On August 30 we began a project, commissioned by Chief Engineer Mike Nichols, to replace two 1100-foot runs of control cable on the 1350-foot tall WSMV tower in Nashville Tennessee. WSMV is the local NBC affiliate and the oldest tv station in Nashville. The control cables in question are used for the Electronic News Gathering antennas, which receive signals from the remote vans sent to breaking news events. All of us have seen the remote studio vans with their thirty-foot tall masts. The antenna atop these pneumatically operated masts send video and audio back to the studio from remote locations up to sixty miles away. The signal is received high atop the tower by a sophisticated directional receiving antenna, which is capable of pulling very weak signals from the air. WSMV got into the ENG game early and as a result has both an older antenna system manufactured by "Microwave Associates" now known as Mosley, and a newer unit manufactured by a company called "N-Systems". Both these antenna systems receive the remote signals on 2.4 Gigahertz.

Unfortunately, both control cables for these antenna systems had been penetrated by water and multiple problems had arisen. Our job was to replace the cables, one of which had been attached to the climbing ladder making the ascent of this 43-year-old tower rather difficult. That being the case, we were actually able to remove the offending cable and several old and disused cables from the ladder thus creating a cleaner, safer climbing surface. As cluttered as the ladder had been, there was barely enough room for feet.

We rigged the tower on August 30 with 3000 feet of 3/8-inch double braided rope. The rigging took approximately three hours. We returned to begin the actual installation on September 2 with our complete crew consisting of Jason Cope, Brian Cope, BJ McCurry, Rod Altman and me, John Hettish. Needing one more experienced climber we also brought in John Teague, a tower worker with ten years experience, much of it on very tall towers.

Our September 3rd work consisted of installing 1100 feet of control cable to the Microwave Associates dish assembly, and removing the old cable. The old cable had been on the tower for quite a few years and other pieces of disused cable had been installed over it. In addition, the job of removing the old cable (s) could not even begin until we actually tested the new cable. Finally we were able to connect the new cable at both ends and have the studio test the system. All worked as expected. Now began the task of removing the old cables.

By the time we had all the old cables attached to our lifting line for their slow descent down the tower the weight was up to 600 pounds. These old lines and cables were lowered and rolled onto the reel the new cable had just come from. The removal process took about an hour and a half. It had been planned that the job would require one day for each cable system to be installed/removed so we left the site at bout 7:00pm.

On Thursday September 4, we all gathered again at the transmitter site and resumed our work. This time a much larger cable was to be hauled to the 1100-foot level and attached to the N-Systems "Quad Four" antenna system. The trip for the climbers to the top of the tower consumed a little over an hour with frequent stops to remove the various ties and hoisting grips securing the old cable. About two hours later we were ready to lift the new cable into place. The cable rose at 60 feet per minute with frequent stops to install hoisting grips every 200 feet. These grips would eventually support the entire 500-pound weight of the control cable while special broad electrical tape would keep the cable from moving in the wind.

The cable took about an hour to reach its intended level at which point we routed the bottom end into the transmitter building where it reached the equipment with about three feet to spare. Someone at the station did a marvelous job of estimating the required length of cable. After some consternation between JD Richardson and me over whether or not the connecter was the proper fit we were able to attach it at both ends and successfully test the system. Now the second "old" cable came down the tower, as had the first.

Removing the old N-Systems cable proved to be quite easy since we had only minimal junk to remove with it this time. As the cable came down the tower nice and slowly we were able to find about a six-inch gash at about 600 feet that exposed the internal conductors. The gash had eluded us in January 2002 when we made modifications to the antenna system because the gash had been hidden against another antenna cable. Water had entered the old N-Systems cable and had caused the failure of one of the key internal wires, causing WSMV engineer Steve Mayes to modify one of the antenna system's control boards to use a previously unused conductor in the control cable. The station was aware however that the modifications would only provide a temporary fix because with water in the cable, other wires would eventually part. With the old N-Systems cable on the ground, our original job was finished. However, one job remained.

The station had recently installed its Digital TV antenna atop the tower. The company who had installed the antenna had left their steel rigging cable on the tower. We were given the additional job of removing the rigging cable. With only minor changes in our rigging we were easily able to get this potential lightning attractor from the tower. We were also able to remove timbers used to protect the tower from the other tower rigger's steel cable. The cable came to the ground much more smoothly than we had expected. By 3:30 pm Rod Altman was able to leave the site for a meeting back in Shelbyville.

In all we installed 3000 feet of cable and removed approximately 5000 feet. The climbing ladder on the WSMV tower is now cleaner than it has been since the tower was built. The station can go after those breaking news stories now without worrying about a cable with water inside. Middle Tennessee Two-way is pleased to have been of assistance in this matter.

John Hettish