 107.51. This section is entitled “Operating limitations for small unmanned aircraft” and contains a set of limits associated with speed, altitude, and visibility. Pertaining to altitude, item B of the Section states that:
“The altitude of the small unmanned aircraft cannot be higher than 400 feet above ground level unless the small unmanned aircraft is (1) flown within a 400-foot radius of a structure, and (2) does not fly higher than 400 feet above the structure’s immediate uppermost limit.”
Just as a note, the majority of the climbing industry is probably as you say (I'm not an expert in it by any means!), but the guys featured in this post are both pros at ERI who work on some of the more interesting projects. Still, to me one of the bigger downsides is the travel...
Being on the road 50+% of the time (usually more) takes a toll!
With drones being so accessible, a lot of the smaller climbing projects are no longer necessary, when it's just inspecting the top of a small tower with simple antennas.
Decades ago, I would show up for work on Monday morning with my suitcase in the trunk of my car cause I knew that as soon as I walked in the door I would be told I'd be flying out somewhere that morning.
I'll never forget the day I was driving down the road--less than half a mile from my apartment--and making a left turn when, for a couple of seconds, I couldn't remember what town I was in.
Really big broadcast towers are a specialized niche... Your average tower crew is working at 200' and less. Many will never see the absolutely huge gin poles used to send up gigantic VHF (fm and tv) band antennas. If I had to guess, crews and people who work on the 1000' class guyed towers are maybe 2-3% of the industry. Everyone else is cranking out new sectors with RRH on monopoles for cellular carriers.
Interesting to hear. There is a post doing the rounds on Insta where it shows a tower like the one in the video and says something like "You change a bulb on the top of this tower every 6 months and get $20k for doing it."
No it definitely is not. You absolutely could pay $20k as a client for two full business days of work on top of a 1000' broadcast tower by a crew of four guys, repairing/modifying/replacing things, but not for just changing the bulb. If the obstruction lighting needed more labor intensive repairs or replacement you could easily spend more than $20k for a more complicated project. That video and social media post are a well known trope in the industry.
Sort of surprised to hear that there are enough people willing to climb and work on towers that the pay and benefits are so bad. I would have guessed it paid very well, and was likely unionized. You could not pay me enough to do it.
The part 107 exam has a question about radio towers and the answer is 400 feet above with in 400 ft of the tower. Or up to the point you hit controlled airspace.
One of the reasons for the extensive use of social media is that to put it as politely as possible, the talent pool they're recruiting from are not highly educated, often don't own laptops or any device other than their phone. Many cannot put together a grammatically correct cover letter or CV. There is a very high turn over rate in people with less than 2 years experience. You will be working with (and sharing the cheapest possible motel rooms with) some very crude and uneducated individuals, with whom you might have nothing in common. All that for a rate of pay about the same as Dicks Burgers pays in Seattle to literally flip a burger, and Dicks has much better benefits.
The majority of the work will be mundane cellular tower and monopole stuff, unless you are hired by one of the more rare and specialized broadcast industry tower companies. The tower erection specialists are also a whole different ball game from the cellular industry contractors and subs.
The industry in general is a frustrating race to the bottom in subcontractors, turf vendors, subs of subs, unpaid invoices, and similar. It's very much like getting into any other hard labor construction job like roofing.
For the person in the thread here that said drones can only fly to 400 ft, not quite, the faa has specifically addressed this.
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https://pilotinstitute.com/drone-altitute/
The relevant rules under Part 107 are summarized within Section 107.51. This section is entitled “Operating limitations for small unmanned aircraft” and contains a set of limits associated with speed, altitude, and visibility. Pertaining to altitude, item B of the Section states that:
“The altitude of the small unmanned aircraft cannot be higher than 400 feet above ground level unless the small unmanned aircraft is (1) flown within a 400-foot radius of a structure, and (2) does not fly higher than 400 feet above the structure’s immediate uppermost limit.”