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Comment on ‘What do you mean, the tower is gone?’: thieves steal 200ft structure from Alabama radio station | Alabama

Lucky they didn’t kill themselves. AM works by sending a FUCKton of RF energy into the tower structure. If you’re touching the tower and ground you’re going to conduct it instead and poof.

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circuscritic@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Typically towers are simple structures to elevate the actual antennas high up in the air. The towers aren’t live wires, they’re ladders with rungs for mounting.

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- deranger@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Not AM. They’ve got an insulator at the base, the entire tower is live.
  
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  - bobs_monkey@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    There was another video where a guy clamped a wrench to ground with a jumper cable and held it (wearing insulated gloves) within arcing distance of the tower. The power transfer of the arc was enough that you could audibly hear one of the transmission frequencies just in the arc along. Those AM towers are no joke.
    
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  - abhibeckert@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Surely there’s an easy to find switch to cut the power and make it safe.
    
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