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bizarre looking radio towers

Started by InterstateGuy, March 06, 2020, 10:48:48 PM

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InterstateGuy

I saw a thread on here about interesting electrical pylon towers designs and couldn't help but think of how bizarre some radio towers actually are constructed. Such as the tower of of the Garden State Parkway in Tinton Falls. I've honestly never seen any that looks quite like this one. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.2798481,-74.0826968,3a,34.5y,131.98h,102.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLPUaltgx6AYE9ZzRNoWiaQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en


ErmineNotyours

On the opposite end of the spectrum is this simple, freestanding pole for KKMO, Tacoma.  It's a fairly recent installation, so they didn't use a latticework tower, just a pole.  The fence around the pole is very close to it, and they put up signs telling park users not to touch the pole.  I brought my radio along when I went to visit and wondered if you could hear any other station while sitting next to the transmitter.  The station fills the entire AM and FM band except where other stations broadcast.  Strange to hear an AM station on FM like that.

InterstateGuy

Interesting monopole design. Another tower I always thought of as highly bizarre was this one FM tower that covers some of Eastern Long Island. Located out in Manorville, its got a perfect triangular platform at the top. Though this is not what they call a candelabra, which is much more common.  https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8548468,-72.7725498,3a,24.4y,82.72h,113.84t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5Xjc6JTNcLnHt8vavhu0ow!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Mr. Matté



ErmineNotyours

Saw this weird array behind Cambell Hill Elementary School, which is near my former school.  At that age you can get really paranoid about what those towers are doing, but it turns out those are just for the FAA to communicate with commercial aircraft.  (Or so the government says...)

-- US 175 --

Quote from: ErmineNotyours on March 09, 2020, 10:48:28 PM
Saw this weird array behind Cambell Hill Elementary School, which is near my former school.  At that age you can get really paranoid about what those towers are doing, but it turns out those are just for the FAA to communicate with commercial aircraft.  (Or so the government says...)

The towers by the edge of the trees, I've seen those at/near other airports before.  But clueless on the other stuff.  Maybe somebody wants **really** good TV reception?  ;-)  :hmmm:

bing101

Quote from: ErmineNotyours on March 09, 2020, 10:48:28 PM
Saw this weird array behind Cambell Hill Elementary School, which is near my former school.  At that age you can get really paranoid about what those towers are doing, but it turns out those are just for the FAA to communicate with commercial aircraft.  (Or so the government says...)
That antenna has to be from the analog TV days when VHF and UHF were a factor back then in picking up local TV signals.

bing101

Sutro Tower San Francisco is bizarre looking but Iconic in the Bay Area.

ErmineNotyours

#9
For reference, Here's the Xfinity head-end for Seattle.  It's practically under the flight path for Sea-Tac, but it seems to work.

Edit: Here's both the current head-end (foreground) and previous head-end (background).  When cable companies needed to distribute satellite stations, they needed more room, so they moved to the current facility.  The older facility was bought by the county and has just become a site for a corona virus quarantine trailer park.

sbeaver44

Quote from: Mr. Matté on March 07, 2020, 12:44:33 AM
Religious kooks and their shortwave antenna off I-78
The last few times I drove by this, I could swear the lights were off at night.  I usually look for that thing, it should be at MM 13.4 IIRC.  It is one of the few landmarks on that stretch of 78.

adventurernumber1

I've always been fascinated by cell towers. When I was a young kid, I would give names to specific cell towers in my area. One of those was this bizarre looking cell tower going up the mountain that I called "Mr. Prickly" due to its strange look of having a bunch of thin "pricks" hanging off of it.

A less bizarre looking cell tower but one that had a very bizarre name (that I called it), was this one (also on the side of the same mountain) that I called Mr. Jessesess. Not sure how I came up with that name, LOL.






Getting out of my neck of the woods, here is a large, very weird looking tower off of Interstate 75 in Forsyth, Georgia: https://www.google.com/maps/@33.0507111,-83.947454,3a,32.7y,337.53h,99.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdbEZnW7UTuwzWLeAPu2vtg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

I could've sworn I've seen duplicate-looking towers elsewhere like this, but can't remember the exact locations.






Also, recently I was doing street-view on US 1 through part of the Florida Keys, and I noticed this: https://www.google.com/maps/@24.620884,-81.6064466,3a,75y,68.12h,93.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAJBJ7EmSF4j7_OHZRs-f9w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Being in a peculiar location, and not being awfully tall, I had to do a double take to figure out if this was actually a cell tower, but I think it is. It also looks kinda weird, due to its relatively short height, and (similar to other examples mentioned upthread), it is basically just a monopole structure with not much else on it (like antennas), except this one does have a couple of extra things on it (I have actually never known what those devices were, so I don't know what to call them).
Now alternating between different highway shields for my avatar - my previous highway shield avatar for the last few years was US 76.

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127322363@N08/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-vJ3qa8R-cc44Cv6ohio1g

Flint1979

I always thought that WLW's tower in Mason, Ohio looked bizzare.

GenExpwy

#13
Quote from: Flint1979 on March 13, 2020, 07:32:18 PM
I always thought that WLW's tower in Mason, Ohio looked bizzare.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaw-Knox_tower
I think radio geeks consider them the ne plus ultra of AM towers.


Quote from: sbeaver44 on March 12, 2020, 10:15:03 PM
Quote from: Mr. Matté on March 07, 2020, 12:44:33 AM
Religious kooks and their shortwave antenna off I-78
The last few times I drove by this, I could swear the lights were off at night.  I usually look for that thing, it should be at MM 13.4 IIRC.  It is one of the few landmarks on that stretch of 78.

It seems that putting it next to an interstate was a deliberate decision:
Quote from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMLK#ShofarThe Assemblies of Yahweh believe that this is a fulfilment of the prophecy found in Jeremiah 31:21 where it talks about making "˜guide-posts' toward the highway.

Flint1979

Quote from: GenExpwy on March 14, 2020, 03:36:30 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on March 13, 2020, 07:32:18 PM
I always thought that WLW's tower in Mason, Ohio looked bizzare.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaw-Knox_tower
I think radio geeks consider them the ne plus ultra of AM towers.


Quote from: sbeaver44 on March 12, 2020, 10:15:03 PM
Quote from: Mr. Matté on March 07, 2020, 12:44:33 AM
Religious kooks and their shortwave antenna off I-78
The last few times I drove by this, I could swear the lights were off at night.  I usually look for that thing, it should be at MM 13.4 IIRC.  It is one of the few landmarks on that stretch of 78.

It seems that putting it next to an interstate was a deliberate decision:
Quote from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMLK#ShofarThe Assemblies of Yahweh believe that this is a fulfilment of the prophecy found in Jeremiah 31:21 where it talks about making "˜guide-posts' toward the highway.
When I saw it for the first time I thought it looks like it's going to collapse in a wind storm. Certainly an unique tower which there are only a handful of them. WSM in Nashville is the same way. Then you have the transmitter building which I have always liked WJR's with the art deco design in Riverview, Michigan.

MikeTheActuary

Quote from: Mr. Matté on March 07, 2020, 12:44:33 AM
Religious kooks and their shortwave antenna off I-78

My favorite landmark on I-78.   I keep asking my wife if I can put up a couple of those arrays for my ham radio use.  Sadly, she keeps vetoing it.

I thought WMLK had an assortment of programming, not just religious.

ErmineNotyours

Quote from: adventurernumber1 on March 13, 2020, 06:56:33 PM
I've always been fascinated by cell towers.

I remember in the 1980s when I first heard about cell phones and how they would have to put up a system of antennas for it, I wondered what they looked like and if I could spot one.  I felt proud of myself when I identified my first cell tower.  Now you can't not see them.

In Silverdale, I saw this pair of towers.  One is trying to look like a tree, and the other is a fat flag pole.  Nice try, but you're not fooling anyone.

ErmineNotyours

Quote from: GenExpwy on March 14, 2020, 03:36:30 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on March 13, 2020, 07:32:18 PM
I always thought that WLW's tower in Mason, Ohio looked bizzare.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaw-Knox_tower
I think radio geeks consider them the ne plus ultra of AM towers.


In Seattle, the three network affiliate towers are quite visible freestanding towers on Queen Anne Hill.  So when one station did EBS tests with a card showing a guy wire supported diamond tower, I had to say, "Hey, that's not what your tower looks like."

Flint1979

I don't have a picture of it but along M-47 just north of Imerman Park in Saginaw Township there is a tower that looks like a tree at the top.

ErmineNotyours


InterstateGuy

Quote from: adventurernumber1 on March 13, 2020, 06:56:33 PM
Getting out of my neck of the woods, here is a large, very weird looking tower off of Interstate 75 in Forsyth, Georgia: https://www.google.com/maps/@33.0507111,-83.947454,3a,32.7y,337.53h,99.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdbEZnW7UTuwzWLeAPu2vtg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

I could've sworn I've seen duplicate-looking towers elsewhere like this, but can't remember the exact locations.

That's an old Microwave Relay tower, the predecessors to our current and more common cell towers. There's still plenty of these across the United States. There's one in Melville, NY, probably around the same height. I used to call it the bucket tower because from far away, the area underneath the platform looked like a bucket.

Here's the far view. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7806198,-73.4189382,3a,15y,253.34h,91.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRPkDBmsXC8Wu0f0FqUw4Sw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Here it is upclose. https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-geo-images/c7cf5784-f3d7-4619-8a82-d0c9612d1dc8.jpg

Mr. Matté

Quote from: InterstateGuy on March 26, 2020, 12:08:22 PM
Quote from: adventurernumber1 on March 13, 2020, 06:56:33 PM
Getting out of my neck of the woods, here is a large, very weird looking tower off of Interstate 75 in Forsyth, Georgia: https://www.google.com/maps/@33.0507111,-83.947454,3a,32.7y,337.53h,99.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdbEZnW7UTuwzWLeAPu2vtg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

I could've sworn I've seen duplicate-looking towers elsewhere like this, but can't remember the exact locations.

That's an old Microwave Relay tower, the predecessors to our current and more common cell towers. There's still plenty of these across the United States. There's one in Melville, NY, probably around the same height. I used to call it the bucket tower because from far away, the area underneath the platform looked like a bucket.

Here's the far view. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7806198,-73.4189382,3a,15y,253.34h,91.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRPkDBmsXC8Wu0f0FqUw4Sw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Here it is upclose. https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-geo-images/c7cf5784-f3d7-4619-8a82-d0c9612d1dc8.jpg

They all pretty much used to have seashell-shaped antennae on them. The one in Hamilton, NJ still has its.

MikieTimT

Just see if you can find the tower in this picture.  I dare you!

https://goo.gl/maps/gcWdZ8rTYcj7Zbhj9

GaryV

Quote from: MikieTimT on March 26, 2020, 05:57:46 PM
Just see if you can find the tower in this picture.  I dare you!

https://goo.gl/maps/gcWdZ8rTYcj7Zbhj9

Ain't no lumberjack gonna cut that thing down by mistake.

GenExpwy




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