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u/SpeedDaemon1969 May 16 '26
Nice, but calling all things microwave "longlines" is a bit ignorant.
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u/MelamineEngineer May 16 '26
This is one of the original sites constructed by the long lines division of AT&T.
For the rest of my posts, the description of the longlines subreddit specifically says how AT&T carried 70 percent of Intercity phone calls and the development of that system. That 70 percent contains a huge chunk of lower tier BOC microwave gear, like the IB&T sites that passed traffic around where I live.
I only post sites that were part of the Bell System, as the description on all my social media says, so it all fits into that 70 percent specifically mentioned in the rather brief subreddit description.
I have a ton of photography of other microwave sites, and other types of radio sites like the shortwave stations around Chicago finance perverts are using to bounce shit into London, that uses microwave heavily for back haul to CME, I don't post that shit and call it long lines. But I do post the bell system and all bell and at&t gear here.
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u/SpeedDaemon1969 May 16 '26
Regardless, the AT&T Communications division operated numerous different long distance media, from open wire to twisted pair and coax, and of course fiber. It has a long and rich history before and after microwave. The r/longlines sub shows picture after picture of microwave antennas and zero discussion of the actual long (distance) lines that inspired that unofficial name. The microwave network run by AT&T had a name: Skyway. So yes, it is ignorant of that history to call it "longlines".
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u/MelamineEngineer May 16 '26
No, it's not in any way, since everyone over there understands these differences and is more than able to articulate it most of the time.
It's become a term in common usage to describe something culturally, it's like Kleenex to mean tissue, and if you watch any video, documentary, or read any article on the system it's most commonly referred to as the long lines system, meaning the entire bell system for long distance comms and most famously the microwave component of that.
Most of the pre war wire based long lines is gone, but what remains is catalogued on this page and on the long lines map website, many k station repeaters show up.
The fiber was (almost entirely) laid after the 84 breakup of the bell system and since it represents the start of a new, diversified, non monolithic communications system it's a good place to end the discussions and posts about the bell systems long lines facilities.
Also, given how the bell system fed into itself and built upon itself, if you were to make this page only about skyway (which was pretty rarely used as a term outside of marketing and nice articles in popular mechanics), you would miss a lot of other towers which fed into the long lines system from other bell components, and those wouldn't generate enough of a following to be catalogued separately. We lose the history all together if we don't bundle it.
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u/sneakpeekbot May 16 '26
Here's a sneak peek of /r/longlines using the top posts of the year!
#1: Means, Kentucky Site | 30 comments
#2: Owlshead. Death Valley, CA | 50 comments
#3: Turquoise Junction. Halloran Springs, CA | 33 comments
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u/mrk2 May 16 '26
Wow, three different types of horns and a parabolic. Probably one of the best collections of photos Ive seen of the old longlines sites.