Grove Businessman Tackles Tall Jobs

Fear of Heights Not a Problem for Troy Kyman

Troy Kyman installs TV antennas. No, not those little aluminum ones you see on house rooftops, but the big ones that TV stations use mounted atop 2,000 foot towers.
It's a good thing Troy isn't afraid of heights, but his wife Karen is. She went up, once, and promptly fainted in the tower elevator. And that was only at 600 feet.

Troy and Karen own Precision Communications, located in Grove's Industrial Park. Precision is the largest service company in the U.S. today providing repairs to broadcast antenna and transmission line systems. The company maintains a wide variety of new and used parts to accommodate systems manufactured during the past 50 years.
Their primary business is repairing and installing TV antennas high atop the towers, and erecting the towers, throughout the U.S. They even have a job coming up in Pago Pago, Samoa. Their company has been in business since 1993 and the Kyman's are the principal stockholders.
They've turned down two acquisitions in the past two years, from larger companies.
"We're a service company. We install, maintain and service television broadcast antennas and towers.
"We can usually get a TV station back on the air within 24 hours if they have a problem," Kyman says. He has his own twin engine airplane based at Grove Airport which can get him to almost any area, in a hurry.
"I have a suitcase already packed at all times," he says.

What's it like working on a television broadcast antenna when it is putting out a million watts? "Like being inside a microwave oven," Kyman says. "You can feel it inside your body."
His wife says Troy is known nationwide for his knowledge of antennas; he can rebuild them in the air and has installed about 50% of the country's new digital TV antennas. Their company has 30-40 employees. "We have never had to layoff anyone," Kyman says.
TV stations have until February 2009 to switch from analog to all-digital transmission, so business will be brisk the next few years. Some 40% of their business is maintenance, with 60% being new installations.

Kyman majored in aviation but a hearing problem kept him from becoming a commercial pilot, so he went into antenna and tower building and learned the skill beside a crack RCA engineer.
The tallest tower he has built is 1600 feet.. "We've seen airplanes flying at our elevation when we are working," he says. Towers can go as high as 2,000 feet above ground.
Next week he will go to Claremore to install a new antenna for Rogers State University's TV station. In the shop is a new 41 foot antenna for WHBQ in Memphis which will be hauled up their tower to broadcast digital signals. The hoist they use weighs 48,000 pounds and will lift 10,000 feet of line.
"Our employees make a sacrifice as they can sometimes be gone on a job for months at a time," Kyman says.
In the back lot are all kinds of equipment, from rolls of five inch thick cables, antennas, huge trucks to haul them, tackles so heavy it takes two men to lift them, and a graveyard of used antennas and towers.

So the next time you see a TV station knocked off the air by lightning or something, there's a good chance Troy and his crew will soon be on the way to fix the problem.
His company recently announced the formation of a new division, Precision Wireless Internet, with the mission of providing a reliable and affordable Internet solution for the residents of Grand Lake. Ground will be broken in a few weeks on the first of three towers and the first coverage area will be up and running by early August, Kyman said. The towers will also be able to offer additional cell phone antennas.


In Photos Above: This 41-foot TV antenna built in Grove by Precision Communications is on its way to WHBQ in Memphis to be placed atop their tower for digital broadcasting.
Troy Kyman, head of the company, oversees the construction.

Karen Kyman stands beside the huge rolls of cable that are used to bring the wattage from the transmitter at the bottom, to the antenna on the top of the tower.