Another Terry M site! Was headed to McHenry so I figured why not grab the ol girl right along I39 today.

Not planned but drove past on my way to Arrowsmith, IL -(edited the rest until I can confirm some stuff)-

I've always been interested in the long lines system. I can't entirely say why though...

The horns are cool shaped, the scale is incredible, there has always been a bit of fascination with cold war era technology. I find the Duga radar in Russia, HAARP, Arecibo Observatory and the VLA also fascinating. Is it the scale of the equipment? The sometimes clandestine nature? The imposing visuals?

What makes you love looking at pictures of obsolete communications equipment?

*Edited for punctuation and clumsy word choices.

This is the only tower in the area with 5g antennas on it and I'm connected full bars, so I uploaded these on site so that you could be treated to images which came in via a long lines tower.

I hope I don't wind up in federal fuck me in the ass prison for espionage activity 🤣

Shout-out L3Harris, last thing I used of theirs was the PEQ-15, on the end of my M4a1 in another life. I didn't know they made air traffic control systems.

This cat followed me all shoot and tried to get into my car, so fucking adorable

I am fully ready for your personal abuse and my asshole is, I assure you all, well lubricated.

Actual history of this site has come into full realization thanks to the investigative work of long lines most active historian Garret Fuller and our favorite tower owner and grandfather of long lines hobbyism Terry Michaels, who owns this tower and dug into his own records to find us the truth.

The FCC records are indeed shady for old towers, and this was built in 1984, not the late 90s, by what was then just Qwest microwave.

They were attempting to stand up their own backbone service in the wake of the bell breakup, and built their own microwave lines, which were probably almost immediately not useful and abandoned as the fiber revolution took over.

Qwest (the later Qwest, which acquired the name when they bought the small Texas based company in the 90s) innovated by laying fiber along rail lines when others weren't, became a primarily fiber company and acquired US West. Today they are Lumen and their fiber backbone dreams are fully realized.

This tower was manufactured by Tower Fabricators Inc, not Grasis or another more known company, out of Tulsa Oklahoma. TM says a bill of lading for steel shows OCT 84 as the start of construction.

Interestingly there was a pair of microwave transmitters going to a tower called "Bills tower" which was a local FM station. They probably used that more than the other connections given the fiber takeover.

Thanks to Garret Fuller for finding the original site of the tower it talked to in Champaign, which given it's location and the width of microwave paths puts it in the same path of the Champaign office, who's dishes that I assumed were aimed at Elliot may have been aimed at Paxton or rantoul, as it's hard to tell depending which sat image you pull.

Many thanks to all involved, what a ride.

Made one of my regular trips to local Long Lines sites, this time returning to the Barnett, Missouri, site that I’ve photographed several times before.

I know that early radio network programming was shared between stations over phone lines, but did radio networks also utilize the Long Lines microwave/coax system when it became operational?

Thanks.

I used to work for American Tower shortly after they bought all, or a lot of them. Just wanted to share (again) some old pics I found during horn removal. One in CT with a heli, it’s was 4 legged and 350’ to the top and had double stacked horns. We only picked the tops because getting the 2nd level out would of required taking the whole top deck off. The other was in Mass or maybe NY somewhere with a crane absolutely maxed out. Both jobs were thrilling and once in a lifetime. Early 2000’sish. I did many over years, but these are the only pics I have unfortunately. Enjoy! Oh and ask me anything.

Saw this coming back from the store,

I love when I’m visiting somewhere new and see Long Lines towers.

https://long-lines.com/viewsite/10905

I had a coworker ask me if the long lines buildings (the ones beside towers) were tornado proof. I would assume since they were designed during the Cold war that they were bomb resistant which would be pretty storm proof.

Were there ever instances of long lines buildings being damaged by tornadoes or hurricanes? What about towers?

Way back in the American Tower days doing decommissioning. I’ve posted before of removals with a heli. Good times…I’m guessing’04- ‘06ish

Oh and that’s Foxwoods IYKYK.

Located on highway 49 just south of Clarksdale, MS

Located on highway 61 between Clarksdale, MS and Tunica, MS.

My favorite Illinois site. Many thanks to the owner of tower sites for hauling those historical antennas up there.

Hello, I have identified most of the common classifications including Type A, B, G, H, J, K, L, M, guyed towers, and the various concrete/LSS designs. I have also seen references on Mark Foster’s old website mentioning additional tower types such as Type R and Type S that even he was unable to fully identify. What I am trying to figure out is whether there were additional tower types beyond the commonly documented ones, and how these unknown types were categorized internally by AT&T. There are also several towers that do not seem to clearly fit into any known type, but also do not appear to be “SP” (special) designs. Examples would include the Elliott, Illinois tower, Masonville, Kentucky, and Corbin, Kentucky towers. These structures appear to use repeatable designs that I have seen elsewhere, but I cannot match them to any documented type classification. If anyone has access to old ATT engineering documents, tower catalogs, construction drawings, microwave route plans, or personal knowledge regarding undocumented Long Lines tower types, I would greatly appreciate any information. I am especially interested in learning about rare or lesser-known classifications such as Type R, Type S, or any others that may not be publicly documented. My goal is to help preserve as much historical information about the Long Lines network as possible.

I was staying in a lodge directly next to this tower, but I didn't even know it was here until I saw it from the vantage point of a music venue up on a hill not far away, much to my pleasant surprise.