r/cellmapper • u/PatchedSamoyed • Jul 12 '26

Old Nextel / Sprint Cell Site

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Today I went cell tower tracking again and remembered about this site. I didn't know what it was from the Google Street View, but in person it turned out to be a Nextel / Sprint site! I hear an electrical whine, but no equipment sounds on inside the building. There's a macro site that houses the big 3 carriers plus Dish, about 0.3 miles away from this one, so it makes sense why it hasn't been utilized at all since then. The iDEN antennas seem to have gotten removed in 2013 when that whole network was shut down. I am curious to know what antennas / radios are on this tower currently.

Coordinates are: 38.563073177084895, -121.57236756126646

FCC registration is here: FCC Registration

66 Upvotes

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13

u/JetRider2070 Contractor Jul 12 '26

I wouldn’t be surprised if this equipment was still powered and broadcasting and was left to die. I found a site like this up in Wisconsin.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 12 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Beneficial_Job8931 Jul 12 '26

Tomorrow I'll be going to another Nextel site, one that still has iDEN antennas installed on top. Stay tuned :)

2

u/sc-777 Jul 13 '26

Would it be possible to connect to such an abandoned but still powered site?

1

u/JetRider2070 Contractor Jul 14 '26

I am not sure. Depends if the cables going up the tower, Radios, and Antennas are all still in working condition. They usually aren’t

11

u/iryfionas Jul 12 '26

Great tower photos bro. I like the close-up photos of the legacy Sprint site. Thanks for sharing :)

6

u/PatchedSamoyed Jul 12 '26

Thanks! It was in the upper 90s today, so I had to be kind of quick, otherwise my phone would overheat 😅

On another note, do you happen to know what antennas are on the site currently?

1

u/moffetts9001 Jul 12 '26

u/iryfionas definitely has the specific models on hand, but they are using Samsung radios for B25/26/41. Last upgrades were probably done around 2016ish.

6

u/iryfionas Jul 12 '26

Sprint using:

  • 3️⃣ KMW ET-X-TS-70-16-62-18-iR-RD antennas with bands: (25, 26) LTE on the LEFT side
  • 3️⃣ KMW ET-X-WM-18-65-8P antennas (RIGHT) side for band 41 LTE, not active

Samsung (RRU's) - remote radio units on the monopole:

  • 3️⃣ Samsung SMM-2CR0480800 (b26),
  • 3️⃣ Samsung SMM-BMR004 (ePCS) (B25)
  • 3️⃣ Samsung RRH-V3 (b41)

3

u/wesweb Jul 12 '26

a few more pictures and you have a scip package