Posted on 08/04/2021 10:05:27 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Authorities in Utah are sounding the alarm about a weird and worrisome trend wherein people hammock atop power lines. The Weber County Sheriff's Office made note of the unnerving fad in a Facebook post last week, explaining that they have seen a troubling increase in thrill-seekers attempting to pull off the far-from-relaxing feat. The department shared a photo showing two such individuals ascending a power line tower with one of the climbers having already reached a rather nerve-wracking height.
Of all the places to chose to camp, this rates as a 10 in weird/dangerous. These people probably have no idea that at transmission line voltages (100,000 volts and up) you don’t actually have to touch a wire to get grounded and killed; you just need to get within about 6 feet or so.
“Trying to figure out what the harm is here?”
Linemen don’t care, but the power company insurance underwriters can’t sleep.
Noise heard at the substation is caused by transformer cores humming at 60 Hz.
In case of power lines, the crackling noise is caused by the corona effect, thousands of tiny arcs at the surface of the conductor wires.
Link to a short video explaining what is happening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkjFJtMG5oY
“...one of the climbers having already reached a rather nerve-wracking height.”
Would the author also describe power company employees working at similar heights as “nerve-wracking”?
Maybe it’s NOT “nerve-wracking” for those who CHOOSE to do it?
Perhaps persons yearning to breathe free might describe being surrounded by assorted Karens, hand-wringers, and pearl-clutching morons all of whom are continually trying to influence government to be more controlling — perhaps THAT is what’s TRULY “nerve-wracking.”
I only said it reminded me.
Still, it seems to me that this isn’t necessarily something (that could go wrong) that the owners of the towers may be insured for….
Sadly, no shortage of stupid squirrels. And no shortage of stupid people. One dies, one fries and there are another 10 (or mote) to replace them.
This is cause for great sadness.
Maybe they should try a hammock?
Sounds like ELF.
They were into toppling HV lines back in the late 90’s
The important thing is whether they are wearing masks.
They will eventually get electrocuted. That is some hard core stupid right there.
Utah….Mormons & Mittens…..nuf said 🙄
They have buzzards and coyotes out there, no mess, no problem.
You could mistakenly whizz on the high-tension line and darken an entire city.
Read, back in the sixties, pamphlets that were circulating. Kind of “how-to” instructions to be a rioter.
One outlandish suggestion was to take an electric clothes iron and peel the insulation off the power cord. The idea was that hurling the iron and its dangling wire into an electrical sub-station would cause damage and failure to the equipment.
Sounded like suicide to me.
“You can hear the bigger lines sizzling like bacon when standing underneath.”
That just sparked a great memory of being kid and riding my bike on nights with a thick fog. The old lines along the tops of the telephone poles would crack and sizzle with blue sparks.
Just a little chlorine for the gene pool🤗
“Hammock” as a verb sets my teeth on edge.
Too stupid to be idiots.
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