so ive been doing general commercial inspection stuff for a while, bridges, rooftops, that kind of thing, and someone reached out asking if i do cell towers. i said yes because im an idiot and now im trying to figure out what i actually said yes to.

technically i think i can do it, im part 107, got a decent zoom payload, and ive done some tall structure work before. but tower inspection specifically seems like it has its own whole thing going on with deliverables and documentation requirements. like the clients for this arent just a building owner looking at photos, theyre usually tower management companies or the carriers themselves right? and they want specific stuff i assume.

anyone gone down this road. is there a standard report format or does every company have their own thing they want. also height and airspace around towers always makes me a little nervous, ive had some weird interference issues near towers before and im not sure if thats just my imagination or if thats actually a documented risk with flying that close to active antennas

the interference thing near active cell equipment is real, not your imagination. ive had video feed get choppy and one time compass went haywire close to a live site. most experienced tower guys will tell you to stay aware of it but in practice if youre on a newer platform with redundant compassing its usually manageable. biggest thing is dont hover directly in line with the antenna faces if you can avoid it.

on the business side yeah the carriers and tower management companies like SBA, Crown, American Tower etc all have their own documentation requirements and some of them are pretty specific. theres a NATE standard thats worth looking up (its the National Association of Tower Erectors) and some companies will straight up ask if youre familiar with it before they'll talk to you. deliverables are usually a structured photo set with shots of every mount, every cable entry, base of tower, ground equipment, and then a written condition report. some want it in their own template.

honestly the work itself isnt that different from any tall structure inspection but getting into the supply chain for the big carriers takes time, they tend to want vendors who've done it before which is the classic catch-22

i did one cell tower job through a subcontract arrangement where a bigger inspection firm brought me in basically as a camera operator and that was a good way to see how the deliverable side works without having to figure it all out myself. might be worth reaching out to some of the established inspection companies in your area and seeing if they need subs, less money but you learn what they actually want