Found This Tower

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captkel

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I've seen this tower for years in my own backyard in Coral Springs, Fl., decided Saturday to take a closer look and low and be hold it belongs to the FAA. There's a microwave dish and an antenna on it. When I get around to it I will close call it however I have a feeling it's unused these days. I have no clue what could be transmitted from there. 26°17'14.01"N 80°17'47.28"W I have another picture of the tower but i can't get it to upload.
 

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jerk

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Looks like a FAA RCAG site, but there should be a few more antennas
It will have both VHF and UHF AM
 

kb2vxa

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You exceeded the limit, a second post would have rendered the last photo.
Watch out prcguy, you really don't want anybody dropping in on him now do you?
 
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radiodude817

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We have a tower, site, & sign very simular to this about 30 miles SE of KBUF in the town of Eagle, NY.
There are 2 microwave dishes on it one pointed toward KBUF and the other one points to the SE.
The tower has been there for years. I always assumed this was some kind of radar control linking
system maybe long replaced by fiber.

There is another site in the town of Sardinia called "HOLLAND" that has the UHF & VHF comms remoted for Cleveland Ctr. This site is configured differently with 4 towers in about a 100' square with the equipment building in the center. This site is strictly for remoted comms to Cleveland.
 

gewecke

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The should be fcc registration numbers on the doors or fence. Maybe try running these on the fcc website or google?
n9zas
 

rmiller818

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As far as navaids go, it obviously is not a VOR, could be an NDB but most don't look like that. My initial thought was maybe a LORAN station but the only LORAN station in Florida is in Jupiter. If it is an NDB than it has been decommissioned for several years as I could not find it depicted on any of my charts for several years. In fact, I do not see ANY depiction of any navaid or RCAG or RCO on any current charts or any of the past charts I have. It is not a WAAS ground station and I do not know of any LAAS ground station locations, but I highly doubt that as well.

A relay of some kind seems possible (which way does the dish point?) or could this be a single remote site for say a second transmitter? I know some sectors have an additional secondary transmitter for use in areas that are not covered real well by the main site. Would they really build a larger RCAG with several towers and antennas for just a single transmitter?


This is an interesting one. Whatever it is it is not charted (in fact, it is not even depicted as an obstruction on the Miami sectional so must not be really high) so it doesn't seem to be something that would be used directly by aircraft (except for my secondary transmitter idea).
 

b7spectra

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Well, I punched in the coordinates in the FCC data base, but nothing listed for the FAA - but it probably would as it's a federal frequency. I would just make a call to the local FAA and ask them. Worse could happen is they say Nunya Bizzness.
 

rmiller818

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Ah, just found something. If you look at it using the birds eye view in Bing, from one of the directions you can clearly see 2 microwave type dishes at the very top of the tower. In the other three views (such is the case of the picture posted in this thread) they are gone.

Guess it isn't used anymore?
 

tusker305

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I grew up around one of these, it is an aero comm recieve site. Simply a huge scanner antenna.The recieved signal from inflight aircraft was sent to the Air Route Traffic Control Center via microwave link, not sure how it is sent now my guess is buried cable.
 

JStemann

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Well, I couldn't really see the dishes in the pic I saw. However, if there are dishes up there, then it would most likely be a microwave link site. Data and communications are routed through the system to the various centers then it can be fed back out to other centers or airports. Data from systems near (`100 miles or more) the link site can also be inserted on the link and sent to another center or airport. I can't seem to remember the freq range but it was well out of the close call, reception range of your scanner.

The links can be used as primary or backup with respect to buried cable. Just depends on the particular data being passed.

jeff.
 

captkel

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Well, I couldn't really see the dishes in the pic I saw. However, if there are dishes up there, then it would most likely be a microwave link site. Data and communications are routed through the system to the various centers then it can be fed back out to other centers or airports. Data from systems near (`100 miles or more) the link site can also be inserted on the link and sent to another center or airport. I can't seem to remember the freq range but it was well out of the close call, reception range of your scanner.

The links can be used as primary or backup with respect to buried cable. Just depends on the particular data being passed.

jeff.

I'll get some more photos and post them,I think there is just (1) microwave dish and (1) small - maybe VHF antenna on the tower now. The tower has been there for over 20 years and it's true, it's not on any of the aero charts. Hay I would love to put my antennas on it, would have to run a cable about 2 miles though...too much loss. Any cable recommendations?? LOL
KEL
 

captkel

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Went by THE TOWER again this morning and got some more pictures. I would say it's 120' to 150' feet tall. Did the close call thing and received nothing, I stuck around for about a half an hour. The microwave dish is aimed to the southwest.
 

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