“This is Africa”

So I was talking with my new friend Ian, who happens to be from Africa. We were chatting about his tower placement. He noted that both of his towers were on mountain sides. I have another friend JJ who has some tower gear on mountains. JJ tells me that if you are above 3K-3.5K feet above sea level, that you have to worry about ice. Not necessarily ice on your gear, but the 50 pounds of ice that form on gear above yours…that eventually falls down. JJ learned the hard way that the “ice bridges” above radios are to prevent the falling ice from demolishing your antennas, not a convenient platform to walk on. So while I was relaying this tidbit of information to Ian he says “We don’t really get ice here…we do get a little snow. What you really have to worry about are the baboons.” To this I said “Are you serious…baboons?” Ian then answers “This IS Africa.” I had to stop and laugh to myself. All of a sudden, I felt about as big as a piece of sand on a beach. Sometimes I get so focused on my little life in my little town that I forget that there is a whole big world out there. It seems that baboons are quite a pest. They have to bury their batteries and use electrified fences to keep the primates off of their gear. So what have we learned:

In the US, in mountains if you loose your gear it is probably ice. In Africa if you loose your gear, you just might have some baboon attenuation.

My new saying for something that should be perfectly obvious…”this IS Africa.”

Thanks Ian and thanks JJ. 😉