Discarded AT&T Microwave Bunkers For Sale 342
InitZero writes "American Tower is selling nearly 2000 old AT&T Long Line microwave locations that are no longer needed thanks to fiber. These towers -- spaced about 50 miles in every direction -- and their associated bunkers were designed to withstand World War III. The average location (find one near you) has two acres of land, 1,800 square feet worth of bunker and a tower of 200 feet. Some locations still have their hardware (60KW generator, microwave feedlines, equipment racks, feed horns, etc.) All this for an average price of just $25,000. If you're a ham radio operator, building a data center or just looking for a place to put your wireless access point, these locations look awesome."
Survive WW3, but not a good slashdotting... (Score:0, Informative)
WTF? Slashdot says I'm missing a subject or a body? I suppose that is the lameness-required filter that made me add this stupid paragraph.
nevermind (Score:3, Informative)
More Long Lines information (Score:5, Informative)
blast pressure (Score:5, Informative)
Slashdotted Already? (Score:5, Informative)
Guess I'm not the only one to dream of owning a nuke-resistant bunker.
Here's the Google cache [216.239.51.100] of the site map to salivate over...
Good news if you're back east or in the Bay Area, bad news otherwise.
Say, wonder if Mrs. Moody would mind running a home daycare out of one of these?
Re:EMP Hardening (Score:4, Informative)
The buildings supporting the towers were hardened against a nuclear blast, and some of them in high-danger areas were underground. The towers themselves were engineered to withstand all but a close (within 5 miles) blast. The microwave horns were covered with a protective shield to keep out not only the elements, but also radioactive fallout. The buildings were shielded with copper to protect the equipment against the Electromagnetic Pulse associated with a nuclear explosion. Foot-thick concrete walls protected the vital electronics and people inside the base installations of these towers. Thick copper grounds went deep into the bedrock beneath each tower. Fallout showers, backup generators, sleeping facilities all existed to keep the network up in times of war.
So while the equipment itself is likely hardened, the building is shielded.. It doesn't say how much shielding, etc there is however
Not just microwave (Score:2, Informative)
As I recall from the local paper's article the cables were probably 4 to 6 inches in diameter and were then encased in lead. I also recall that they were buried several feet deep, at least deeper than water lines and regular phone cable gets buried around here.
From my youth I recall an AT&T Long Lines bunker a few miles south of US 36 on US 75 north of Topeka, KS. I believe these cables went through there as they were on an east/west run through northern Kansas. Where the ultimate terminating points were would be a good exercise.
Many old microwave sites are still standing around these parts. The tower lights and painting are still maintained. It's interesting that it apparently cost more to disassemble them than to leave them stand.
Re:Slashdotted Already? (Score:5, Informative)
I appreciate the effort, but I think we should all know google's capabilities.
Re:Friend bought one (Score:4, Informative)
They were heavily compartmented, and built much like a bank vault, where you have a box inside a box inside a box. There was at least one central cavity that was meant to be home for worst case attacks.
As I recall, this was pre ATT, and they were built for ITT, under a government contract to provide domestic communications if WWW III (as stated) broke out. And yes, there was considerable money invested.
Re:Broadband 2 boonies (Score:5, Informative)
The one I'm familiar with is near Mount Cory, Ohio, and is situated in the middle of a corn field (or is it soybeans, this year?). It consists of a man-made hill, twenty-or-so feet tall, with a couple of small buildings on top. The tower itself is as other posters have described - not terribly tall (less than 200 feet), with an incredibly wide base. Giant feedhorns flow gracefully from it. I'm told by people who've been into it that the space below ground is much more expansive.
High-tension transmission lines live nearby to supply power. It has its own substation.
It would be a very poor choice as a location from which to which to distribute massive amounts of bandwidth.
For one thing, a wireless ISP [comwavz.net] set up their NOC in an abandoned local telco building about a quarter-mile down the road from there. They constructed a rather monstrous, more modern-looking tower. I'd estimate height at 600' - it positively dwarfs the AT&T relay station.
For another thing, it must have made more sense to build new, than buy the little relay station, or lease tower space, or whatever. Else, they wouldn't have done it. And if a couple-hundred feet would've been OK for this ruler-flat Ohio landscape, I doubt they'd have gone as far up as they did.
And ironically, I had a conversation that went something like this when I had the comwavz installers at my house, not long after service rollout:
Him: So, the DS-3 should be up Real Soon Now, after AT&T gets their head screwed on straight. For now, all we have is a T1.
Me: Well, that's fine. What's the holdup on the DS-3?
Him: I guess they can't figure out how to sell it to us via microwave.
Me: This is the same AT&T with the relay station right over there [/me points], right?
Him: Yeah. Strange, huh?
It's -hard- to get bandwidth out in the sticks, even if you've got a cold war microwave relay within spitting distance. I doubt things would improve much by owning one or two instead of just being near one.
There's a good thing in this... (Score:5, Informative)
Heres the "real" story. (Score:3, Informative)
Enjoy
Abandoned bell sites (Score:2, Informative)
I would imagine that they're trying to sell the inactive ones...
Re:There's a good thing in this... (Score:2, Informative)
With DTH providers like Dish & DirecTV in the states (destined to be one company?) and Starchoice and Bell ExpressVu in Canada, C-Band is only for hobbyists. Having worked as a C-Band tech for years, I say this from experience, not conjecture.
C-Band satellites have 24 transponders, Ku (what they use for DTH) have more, 30, 32 are not uncommon. Ku satellites can also be much more powerful. Anik F1, the Starchoice bird is capable of 120 watts. Most importantly, using MPEG compression on the DTH services lets one satellite carry what C-Band saw on 20 satellites, requiring C-Band customers to have an actuator arm, and usually a polarizer motor in the 'nose' of the dish.
Customers are switching to 'little dish' because it's less of a set-up fee, lower maintaince, lower visibility. C-Band customers that cling to their big ugly dish have to maintain it and buy more expensive gear for it. (Here, a C-Band digital receiver runs 4 times the cost of a little-dish receiver)
Long Line Information (Score:3, Informative)
IMPORTANT INFORMATION (Score:3, Informative)
From: Ross Elder
To: 'John Hoffman'
Subject: RE: Sites of interest
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 15:44:03 -0400
Please note that the message posted yesterday on Slash Dot is incorrect.
American Tower Corporation has only a limited number of Surplus towers for
sale that can be accessed by clicking "Sites For Sale" on our home page.
These are the only towers that are for sale. Please also note that these
Surplus sites are sold on a strictly "as is-where is", all cash basis.
If the site you are inquiring about is not on the "Sites For Sale" list,
then it is not for sale.
If you are interested in a Surplus site, please contact me via email.
If you are having difficulty accessing our website, please try again later
as we were experiencing technical difficulties earlier today.
Thanks,
Ross Elder
Senior VP/Development
American Tower Corporation
The actual list of available sites can be downloaded at:
http://www.americantower.com/acweb/ATCSDMAREP02/P
Re:There's a good thing in this... (Score:3, Informative)
As for the difference in satellites? Telesat has been launching dual C/Ku band satellites for a while now. Its latest bird, Anik F1, has 48 Ku and 36 C-Band transponders. Cool eh? 90% of the C-Band equipment installed in North American homes can only pick up 24 of those C-Band transponders.
Anik F1's Ku can be reliably picked up with an 18" dish (I know through experience) and C-Band still needs a 6'er.
As far as rain fade goes, yes. It is an issue with Ku band. the 5 minute breaks I've suffered 3 times in the past year have been horrible. I had to go read slashdot instead.
None of this changes the fact that C-Band is becoming used less and less for home tv reception. Anik F1 is a prime example - All its C-Band transponders are currently in use are for commercial use, or use by the CBC, for cross-country satellite interviews, or for sending live feeds from one part of the country to another.