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That job at the old power plant near Pittsburgh changed my whole approach to blind picks
Back in 2016 I was on a site tearing down a old coal plant outside Pittsburgh. My spotter and I had a miscommunication about a 12 ton turbine part I was lifting out of a tight corner. He gave me the wrong hand signal and I nearly swung the load into a support column. After that I started using a second radio channel just for the spotter and me, no one else. Has anyone else had a job site where the hand signals just weren't cutting it?
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troyp371mo ago
A second radio channel just for the spotter is a solid fix. Had a similar situation on a warehouse job where the main radio chatter made it impossible to hear my spotter. We switched to cheap earpieces on a separate frequency and it solved everything. Even a simple hand signal mix up can wreck your whole day. Some guys swear by using a whistle blast as a backup too, like one long blast for stop.
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the_hugo1mo ago
The whistle idea is interesting but I gotta say, relying on sound alone in a noisy warehouse is a gamble. I once worked a job where a forklift horn drowned out everything, including whistles. What I don't see anyone talking about is using a vibration system instead. A simple pager or a cheap smartwatch that buzzes different patterns for stop vs go could cut through all that noise. That way your spotter doesn't have to shout or blow a whistle, you just feel the signal directly. It takes the environment out of the equation completely. Has anyone tried that on a loud site?
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