What is this??

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fallinsouth

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So I've driven by this tower several times and have never seen or noticed another one like it. Its got and ATT sign on the building. Anyone have any idea what it would be used for.

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prcguy

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It's a horn antenna pointed upwards with a reflector at a 45deg angle at the mouth to redirect signals to the side. These are very high performance microwave antennas and usually at C band for Telco use point to point relay use.
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zz0468

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Those AT&T sites were part of the old TD-2 microwave system, and later AR6 and a few other designations. Those antennas were multiplexed to multiple radios on 4, 6, and 11 GHz, as many as 12 radios per band, and 2700 voice channels per radio by the time they were through with it.

That system was decommissioned in the late 80's, and most of the sites sold to American Towers. It's rare to see any with the horns still attached.
 

WayneH

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So I've driven by this tower several times and have never seen or noticed another one like it. Its got and ATT sign on the building. Anyone have any idea what it would be used for.
Do a search for "AT&T long lines microwave" via Google. You'll get a wealth of information. Basically they are long distance microwave antennas designed for 4, 6 and 11GHz radio. They were the backbone of the telecom infrastructure prior to fiber optics. Some folks are reusing them for wifi links in an attempt to recycle the old tech. The majority of them (98%) were sold to American Tower who often leaves the sites as-is until a colo comes along needing the extra space. Some areas de-horned the towers pretty quick. Many times you'll find them as they were (minus whatever copper's been removed) as American Tower bit off more than they could chew buying all of them.
 
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KJ4ODU

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Thats what Our 2m 70cm, 6m Beacon and 10m beacon is on one like that, it called N4THM.

ATT sold it to the County and they donated it to the Club.
 

fallinsouth

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Alright. Thanks for the info, I've seen it for years and wondered, but now I know


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davidgcet

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we own one and it still has the horns. somebody stole ALL the rigid copper waveguide a few years back, and that sucked because we had a crew going to remove the horns in exchange for the waveguide. i know where most of the longline sites are in my area and only 2 have been de-horned. both of those were actually on top of the central office, the rest are true towers and the new owners(us included) simply did what is done in this pic and put a mast pipe up for new antennas.

BTW, we bought our site with a 300' self supporter sitting on 2 acres and an 1100 sq ft building with a 30kw genny for less than 40k! they were giving the dang things away in the late '90's.
 

WayneH

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Isn't there still some of those hops still in use in rural areas?
Yes, there are a couple routes out of Sacramento, CA. There used to be one coming out of San Francisco going up north but it's been turned down. So, yeah, they're still out there in the rural areas.
 

ampulman

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We have a few of them in my area (Southern NJ).

Years ago, was told by a retired (Bell) phone company employee, that they were part of the 'hotline' system.

Amp
 

W2NJS

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FWIW, here is an American Tower Co. page on a site in Virginia that they own and, appaently, still operate. The AT&T microwave horns are long gone, but the tower has antennas on it. The photo page has been recently updated, including the addition of a genset, so it would seem that they're actively marketing use of the site.

American Tower: Site Brochure
 
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