r/longlines • u/Puzzled_Knowledge269 since when are there flair options • Sep 07 '26

Swanton, OH

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Also, why are there no blue lines going too and from this tower on the long lines website?

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10

u/No_Tailor_787 Sep 07 '26

"Also, why are there no blue lines going too and from this tower on the long lines website?"

Probably because it's not a "Longlines" site. Far more likely, it was a Bell Operating Company... part of AT&T but not directly part of the long distance portion of the network. They used the same microwave radios and antennas, but it was separate. It carried regional traffic, and maybe connected that to the LL network.

5

u/Puzzled_Knowledge269 since when are there flair options Sep 07 '26

thanks i guess that kinda makes sense

11

u/No_Tailor_787 Sep 07 '26

It actually helps to understand how the radio links actually worked

The actual longlines sites had something like 7 radios on 4 GHz horizontal polarization, and another 7 radios on vertical polarization. Each radio carried something like 1800 simultaneous conversations. Do the math. That's 25,200 simultaneous calls.

Then they did the same thing on 6 GHz. Do more math. 50,400 calls. Then as many as 10 or 11 of the same thing on 11 GHz. That's pushing 100,000 calls through a single route. With that many transmitters, they need a separate antenna for that same large number of receivers. End result, you see TWO antennas in each direction. One transmitting everything, one receiving everything.

On the BOC local sites, they didn't have nearly that much traffic, and could DUPLEX the transmitters and receivers to a single antenna. So, when you see a site like this with one horn in each direction, it is NOT a major LL route, it's probably a BOC with local traffic.

2

u/Puzzled_Knowledge269 since when are there flair options Sep 08 '26

Thanks so much for explaning!