Tune In with MPSCS: Hanging with Steeplejacks

In this episode we chat with Nate Salziger. He's a steeplejack and Tower Tech from Michigan's Public Safety Communications System who covers the west side of Michigan. Steeplejacks scale the MPSCS towers up to 485’ tall to do installation and maintenance work on the towers, such as repairing or installing lights or other components such as antennas, microwave dishes or cabling mounted on towers. Transcript is available here: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mpscs/Tune_In_Hanging_with_Steeplejacks_with_Nate_Salziger_Transcript_717789_7.pdf

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Welcome to our podcast. Tune in with MPSCS. I am Judy Light, your host of the show. I work in the Field Resource Center, or the FRC, here at Michigan Public Safety Communications System, or MPSCS. And what we do at FRC is we take in work requests and we send them out to the field for repairs on state police vehicles, DNR vehicles, etc. Anything from the hood of the car to the tail end of the car. We assist with the inventory in our inventory system. We have a fun and interesting show for you today. If you've ever wanted to talk to a steeplejack, we have one here today. With me is Nate Salziger the second, a steeplejack for MPSCS who works in the Grand Region, located over on the west side of the state. Welcome to the show, Nate.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Good morning. How are you, Jim?

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Hi, good to see you. Um, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at the MPSCS?

SPEAKER_03 1:09

My name is Nate Salziger. Like she said, um, I live in Grand Haven. I'm married with two kids. I do this job for them. That's why I do what I do. For MPSCS, I go to the tower sites and maintain the tower sites themselves and the towers and everything that goes around it from the grounds to trees and everything.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

What does a steeplejack do exactly other than the general stuff? What do you get up on the tower for?

SPEAKER_03 1:43

So when we get up on the tower, typically we're either putting equipment up there that we need to get better signal for surrounding areas or a directional signal. Um, microwave dishes, we either add something to the tower or we're taking something off, or we're inspecting work done that people other than ourselves, like contractors, Motorola, SBA, we inspect what they do as well on our tower sites.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Okay. Um, what's the largest piece of equipment you haul up a tower?

SPEAKER_03 2:16

Uh, we do have 12-foot microwave dishes. Uh, the most awkward ones that I've run into myself are the Bagner uh antennas. They're six inches around and 25 to 30 feet tall. It's a very awkward piece of equipment to lug up there and just put in position. Uh the rope does the work getting it up there. Obviously, we carry the rope up, but once it's up there, we bring the equipment up or product material we need. Getting it where it needs to go is the hard part. That's the precise work. Yes. It's a lot of precision. Yes, and concentration.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

What's the largest tower that we have that you climb?

SPEAKER_03 2:55

Uh 475 is typical. Um, that's our most common height for any of the towers being guy wires or self-supporters. Um, so anywhere from 300 to 500.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

What is a normal day like? Uh what events or maintenance do you need to climb up there for if something goes wrong?

SPEAKER_03 3:16

What goes wrong up there that you're um so typically if FRC or NCC calls us and says that they're having issues or alarm issues or signal issues, we would typically tie uh figure out troubleshoot from the ground first, what's going on, whether it can be fixed from the ground or not. And then once we assess the damage up on the tower, we do a visual with binoculars. And then we, if we you know, deem the problem is up on the tower, then we climb. You we get together at the bottom, we get a plan, and then we climb with the material we need so that we're not going up and down, because that's very strenuous, and um try to get the job done safe as possible.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Okay. Um, so it's preferable to to have everything taken care of on the ground prior to the climb, yes.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

Okay, because you don't you don't want to have any redundancy, you don't want to have a guy hanging up there all day because somebody forgot something. So that's why we get together, we get a game plan, and then we you know, from there, we you know, pretty much listen to the boss man. He tells us who's going up, who's staying on the ground, and what you're doing, whether you're on the ground or on the tower.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Okay. Well, what what is the coverage area that that your area does, the grand region? So how large of an area?

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Um, so t so the just the towers that I cover or the shop?

SPEAKER_02 4:46

The shop.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

The shop covers all the way from Lake City, um, so 55 M55 to 131, a little bit east of that, but not too much, but all the way to the west, uh all the way to the coast, and then all the way down to Indiana. Huge area. It is a huge area, um, but we don't have problems happen every day, you know, to where we're running to every tower site every day.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Does that area have any challenges there that the rest of the state doesn't have?

SPEAKER_03 5:21

I think honestly, the most challenging area would probably have to be the UP. Do the to it's inclement weather, you know, always windy. When they get snow, they get heavy snow. When they get ice, they get heavy ice. Um where we're at high winds, lightning strikes, because all the storms we get. So we get a lot of lightning strikes and stuff like that. But that and that's also another issue that we go take care of if that does happen.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

When you are up there, are you just thinking about work or do you let your mind wander a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 5:54

I mean, it's beautiful up there. Um, that's one of my favorite parts of the job, honestly, is being on that tower up there. Uh, just a quick story. I actually was on a tower in August. It was probably 100 degrees on the ground, it felt like, anyways. Uh, but once you get above the treetops, it's you got a nice cool breeze. And I actually heard a hawk cry and I looked down and he's 10 feet below me, just hovering. Oh, and it was so close to me, I could see the feathers on his back moving. And that to me, that's Discovery Channel in my face. Nice, and it was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Nobody else gets that.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

That's your tower guy, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Okay, Nate, how does a climb work from the base of the tower when you're setting up? What do you have to do and how do you get up there?

SPEAKER_03 6:39

And okay, um, so like I said before, um, we get a game plan going. Um, typically what we do is we get uh everything we need for the job out and accounted for, uh, and then we get our gear out. Uh safety's number one with MPSCS, and I think any tower crew uh going up on any structure. Uh safety has to be number one, otherwise your guys don't go home. So uh we set up, we inventory the tools we're gonna need for the job, the material we're gonna need for the job, and then prior to going up, everybody checks each other's shape safety gear uh just to make sure that everybody is in accordance and safe, have the right gear for the job. And then uh when we get climbing, then we hook up to the tower and we literally defy gravity and climb up that thing.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Okay. Well, how long are you up there at a time? Do you get how does this work? Do you take breaks? Do you do it when the come down when the job is done?

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Once you're on that tower, that's why we get a game plan. Once you're on the tower, you're pretty much on there till the job is done, unless weather permits otherwise. You know, if uh lightning strikes or huge storm rolling in, high winds coming in where we can't safely do the job, then we would come down. Um, but typically you're up there till the job is done. So I mean, we've been up there eight hours before, we've been up there two hours, you know, or an hour for an inspection or something. Yep, depends on the job and the severity of it.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Okay. Um, when and why did you enter this particular field? When did you start?

SPEAKER_03 8:09

Uh the rush. Uh I started with MPSCS uh July 1st, 2019. Um I really like the job. I love the people I work with. Um, I love the benefits. It's hard to find a company nowadays that cares as much about your family as you do. And uh so what I found with this company is they're very family oriented, and I love that. And it's hard to find that in a company. So when I started this job, you know, I knew I would be climbing, and uh, you know, I haven't climbed in a long time, but it was I thought my life process would be a little different now that I'm older, and uh it's gotta be in your blood because once I was on that tower and up in the air, it second nature awesome, excellent. I love it, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

What was the first tower that you climbed back years ago? What and why what were you thinking?

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Um, really, it was uh it was uh ironwork, and I had to do a horizontal. So I climbed up, and uh typically an elevator takes us up, and then uh there's a cable, you clip off to the cable and you walk 40 feet across horizontally. And uh I was 20, 22, 21, somewhere in there, and it was very scary. Um, but uh I knew right then I I loved doing that. I've always done outdoor jobs, very adventurous jobs. I was a roofer for 11 years, and um never in the same place more than once for like roofing, you're always on a different job, and uh it just I like being outdoors, and you know, outdoors 500 feet in the air, that's fun.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

That's nuts, but I'm glad I'm glad you have a good time.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Someone's gotta do it.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

What challenges or hurdles do you encounter in your line of business? What do you run into?

SPEAKER_03 10:10

Um typically inventory stuff. So, like when when it comes to tower stuff, we pretty much got that down. Uh, we you know, our boss, Mr. Rodney Anway, he he usually has everything we need for the tower, whether it be antennas, dishes, stuff like that. It goes into a well-thought out plan. If accidents happen, we usually have backups for those. But uh challenges in the shelter, uh, like if a generator blows a radiator, we have to go in there and fix that radiator. Well, these things are 20 years old, some of them. So it's hard to find a radiator that's 20 years old that hasn't been cycled out. Um, so stuff like that, how we have to outsource and we we pretty much have to research where we could get these parts. So that's one of my biggest hurdles with this job myself is uh searching searching up equipment for existing equipment.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Okay, I can see that. Um, now you mentioned the shelter. Most people think steeplejacks when they think the tower itself, but there's most of the work is on the ground, right?

SPEAKER_03 11:15

Yeah, because if you don't have a stable ground, you're not gonna have a stable tower. So we have to keep everything away from the tower a certain range, especially with guy wires and stuff. You can't have trees fall on a guy wire because that would totally degrade the integrity of that tower at that section and possibly all the way the rest of the way up to the top. Um, so we cut the trees down around the surrounding area. We keep the grass mode so we don't have to walk through six feet of grass um and get ticks all over us. Um, so we maintained the shelter, we maintained the cages around the shelter and the area around the shelter and around the guy wires and uh and pretty much the whole property.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

And everything inside.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

And everything inside of it.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Which entails what?

SPEAKER_03 12:01

What kind of um HVAC? Uh the the room has to stay at a certain temperature for the for all the computer equipment to run at an efficient rate. And uh, if it gets too hot, it overheats. If it gets too cold in there, obviously it can't perform as well either. So we take care of the heaters and the HVAC, which is pretty much the same unit. Um, we take care of the generator just in case of the loss of power. The generator kicks on. So the generators have to be able to kick on and run the right way, right? Um, and we maintain those to make sure that that happens.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

So there's alarms that would go off, those come into the NCC, they get the alarm and they kick it out to the steeplejacks in the field to go take care of it.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

Yep, or the or the communications guys, it depends on what's wrong. The NCC and FRC, they get alarms for everything. So if it is steeplejack based, we we go and take care of it. And um, sometimes the communication guys are on call and and they'll deem whose whose job it is. Um, if it's something that they're not familiar with, they will call steeplejack as well. But for the IP addresses and a lot some of the alarming systems and the new stuff, like the TCU 800s, the communication guys typically take care of that.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

They can do that.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

All right. Um, what's the one thing you wish you had known when you began your career career as a steeplejack?

SPEAKER_03 13:23

I wish I would have known about it sooner.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

Um, I I just recently moved back to Michigan three years ago, and uh my wife does ultrasound. Um, and I've a I'm a big hunter and fisher. I love being outdoors. If I'm not with my family or at work, I'm outdoors in the woods or on my boat. Um, I love Michigan, born and raised in Michigan. If I would have known about this job 20 years ago, I would have jumped all over.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

You would have been climbing for us 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

That's what we like to hear. And we're going to take a little break and we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Open calendar. What's my schedule looking like? Next Thursday, you will be caught in an emergency flash flood between Park and First Street. No, that doesn't work. I'm busy then. Declining. Declining.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

You can. It starts with talking to your loved ones about making an emergency plan. So don't wait. Communicate. Visit Michigan.gov slash mi ready. Brought to you by the Michigan State Police, FEMA, and the Ed Council.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

This is Judy. I'm talking with Nate, who's a steeplejack with MPSCS. And so we see that there's a big demand for steeplejacks with the 5G coming onto the system. What advice would you give somebody interested in climbing towers?

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Well, um, to the first question, 5G coming onto the system. Uh, we really don't deal with the 5G side of things unless an outside entity is coming onto our tower site. Um, in that case, we watch what they're doing, monitor what they're doing, whether they're being safe. One of the state workers has to be on site when an outside entity is on our tower. Uh, and then prior to completion, we check the work and make sure it's to the state standards.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Um, giving someone an information on uh what they would want to do here, um, really, I mean, you have to know your stuff, you have to be able to take in a lot of information. Uh, like I said, climbing the tower. There is a fear factor for newbies when they're climbing the tower and they get some you know, ground under them, real fire under them. Um, it's just getting the nerve to get over that, and then they have to know all the stuff on the inside too. So, um, right now I'm I'm a sponge. Everything my boss and my trainer says, I am writing down notes, I am you know watching hands-on what he does, why he does it, and I ask questions too. So just ask a lot of questions, be safe. Safety is number one, and and watch what your trainer is doing.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Okay, does it help if you've got some sort of a background in electrical or mechanical, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

Um, if they if you do have an electrical background, obviously you're gonna be a step ahead of some of the other guys. Um, a lot of the guys when they climb, you know, just getting into the field. Uh, I talked to a lot of communications guys at a Nate convention recently. And when they first got into it, they had no idea what they were even doing. They thought what everyone else thinks, I'm going to climb a tower. Oh dear. Well, there's tons of stuff that goes with that. Obviously, safety number one. Uh, you have to know what you're doing when you get up there, how to hook these brake uh brackets up, these braces up, what to do with the rope to get it up there safely to draw up your equipment. There's a ton of stuff you have to learn. And uh, you're never gonna get a start if nobody gives you a chance. But there are training courses as well where they teach you safety and stuff like that, and that's usually company-based.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Good. Okay. Um, does it take a certain type of personality or background?

SPEAKER_03 17:32

Yeah, I mean, you gotta be outgoing. Uh, obviously, you can't be afraid of heights. I mean, this is not the job you want to start and try to get over your fear of heights because they pretty much threw you on the tower the first day. Uh, so they they put you up there and they just want to see how you act under pressure and see what you do. If you know your stuff, you're gonna get up there and do it.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

They don't baby step you up 50 feet this day and 100 tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Nope, they want to see what you're comfortable with and how you do. They definitely want to see if you're safe, use safe practices, and uh use all your gear.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Right. So um, this question is just for me. And it probably never happened with the state, but it how dramatic is it when something gets dropped off of a tower?

SPEAKER_03 18:21

Uh well, that all depends. I mean, obviously, if lives are lost, that's that's horrible and tragic. Um, but I mean, it's hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of material on some of these antennas, especially with the like you were saying earlier, with the 5G and all that. When they raise one brace, I mean there might be four antennas on that thing. Who knows how much that's worth? So that's a lot of downtime for the company who's putting it up, a ton of downtime for the manufacturers of this because now they have to send more antennas, and whoever bid the job is gonna eat the cost of that. Um, and God forbid anybody get hurt. Yeah, um, so obviously, if something falls off that tower, we just try to mind our P's and Q's. If something falls off the tower, I mean that's that's a bad day at work. Yes, it is. I it's never happened when I was on the job. Um, years ago it did in my 20s. You know, we had a guy fall once, and that was horrible. Um and stuff nuts and bolts, but still, I mean, that could severely injure somebody. So we just try to man that.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Right, right. Can you tell us about the enhanced training uh your group goes through, including the safety training and rescue operations?

SPEAKER_03 19:38

So every year we get together with uh the Lansing Fire Department. This year we did that with the Lansing Fire Department. I don't know who they've gone to in years prior, but they're they're trained in safety rescue training and um safety as well, just safety. Like uh practices that you use every day. Don't be complacent. You know, make sure you're checking your gear. When you take your pouch out, make sure you're looking at all your stuff, make sure there's no howls in your pouch so you drop a wrench 300 feet. Um, make sure all your your harness straps are not frayed. Uh, with the rescue part, they just teach us, they put us in different scenarios. And we go up the tower, and you're either the victim being saved, or the person saving them, which we call the hero. Um, and we we get put in those situations. So you might be in the middle of a cross bracket and you might be on the leg of a tower. It the rescue for each one is totally different. And when you're out in the field, something completely different could happen. Somebody could be bleeding out, someone could have a broken leg, and then you have the adrenaline. So you're the way you make decisions under pressure like that might be a little different, but they try to get us acclimated to know exactly what to do in this situation, stay calm, be safe. Um, obviously, if someone needs to be rescued, I'm not gonna climb the tower in an unsafely manner, you know, just to get up there fast. I still have to be safe myself. You know, when you're in a plane, you hook the mask up to yourself, then you help others. It may be instinct to get your kids first and stuff like that, and I probably would do that too. But if you do, something could happen. We're bolty pairs, so they just try to teach us very safe practices, put us in different scenarios so we don't run into any complications.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

So it's possible that somebody gets injured on a tower, and you have to get them off the tower first, obviously, so they can go down to the ground or they can go up off of a helicopter.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

Um, I've never done helicopter rescue. Um, I'm sure it's been done, especially on the giant uh um cell phone towers and stuff like that that are 1800 feet, 1900 feet, 2,000 feet out in the Midwest. Um Typically, I would re if I'm rescuing someone, I would assess the situation. If they're conscious, uh, can they help me once I get up there? Or if they're just dangling. If they're just uh you're doing it all by yourself, so you would actually take your rigging rope with you when you climb up to them. You get it, you get something situated to where both of you, so you can hook him to you if he's unconscious, and get you both down safely. So typically that's what we would do. Wow. Okay, and also if if we are on a tower and it's not feasible to get up there fast enough and someone is hurt very badly, um, the MSP, they do offer aviation support too, where they could fly in and do a helicopter lift off of the tower to bring a man down to safety.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Um, what's the one common myth about your profession or that field that you would like to debunk? Well, or a couple.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Everyone thinks that we just climb towers. Um, and that that that is a huge part of our job because when it's needed, we have to do it. And it doesn't matter what the weather is. Um if there's no 911 coverage, if there's no radio to radio coverage, obviously we have to get that fixed. And uh, we actually had a crew go up with very inclement weather, half inch of ice all over the tower. They had to chip their way up the tower to get to the top of the tower. It was freezing cold, 30 plus mile an hour winds, and a couple of guys went up and they got that done. And that's stuff that it's our job. So anybody goes out and does their job. Um, but obviously that's very intense. Um we don't just climb towers though. I mean, we do everything. Uh we maintain the whole site, we mow the grass, we take care of the trees around the site, we paint the site. We're the jack of all trades, so steeple jack of all trades. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

So um what advice would you give to somebody wanting to pursue a career similar to yours?

SPEAKER_03 24:08

Study off be safe, be nice, be courageous.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Push yourself a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

Push yeah, push yourself.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Practice climbing your TV antenna at at home, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

Only if you do it safely.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Right. Uh do you have a favorite memory of tower climbing?

SPEAKER_03 24:28

I mean, you mentioned the hawk, but Yeah, pretty much just being up there. I don't know if people know, but I take peach pictures of their houses all the time. Like big farms. It's cool just seeing the landscape when you're at the top of a tower. Um I like postcards. And when you take a picture from up there, it literally looks like you're sitting on a wing of a jet and you're taking photos off of it. Um, so it's just cool. I love being up there. That would be a great day at work.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Uh, that's it for today. We hope you've all enjoyed the show, and I would like to thank Nate for being here to tell us all about himself and being a steeplejack. Thank you, Nate.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Thank you, Judy.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Come back. We hope you all enjoyed the show, and we will be back soon. And be sure to look us up at www.michigan.gov slash mpsds and on Twitter at mpsds. You can also subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and Google Podcasts so you never miss an episode. And we will see you the next time. Thank you. There's much applies! Bye.

SPEAKER_03 25:37

You have been listening to TuneIn with MPS yes.