The Secrets of an Abandoned Microwave Tower in Kansas

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/the-secrets-of-an-abandoned-tower-in-kansas/419727/?single_page=true

by allard • 11 years ago

31 10 11 years ago

theatlantic.com

VLM• 11 years ago

Its like they're pretending Google doesn't exist, for fun.

Its kinda interesting reading the story of the Oct '73 cable cut or seeing the old route maps for the L-1 cable and the microwave reroute. Excavators dug up copper cable in the old days, long before they developed their well known taste for optical fiber.

Its secret in the sense of you probably have no idea of the location or routing of the wires between you and the nearest central office, but if you looked up at the phone poles you'd rapidly get the idea. Not secret in the sense of the world being run by a cabal of reptilian space aliens.

I found multiple references the bunker onsite got sold (probably for warehousing) but google maps hasn't been updated. The maps aerial view shows it covered in semi trailers.

mindcrime2• 11 years ago

the world being run by a cabal of reptilian space aliens

How did you find out about that!@?!?? Who have you been talking to? Don't move, some very nice people are coming to cough talk cough to you tonight!

lfowles• 11 years ago

It got slipped in Futurama, you can't just _make up_ something like the Space Pope.

mindcrime2• 11 years ago

On a (possibly) related note:

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7827075,-79.0736018,225m/dat...

This is a facility of some sort which is apparently owned by AT&T, was supposedly abandoned years ago, but which started seeing some new activity a while back. The thing is an underground bunker of some sort... zoom in close and you can see how the road leads underground. There are all sorts of local crazy rumors and shit about what's actually there, if anything, and what goes on / went on there.

So far as I can tell, the closest thing anybody has gotten to an "official" story on the site is that it was formerly part of the military AUTOVON phone network.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autovon

More info:

http://cryptome.org/eyeball/bighole/bighole-eyeball.htm

http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/big-hole-deep-secret/Conten...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2474610/posts

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/home-garden/article8...

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/coldwarcomms/conversatio...

http://williamson-labs.com/troposcatter.htm

eitally• 11 years ago

I live in that area and I think the AUTOVON explanation is likely 100% accurate. As to why it's seen renewed activity in the last couple of years, that's anyone's guess.

yourapostasy• 11 years ago

These sites are generally way overpriced for conversions into data centers, even niche high-security types. The key problem I ran into when I looked into it when the Long Lines sites first started getting parceled out way back was access to the Internet backbone. Only a very few were anywhere close to where the backbone was, or was planned to be in the next 10 years, and those were snapped up very early. They also are unfortunately too small to warehouse equipment if you wanted to hold spares for a Carrington Event-grade solar flare (I would be surprised if they were rated for that level of EM disturbance anyways). Also, I found out a typical term of sale was you promise to dismantle the tower at your own cost, or pay an eye-bleeding amount for tower remediation.

I don't see very economic re-purposing possibilities even today when more are within fiber rollouts. With their current price points, no business plan built around one of these I've tried has ever penciled out sustainably. Has anyone else tried to run the numbers and come up similar results (you don't have to share the plan, just that some business purpose pencils out)? I don't see a lot of businesses buying them, and I'm guessing the majority of purchasers of these sites are private individuals with either deep pockets or a mania for industrial-grade and -scale home improvement.

exabrial• 11 years ago

Kansas resident here... I've seen a lot of towers with that sort of construction and microwave horns while hunting and traveling. There's a massive one on along 50 highway between Newton and Florence, though I can't recall the exact location (near Peabody, KS maybe?)...

IIRC, I think the tower I'm thinking of points to the northeast. It'd be pretty cool so figure out the links that used to be connected!

subless2• 11 years ago

I have what I believe to be an old AT&T radio tower less than 100 yards from my house. It was so overgrown with brush you cloud barely see the building, but just yesterday they cleared the brush off. It's located in Gaffney, South Carolina, and it's the only one I've ever seen that looks similar to the ones from http://long-lines.net/ website, but it's not listed as one on their website; South Carolina actually isn't listed on their site at all.

subless2• 11 years ago

Here's a picture: http://imgur.com/HTSdbdN

diggernet• 11 years ago

While they don't have SC in their list of state facilities, Gaffney does appear on their maps, such as this one from 1960: http://long-lines.net/places-routes/maps/MW6003.html Perhaps you should send them your photo.

The Secrets of an Abandoned Microwave Tower in Kansas

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