AT&T Long Lines site - Saddle Mountain, Oregon
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- čas přidán 18. 05. 2012
- Recent visit I made to the South Saddle Mountain hardened AT&T Long Lines site outside of Forest Grove, Oregon. This was once a hardened or resistant to a nuclear blast long lines installation. I had been in a few discussions about this site but was never able to locate until recently. Very neat Cold War site to visit. From what I understand this site linked Portland, Oregon to other sites around the state and the nation. Any info you might have on this site that I can add please let me know.
Saddle Mountain had links to Tillamook (via a reflector), McMinnsville, Amity, Nicolai, and Livingston Mountain, WA.
Eric Svalland so how exactly does a reflector work?
Ok never mind I’m just stupid, a reflector doesn’t literally reflect the signal, it just reflects it coming out of the waveguide at a 90 degree angle
What you'll usually find today is that while the microwave antennas on these sites may still be mounted, they are not operational. Usually the old microwave routes now carry fiber optic cables, and this can be verified normally by the existence of cable markers. The vast majority of these sites were sold off in the late 80s and early 90s to companies like American Tower who hoped to use them for cell sites and other uses.
Those KS horn reflector antennas have the nuclear blast hardening kit on them, as well as the side-lobe attenuation kits. Interestingly though, the site itself isn't a hardened site. The truly hardened AT&T sites were all underground, and those which had significant national defense roles had some serious blast doors on the above-ground structures which were single-sourced from the Mosler Safe Company.
Looks very similar to the one on Nicolai Ridge above Wauna, Oregon. In fact I believe there was a microwave path to Saddle Mt. Nicolai has had the old dishes removed though.
anyone know if this or any of the other Oregon sites contained the hardened underground facilities?
There are still a small number of those KS horn reflector antennas still in use today. I know that one route is still operational in Alaska, but will be turned down very soon. I would bet within 10 years you will not be able to find a KS horn reflector antenna anywhere in North America--sad when you consider they carried most of the big TV network programming to their respective affiliate stations cross-county, as well as telephone and national defense communications.
Are they dangerous? I want to climb one, but I don't want to be cooked. I don't think it's operational because it's rusted. It's in a very small town in Georgia called Whigam. It's owned by American Tower. It also has a sign warning of a federally protected birds nest. So I don't think it would be dangerous. But it does have signs warning against radiation so I can't be fully sure.
Sorry I replied on the wrong account this is my main one
@@iamhappyso Communications towers by their nature are dangerous. If it's rusty, it's all the more dangerous. American Tower bought up a large number of the old AT&T Long Lines tower sites and they now lease space on them to cell carriers as well as private companies, local, state and Federal government agencies who need a land mobile radio repeater in the area. So say that you don't screw up on your climb and make it to the top--you're in very close proximity to antennas that are pretty much constantly transmitting in the 2+ GHz band, and intermittent transmitters in VHF and UHF. Also, a lot of those sites have cameras or other devices that can alert contract security to your presence. There's just a lot of reasons why you shouldn't get up on a communications tower.
AlaskaMike72 I'm pretty sure it's abandoned though. There is a sign warning not to tamper with the tower as there is a federally protected birds nest. Also I just watched a video if someone climbing an abandoned long lines tower and they were fine.
Oh sorry I already said that about the nest