Comm Tower Photos

[af5rn]

Meh... server is down for me too right now. I think it's a weekend thing. Seems to happen mostly on weekends. Sorry.

 

[lugoffman]

What does the big base drum looking things do I have wondered that for a long time now ???

 

[DPD1]

Google & look for pics of Strawberry Peak in southern california... http://www.thecentraloffice.com/Strawberry/Strawberry Peak.htm

Supposedly built to withstand a nuke blast over the valley below. Even some of the old microwave horns are supposedly somehow "hardened".

Yeah, that's an interesting site. I suggested to that show that does the "Lost Worlds" stuff that they should do one on old cold war comms stuff, like the old NSA stations and antenna facilities. I seriously doubt much of anything would have survived near any major city, but I'm sure it made the contractors happy.

There's also some good books out there that explain a lot of the tactics used at the height of the cold war monitoring efforts.

Dave
www.DPDProductions.com
Antennas & Accessories for the RF Professional & Radio Hobbyist

 

[af5rn]

What does the big base drum looking things do I have wondered that for a long time now ???

If you mean the white drum looking things on the sides of the freestanding tower in my Iraq photos, I believe those are microwave relay dishes for telephone communications.

 

[Raccon]

If you mean the white drum looking things on the sides of the freestanding tower in my Iraq photos, I believe those are microwave relay dishes for telephone communications.

Yep, those are microwave dishes. Can be used for any type of communcations or data transmission.

 

[lugoffman]

If you mean the white drum looking things on the sides of the freestanding tower in my Iraq photos, I believe those are microwave relay dishes for telephone communications.

Cool thanks I learn somthing new every day !! I've always wondered what those were

 

[zz0468]

Google & look for pics of Strawberry Peak in southern california... http://www.thecentraloffice.com/Strawberry/Strawberry Peak.htm

Supposedly built to withstand a nuke blast over the valley below. Even some of the old microwave horns are supposedly somehow "hardened".

And now the tower has been de-horned, most of the original equipment has been removed, and the site in general is in cruddy shape. It's now a leased site with several misc. users, but still a site to behold.

 

[eorange]

There's also some good books out there that explain a lot of the tactics used at the height of the cold war monitoring efforts.

Can you recommend a few titles? (I recently read "By Any Means Necessary", which detailed the accounts of reconnaissance flights and crews attempting to ping the enemy's radar.)

 

[DPD1]

Can you recommend a few titles? (I recently read "By Any Means Necessary", which detailed the accounts of reconnaissance flights and crews attempting to ping the enemy's radar.)

I'll have to try that one.

I think one of the best books in general is "Body of Secrets". There's an updated version available. It covers the history of cryptology, the NSA, cold war monitoring, including specific incidents like the Liberty monitoring ship attack, and also today's NSA. An older similar book is "The Puzzle Palace". There's also "Chatter" which is a little political, but it's a more modern book about how NSA got started and specifically details the Echelon search engine. For sub stuff there's "Blind Man's Bluff", which has been out for a while, but still one of the best sub books. It details many missions, including the missions to tap submerged Russian phone cables under the sea. "The Silent War" is another good sub book. "Twilight Warriors" is about covert air ops in the cold war. For air stuff, the bible of the U-2 is "50 Years of the U-2". It details about anything you can think of for the U-2 and the cold war missions, including sigint sorties.

Dave
www.DPDProductions.com
Antennas & Accessories for the RF Professional & Radio Hobbyist

 

[af5rn]

Dave, you were supposed to say, "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

 

[eorange]

Good book suggestions! I'll check them out.

 

[reconrider8]

Exactly, won't pop popcorn but any organic body like a person would begin to have internal effects pretty quickly. Internal bleeding isn't fun. Boiling testes isn't either.

Even with cell site antennas what I've been told is to not stand for more than 6 minutes in front of one.

there was a video on youtube that people took their cell phones and put them so it had a square in the middle and called then and it poped popcorn

 

[reconrider8]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lg_dyD0Nsjw thats that video

 

[zz0468]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lg_dyD0Nsjw thats that video

And it's a hoax, or more accurately, an advertising gimmick. Cellphones would have nowhere near enough power to pop popcorn.

 

[KC0QNB]

New pics!

I am sorry the quality isn't the best but I was not real close, (across the street and at the end of the block) and it was not the best lighting.
All taken this morning. All of the Dawson County (NE) court house and Law enforcement Center (LEC)

In image #3 any guesses on the purpose of the PVC "loop antennas?", my first guess is EAS

 

[kb2vxa]

Just for fun who IS this guy?

 

[greenthumb]

That's the strangest antenna I've ever seen.

These are actually used a lot in broadcast, but these appear to be in radomes.

 

[poltergeisty]

Just for fun who IS this guy?

This is why I can't wait for Google or other search engine to have a picture matching search capability. I have read about something that will allow this in the future. Anyway, that looks to me like a nut :lol: Don't know. Houdini?

 

[af5rn]

Don't know. Houdini?

LOL! That was my guess!

Tesla, maybe?

 

[CanesFan95]

Zoom!

Here's a close-up shot I took of Manatee County's downtown tower. I'm pretty sure its for the county's EDACS system.