1. "Man Built: Empire State Building" (National Geographic)
* Covers the construction of the building and devotes a section to how the mast evolved from a proposed dirigible mooring mast into one of the world's most important broadcast sites. * Includes historical footage and engineering details. 2. "Secrets of the Empire State Building" (History Channel) * Explores hidden engineering throughout the building, including the communications infrastructure and television antennas. * Good historical background on why broadcasters moved there. 3. "Empire State Building: The World's Greatest Skyscraper" (PBS-style documentary) * Covers the building's history from construction through modern renovations. * Includes discussion of radio and television broadcasting. 4. Broadcast Engineering presentations * Organizations like the Society of Broadcast Engineers and manufacturers have produced technical presentations showing transmitter rooms, antenna replacement projects, and RF systems. These are highly technical but fascinating if you're interested in engineering. Excellent YouTube content There are several outstanding videos worth watching: * "Inside the Empire State Building Broadcast Facility" * "Replacing the Empire State Building TV Antenna" * "How New York City TV Gets on the Air" * Historic films about the 2009–2010 antenna replacement Dennis Burgess MikroTik Certified: Trainer | Network Associate | Routing Engineer | Wireless Engineer | Traffic Control Engineer | Inter-Networking Engineer | Security Engineer | Enterprise Wireless Engineer Hurricane Electric: IPv6 Sage Cambium Certified: ePMP Author: <https://shop.linktechs.net/126> Learn RouterOS – Second Edition <http://www.linktechs.net/> Link Technologies, Inc. – MikroTik & ISP Support Services | Shop On-Line <https://shop.linktechs.net/> 📞 Office: 314-735-0270 or 1-866-620-0074 📡 Create Wireless Coverage with www.towercoverage.com <http://www.towercoverage.com/> From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Trey Scarborough via AF Sent: Monday, July 6, 2026 6:04 PM To: [email protected] Cc: Trey Scarborough <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT Empire state building I watched a documentary piece a while back about the transmission station atop the empire state building and its history. I really wish I could recall the name, but it was a while ago. It went over the history of the building and all the different uses it had and included a segment about the maintenance where some guys went out to work on it. They have automatic triggers that turn of the broadcast if the door is opened, and motion sensors. Its a tiny little door almost like a sub hatch to get up there. On 7/4/26 3:02 AM, TJ Trout wrote: I watched their documentary and they definitely aren't dumb, they probably studied the building for exploits for months or maybe years. It's actually a really good film "skywalkers a love story" on Netflix. They use drones to film and then break everything down into a methodical plan. Chuck, hypothetically speaking, if you had to climb the spire without prior coordination how would you do it? I was thinking you could use a RF monitor and somehow alter the SWR (jumper cables?) to trigger the TX protections? Or would you be cooked just getting that close for a few seconds? On Thu, Jul 2, 2026, 6:39 AM Ken Hohhof <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: You have to wonder, did the climbers know this? Both the danger, and the safety protocol? Or were they just dumb but lucky? From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of CBB - Jay Fuller Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2026 8:28 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT Empire state building Regarding the climbing of the tower on the empire state building today: The antennas were not fully live while the climbers were actually on them. As soon as the two daredevils (identified as Russian "rooftoppers" Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus) were spotted climbing the spire, the building immediately triggered emergency safety protocols. Broadcasters quickly shifted their signals to backup auxiliary sites (mostly located atop 4 Times Square, the Condé Nast Building) for about an hour to avoid injuring or killing the climbers with extreme RF (radio frequency) radiation. They returned to normal operations once the NYPD took the couple into custody around 1:00 PM. What Stations Broadcast from Those Antennas? The Empire State Building is one of the most critical broadcast hubs in North America. To reach the very peak where they unfurled their peace banner and staged their marriage proposal, the couple had to scale directly past equipment used by a massive lineup of New York City stations. The primary stations affected and forced to temporarily use backup transmitters include: FM Radio Stations (The Master & "Mini" Master Antennas) The couple had to climb past the main master antenna—home to 15 major NYC FM stations—as well as the "Mini" master antenna. Some of the most notable radio stations transmitting from the spire include: WCBS (101.1 FM) WQHT (Hot 97.1 FM) WPLJ (95.5 FM) Plus over a dozen other major commercial FM stations covering the tri-state area. Television Stations (VHF & DTV Master Antennas) They also scaled past the high-power digital and VHF television transmitters, which include major local network anchors: WCBS-TV (CBS New York) WABC-TV (ABC 7) WPIX (PIX11) WXTV (Univision 41) WFUT (UniMás 68) The very top tip where they hung their banner was the old top-mount master antenna, which historically serviced the analog signals for WNBC and WNYW (Fox 5). Why Shutting Down Was Critical Broadcast engineers and former chiefs noted after the incident that climbing a live master antenna array without specialized protection is incredibly lethal. The sheer amount of concentrated electrical and electromagnetic energy on the spire can cause massive internal RF burns to human tissue within minutes. Broadcasters acted instantly to drop power and reroute the market's airwaves until the NYPD Emergency Services Unit safely escorted the couple down ----- Reply message ----- From: "[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> " <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > To: "AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group" <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: [AFMUG] OT Empire state building Date: Wed, Jul 1, 2026 2:28 PM How did those two climbers not get cooked by the bat wing tv transmission antennas they had to climb. Say those were 25kW stations, they would have over 1kV at the feed points. -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
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