Update: That time hand signals failed in the wind

Was lifting a panel on a windy site, and the spotter's flags were useless. I ended up using the crane's horn in a code we made up on the spot. What old school methods have you all brought back when tech lets you down?

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3 Comments

thomas5876mo ago

Worry that's playing with fire. Making up horn codes on the spot sounds like a fast track to a misunderstanding. We scrapped all that for site radios years ago because someone will inevitably get the beeps wrong.

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the_emma6mo ago

What if the radios die or hit a dead zone? Then you're back to square one with no backup plan at all...

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the_patricia5mo ago

Yeah, we had that exact radio blackout happen last winter. The trick is to have three simple horn codes everyone drills on day one. One beep for stop, two for go, three for emergency. Anything more complex than that and you're asking for trouble. We keep laminated cards with those three codes in every cab as a backup.

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