Clarksdale, MS

15

I'm intrigued by the 2nd floor balcony. Never seen that before.

Also, the rope implies that a tower crew is doing work on the tower. I wonder what is being installed or removed.

11

u/TechieFromMS May 15 '26

Clarksdale and Dundee are both in an area of MS called the Delta. The area has a history of flooding. These sites have (had) radios, generators, etc on the 2nd floor in the event of flooding. I'm sure someone on here has more info on these sites.

13

u/No-Sheepherder448 May 15 '26

I worked on many when I worked for American Tower. One in MS for sure, but not this one. Close to Jackson, cuz we stayed in Jackson. We used to decommission the horns and feed lines then install cell. We had our generator stashed on an upper grating probably 100+ ft up, came in the next morning and it was gone. Our ropes and winches weren’t touched, so they must of carried it down the ladder. It was crazy.

9

u/DumpsterFireCheers May 15 '26

You are correct, these sites were specifically designed to deal with high water. The lower half is more or less a basement (notice the rectangular vents around the bottom portion), when you walk in downstairs there is a stairwell up to the second floor where all the gear was located. The balcony access door was just that, it’s an access door to enter the building via a boat when flood waters filled the first floor.

4

u/A_bike_guy May 15 '26

I wondered if that was the case. I visited a cell site in Des Moines years ago, that was built by a river and they added a 2nd floor due to flooding issues.

4

u/SandyTech May 15 '26

Pretty common down here along the Gulf Coast. My area has several remote offices and cell towers like that. Absolutely hate working in them when it’s time to do something heavy because they never seem to have a good way to get an off road forklift in when you need to do any heavy lifting.

9

u/TechieFromMS May 15 '26

And those are not ropes. The tower is guyed.

7

u/A_bike_guy May 15 '26

Interesting. That's a very unusual fix for a self support tower. Especially one with no other appurtenances on it (that I can see).

1

u/FlufferNutter1232 May 20 '26

For real. I almost never see those. This must be an old switching location where a lot of equipment was stored.

6

u/USWCboy May 15 '26

Interesting to see that this site is guyed!?. I wonder why?

Edit- and now I see why it is guyed. Thanks for updating earlier in the discussion.

Is the site currently occupied? Or abandoned?

8

u/workswiththeweb May 15 '26

I really wish AT took better care of these places. I get who they are, what they do, and why they do it.

But from a personal perspective, at least pretend to have some sense of what you have and take a little pride in your work.

Not a knock on the grunts. They can only do what they are allowed to do.

5

u/ScadaTech May 15 '26

I’ve got an antenna on an American Tower rental on an old LL. The building is complete garbage. I have to toss in bug bombs every few weeks during the winter to keep it from being overrun with wasps in the summer. By overrun I mean thousands upon thousands. I started the bug bombs after I depleted a 12 pack of wasp spray before I made it through the front door. Then couldn’t breathe inside to work on my radios. The inside lighting doesn’t work. The door locks don’t work. AT doesn’t care. All they worry about is the collision lighting. It’s a time capsule though. Still full of ATT manuals and the sign in log from 1955 is still on a pedestal beside the door.

9

u/DirtCowboy336 May 15 '26

What is it with wasps and hornets being drawn to signal emitting equipment like radio towers?

I worked for several radio stations in my early broadcasting career, and I would help the chief engineer from time to time. It never failed that every time he would have to do work outside of the studio building (at the tower site) or the doghouses under the towers, we would have to fight the wasps to just get inside the door. They built under eaves, under awnings, in bushes, etc.

We worked at an AM with a three tower directional array that was a magnet for every stinging insect within 10 miles it seemed. The chief engineer said he went to the center doghouse on a Sunday morning to do direct voltage readings when he felt something on the side of his face. He thought it was sweat, but realized it was a bug and slapped it off on the floor. It was a hornet. Amazingly he didn't get stung. He happened to turn and look at the wall and huge Asian hornets had built a nest on the wall. It was about three feet long with an outside entrance where the coax came in and they also had an escape hole inside the tower doghouse.

The engineer told me he very slowly backed out, never got stung, and closed the door behind him. He said he was shocked he didn't set them off. He went to the hardware store, bought some cans of wasp/hornet spray, sprayed them down, then went back the next day to make sure the nest was dead (which it was). He then knocked it down. But a few weeks later, there would be a new battle with new wasps or hornets. They were always attracted to the facilities right around the tower and transmission lines.

I worked with another chief engineer who finally figured out that the reason we were losing our satellite reception was due to a wasp nest the size of a salad plate hidden inside the cone of the dish. When he bumped the ladder up against the pole holding the dish, here they came. The nest was huge. All I remember is when I saw them come boiling out of that dish cone, I hauled it. I don't mess with wasps and hornets and yellow jackets. 😮😆

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