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u/QueenBooj 6h ago
That has to be miserable for any service worker
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u/lookintoasty 4h ago
Oof good point....that would prob be an I quit moment for me
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u/FretterFingers 4h ago
Trust me, I've wanted to everytime I get one of these to work on. Would rather climb and work on a 500 footer than this any day.
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u/Slaan 3h ago
Is there any acknowledgement that this sucks for workers? Is maintenance more expensive for the operator? Do you get a bonus to work on those?
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u/FretterFingers 3h ago
Yeah but it goes in a managers ear and goes out the other. All they say is "The faster it gets done, the faster you can get out of there.". I've worked at multiple companies and it is always the same rhetoric. No bonus for working on these. Id say maintenance is only more expensive because it takes longer to work on these.
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u/Healthy-Echo8164 3h ago
Can you even describe how you would go up this? I understand the general logistics with a normal pole, but I can't even begin thinking about how you make your way up this.
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u/FretterFingers 2h ago
They have pegs that go up the tower. However, the branches are also placed in a way where you have to pretty much snake your way through them. You can use the branches as foot holds too but you still have to stay on the climbing face, otherwise you would have to disconnect from the cable climb (Steel wire you hook on to). It is awful. I had to do that last month because the tower was high up on a mountain and the road wasnt wide enough to drive a lift up there 😑
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u/redditusername012 28m ago
Do you have redundant safety systems? So you can unclip one and then reclip before doing same for 2nd/3rd connections?
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u/FretterFingers 18m ago
Yeah for sure. They are on our back D ring. They're called Y lanyards. We use our front D ring (Dorsal D ring) for the cable climb. Once we get to where we need to be we use our Y lanyards to move around the tower. You cant hook onto those branches though, they will snap easily if you fall lol.
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u/redditusername012 4m ago
Thanks for answering. I figured they wouldn’t send y’all out there with one connection point, but then again…
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u/street593 2h ago
I climbed towers for 6 years. How convenient it is to work on is never considered by the people designing it. It's slowly getting better but the number one priority like most things in life is cost.
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u/Slaan 2h ago
Well that's what I thought might affect prices. As the other chap said, it takes longer to maintain 'decorated' towers. So I assumed a standard maintenance was X $, but a forest tower was X+Y $. Because it takes longer to handle the latter.
As you can tell by me being a proficient word user I am otherwise an expert on this subject >_>
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u/street593 1h ago
It takes long enough to piss off the people working on it but not long enough to cause anything to be changed. Also one thing people don't know is carriers like AT&T don't own most towers. They rent the space so they arent responsible for maintenence of the tower itself. Crown Castle and American Tower are two examples of companies who own the tower itself. They don't care how long it takes for AT&T to do any work.
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u/SpidermanEsq 16m ago
Unfortunately even if Crown or ATC owns the tower, they usually don't own the land. Often times the prime lease between the tower company and the land owner will require specific stealthing requirements. Many jurisdictions require stealthing as well.
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u/street593 6m ago
Very true. Point is when AT&T sends a guy like me out there to change a radio Crown and the land owner don't give a shit how difficult it is for me to accomplish it. Neither does AT&T really. We just had to make it work anyway we can without breaking any safety rules.
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u/ihavea_purplenurple 1h ago
As someone who works in construction, you must have immaculate calves....
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u/FretterFingers 1h ago
Lol I wish I did. I get made fun of all the time for my little calves 😑 I go to the gym almost everyday and don't neglect my legs. They just won't grow no matter how much I try 😭
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u/ihavea_purplenurple 1h ago
Lol!!! First of all, anyone critiquing your calves is checking you out too much
And second, if you reeeally want to build your calves, find a stair or a ledge where you can fully extend ur calf and drop your heel down to a full stretch, and step up onto the ball of your foot and pause in the flex position… over and over again until your calf is overflowing with blood. Rinse and repeat on the other side. You might just have insane stamina in ur calf muscles and they don’t ‘damage’ as much as you want when you work them out. You gotta shock the system. I had a personal trainer blow up my calves once.
Also, don’t do this on a day where you have to climb a tower the next day. I’ve made a similar mistake before and it was pure pain.
But also, im a random person on the internet, so you don’t need to trust me lol
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u/FretterFingers 1h ago
I've been in the gym constantly since I was 20, 33 now. I have done the exercise you talk about. I still do that exercise. They Just Will not Grow. Its also difficult to not do them before I climb because I climb almost everyday as well. Been a tower tech for 12 years. Im just cursed 🥲
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u/FretterFingers 4h ago
Yep, cell tower tech here and I can confirm. Those branches are made entirely out of fiberglass. We have to remove all the branches around the antennas and the ones 3 feet below so we can get a manlift basket to fit around it while we work. They produce a cloud of fiberglass at the slightest bump..
Sometimes when we cant get a manlift to the site, we have to climb them. Absolutely awful either way because no matter how careful you are you end up covered in fiberglass. Companies don't provide specialized PPE either. Just your standard harness, steel toe boots, hard hat, and safety glasses. My co workers always look at me crazy when I show up wearing a mask and safety goggles too lol. Like yeah you guys go ahead and breathe that shit in, I sure as hell am not. I honestly do not understand how it is legal to work on these without the proper gear..33
u/Access_Granted_999 4h ago
So the fake tree is somehow worse than a regular cell tower for both aesthetics and maintenance. That's impressive.
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u/Gnonthgol 4h ago
The only place I have seen such a fake tree look good is on architectural renderings.
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u/Dozzi92 3h ago
None of the stealth poles look good, even on the renderings. I used to sit through hearings on these nightly until they changed laws on it. The fake flagpoles look terrible, the trees look terrible (there was one in Jersey that the branches went all the way down that looked passable, at a private school, I thought Delbarton but I can't find it), silos looked pretty bad. But even when they would try to stealth flush/surface mount them on buildings, they stand out like a sore thumb. Eventually started seeing boards say "just paint them matte gray and put them up," and that, ultimately, was the best design, they just disappear into the background.
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u/iliIlIlilllIlilIlIli 2h ago
This fake tree tower blends in far better than the regular cell towers.
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u/Acrobatic_Rush7653 3h ago
Why stop there? They also legitimately create microplastics pollution. And I don't mean during scheduled maintenance, the fiberglass sheds all the time from sun, wind etc.
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u/Blobbowo 4h ago
Bro why fiberglass?? Are there really no better material options?
Bruh if they're gonna use fiberglass to poorly cover up a cell tower, and it's that much of an added hassle, they should just stop covering them up.. people are fine with looking at utility poles and those huge steel frame towers for electricity and whatnot..
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u/FretterFingers 3h ago
Because the RF signal gets weakened by non porous material. Every time you see antennas with anything in front of them you can bet it is made of fiberglass. Coverings, shields, canopies, branches and whatever. It is fiberglass. Only the mounts and tower are made of steel..
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u/Blobbowo 2h ago
That makes sense.. But then at that point, it'd definitely be more practical to just not cover it.
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u/FretterFingers 2h ago
100% but businesses and communities want everything to look nice and blend in with the environment. So this is the best they can come up with I guess
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u/SwordfishOk504 Nokia user 2h ago
This isn't about practicality. It's likely adhering to local rules/community concerns. I seriously doubt a cell company would spend the extra effort for this on their own.
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u/BrokenStonks 46m ago
I also worked on these over a decade ago now and it was the same back then too. Shit PPE and zero understanding from the office guys managing the work understanding what they were asking of us and just wanted the job done. Coworker crushed three fingers just getting the inner shrouds off while trying to work on these from a man lift.
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u/a3a3ell0 4h ago
Fake trees for surveillance pigeons to recharge, and all of it probably orchestrated by shadow government of squirrels
We're so fucked...
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u/beatles910 5h ago
Many towns and cities require cell towers to be disguised. Often referred to as "stealth" or "concealed" towers as part of local zoning ordinances to minimize visual impact on neighborhoods.
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u/FretterFingers 4h ago
Yeah fuck those cities. They never consider the health of the workers.. Also, this tower is specifically called a Monopine. Worst thing ever to work on. Monopalms are way better because the branches are at least not made of fiberglass.
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u/Cabibbus 5h ago
Those things are worse than the plain, unmasked infrastructure. We would never authorise a fake tree.
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u/bingedeleter 5h ago
Really? I like them. Don’t stick out so much. And I enjoy the modern convenience of my cell phone. Why shouldn’t they camouflage them?
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u/chardeemacdennisbird 4h ago
Yeah I'm with you. Looks better than conspicuous giant metal poles and rails.
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u/Aunt_Llama 2h ago
I've seen one before irl in a wooded area, the thing is two to tree times the size of the other trees, it is hilariously bad at blending in
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u/googdude 1h ago
It's not intended to completely blend in, just reduce its glaring visual footprint.
They know it won't completely disappear but this one compared to a regular tower won't notice it as quickly if you're not looking directly at it.2
u/Strottman 2h ago
Getting local artists / muralists to paint regular poles seems like a good compromise. My city has quite a few transformer boxes painted up in this way and they always make me smile.
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u/Cabibbus 2h ago
It's worth to camouflage them with paint and by choosing the correct location, but I feel that the fake tree is worse than, let's say, a dark green colour if it's among trees.
In some places brown is also a good colour, and someone also paints them black when in front of or near a thick forest.
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u/namisysd 4h ago
They put one up near me thats in a middle of a field in an area that doesn’t have pine trees; completely non sensical deployment especially when there are normal towers within sight of that monstrosity.
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u/Punch_A_Police_Horse 5h ago
They are a conversation piece for sure though, you have to give them that.
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u/18Apollo18 5h ago
This is a close-up .
Take a picture or look at the landscape from a distance and I bet you'll think differently
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u/Cabibbus 5h ago
We usually ask to paint them, this would catch your eye even from distance.
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u/E-2theRescue 3h ago
Agreed. I spot them all the time when I'm driving because they stick out like a sore thumb. When it was just the exposed tower, my peripherals didn't care.
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u/SwordfishOk504 Nokia user 2h ago
We would never authorise a fake tree.
Who is we?
Why wasn't I invited to the meeting?
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u/11lumpsofsugar 3h ago
My kids' elementary school had one put in on the paved part of the playground and it's just the most absurd thing ever. Whyyyy
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u/philn256 3h ago
They could also just paint them with some sort of camouflage for it not to stick out instead of trying to fake it.
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u/Possibly_a_Firetruck 2h ago
What kind of camouflage paint is going to make a pole with antennas not look like a pole with antennas?
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u/LordHammercyWeCooked 2h ago
The reason these exist is because of local municipalities losing their absolute shit and going full-NIMBY whenever a new cell phone tower has to be built. But customers complain about not having any reception, so a compromise must be struck that will get the NIMBYs to shut the hell up and let them build the damn thing.
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u/Tech-Tom 5h ago
Believe it or not, lots of people specifically ask for these type of cell phone tower's to be installed. From a distance or mixed in with other trees it looks a hell of a lot better than a giant silver pole with antenna's and wires all over it.
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u/FretterFingers 4h ago edited 4h ago
Those people can suck a dick. These are very awful for the workers health (Me). I swear some time down the road there is gonna be settlement ads. Just like those mesothelioma ones.
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u/thordh5 2h ago
How is this bad for the workers' health?
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u/llamawithguns Lurking Peasant 10m ago
In another comment he says its because all the branches are made of fiberglass and they have to remove them to work on the poles, which causes a duststorm of fiberglass particles to rain down
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u/rddman 47m ago
tower's
what, why?
why not wire's and tree's?1
u/Tech-Tom 1m ago
That is one type of tower that is typically deployed for cellular antennas to attach to. It's designed to blend into the environment instead of sticking out like a sore thumb.
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u/Dense-Cake9315 3h ago
yeah, no. its just in the uncanny valley. if you just put up a normal cell tower than it seems normal. not that weird shit.
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u/DrMobius0 3h ago
I can still tell, even at a long distance, and my eyes are doing what adult's eyes do over time.
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u/breetome 4h ago
We have giant fake cactus cell towers here in Arizona, they actually blend in nicely!
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u/SwissQueso 1h ago
There is actually one of these trees on 7th and Indian School road in Phoenix, right behind Jack in the Box. It sticks out like a sore thumb.
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u/breetome 1h ago
You need the cool giant cactus ones, they really do blend in nicely. I thought they were real at first, I was WOW look at the size of that cactus. I was gently told you nitwit it's a cell tower lol!
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u/bolanrox 3h ago
when they first proposed building one of these in our town the board said it's a cell tower dressed up like a tree. Personally it reminded me of something out of Myst.. which was still a new ish game at the time
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u/Strange_Dust7128 3h ago
it exactly looks like the pine trees from the first island in the original!
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u/GravyMcBiscuits 4h ago
More like borophyill. Right?
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u/slfemployedastronaut 4h ago
"No I will not make out with you. Did ya hear that this girl wants to make out with me in the middle of class? You got Chlorophyll Man up there talking about God knows what and all she can talk about is making out with me. I'm here to learn, everybody, not to make out with you. Go on with the chlorophyll."
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u/Trinidadnomads 2h ago
Saw Hoppers last night and that reveal about the loud tree royally pissed me off. Amazing movie but holy fuck that was evil
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u/DragodaDragon 2h ago
I don't care if it's not convincing, I love these silly things. Better than just a regular ugly pole at the very least.
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u/BL0WCHEESE 1h ago
I can smell the crisp fall morning of 1998 in a small town by looking at this picture. 🥺
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u/Cptn_BenjaminWillard 1h ago
Hey, I'll always take one of these over bare metal, looks much better even if it's the wolf in sheep's clothing.
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u/DaviiiThirdEye 1h ago
We have one of these in our town, and my family began to ironically chant “all hail fake tree” every time we passed it.
Then, while talking about it on our podcast, created a holiday called Antarbor Day… and threw a backyard concert with art and a tin foil hat contest.
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u/opinionated7onion 29m ago
Wouldnt it be easier to plant trees around a normal cell tower, or wrap a cell tower in fake ivy or something
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u/Saltiren 3h ago
There was one in Vegas.
There were only fake palm trees, no pines around, so it stuck out like a sore thumb.
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u/RevvyDesu 3h ago edited 2h ago
Weird story, my grandfather was approached by a company that installs and owns these. They wanted to install one of these on his property. It was the first one in the area and they were going to pay him monthly to rent the spot on his land essentially. He'd get paid more if cell companies used the tower for their services. So they put up a foundation, some fences, then erected this fake tree cell tower.
It was written about in the local paper, and everyone hated it. They all thought it was an eyesore. This was in the midwest so it didn't fit in with any of the local trees and towered above them.
They removed it several years later.
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u/OldDoubt1577 2h ago
Fed? The majority are privately owned. Which is worse I suppose. You can try to complain to your local representative about the structures. But private property of a billion dollar telecommunication company leaves you no legal recourse. Its there to stay.
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u/Possibly_a_Firetruck 2h ago
And then if it gets taken down, everyone starts complaining that their cell service sucks.
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u/Sweaty_Marzipan4274 1h ago
My last community was so buthurt that they were going to install a tower, and everyone freaking out, they ended up with just the pole and it's ugly af 😆
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u/JennyferSuper 1h ago
I actually passed a truck full of these piles in my way home from work today and I looked twice because I was wondering what they were. They looked like electrical piles but fancy. Literally the same as the pole in the picture. Now I know! It IS a fancy electrical pole!!
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u/whatdafaq 1h ago
Not a fed issue... it about local communities not wanting to see cell towers. Just think about it like your fake Christmas trees.
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u/iggyfenton 51m ago
I so want to plant one of these in my backyard.
prime urban rooftops or dense metropolitan areas can command $3,000 to $10,000+ per month
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u/no1_vern 2h ago
Hm, people getting upset over cell towers looking like trees, but not concerned about all the Flock cameras actually tracking our cars.
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u/Omegaman2010 5h ago
It sounds like
https://giphy.com/gifs/OpPyw0U5IGZDog5K4U