
The Secrets of an Abandoned Microwave Tower in Kansas - allard
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/the-secrets-of-an-abandoned-tower-in-kansas/419727/?single_page=true
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yourapostasy
These sites are generally way overpriced for conversions into data centers,
even niche high-security types. The key problem I ran into when I looked into
it when the Long Lines sites first started getting parceled out way back was
access to the Internet backbone. Only a very few were anywhere close to where
the backbone was, or was planned to be in the next 10 years, and those were
snapped up very early. They also are unfortunately too small to warehouse
equipment if you wanted to hold spares for a Carrington Event-grade solar
flare (I would be surprised if they were rated for that level of EM
disturbance anyways). Also, I found out a typical term of sale was you promise
to dismantle the tower at your own cost, or pay an eye-bleeding amount for
tower remediation.

I don't see very economic re-purposing possibilities even today when more are
within fiber rollouts. With their current price points, no business plan built
around one of these I've tried has ever penciled out sustainably. Has anyone
else tried to run the numbers and come up similar results (you don't have to
share the plan, just that some business purpose pencils out)? I don't see a
lot of businesses buying them, and I'm guessing the majority of purchasers of
these sites are private individuals with either deep pockets or a mania for
industrial-grade and -scale home improvement.

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mindcrime
On a (possibly) related note:

[https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7827075,-79.0736018,225m/dat...](https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7827075,-79.0736018,225m/data=!3m1!1e3)

This is a facility of some sort which is apparently owned by AT&T, was
supposedly abandoned years ago, but which started seeing some new activity a
while back. The thing is an underground bunker of some sort... zoom in close
and you can see how the road leads underground. There are all sorts of local
crazy rumors and shit about what's actually there, if anything, and what goes
on / went on there.

So far as I can tell, the closest thing anybody has gotten to an "official"
story on the site is that it was formerly part of the military AUTOVON phone
network.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autovon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autovon)

More info:

[http://cryptome.org/eyeball/bighole/bighole-
eyeball.htm](http://cryptome.org/eyeball/bighole/bighole-eyeball.htm)

[http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/big-hole-deep-
secret/Conten...](http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/big-hole-deep-
secret/Content?oid=1182760)

[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2474610/posts](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2474610/posts)

[http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/home-
garden/article8...](http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/home-
garden/article8999099.html)

[https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/coldwarcomms/conversatio...](https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/coldwarcomms/conversations/topics/323)

[http://williamson-labs.com/troposcatter.htm](http://williamson-
labs.com/troposcatter.htm)

~~~
eitally
I live in that area and I think the AUTOVON explanation is likely 100%
accurate. As to why it's seen renewed activity in the last couple of years,
that's anyone's guess.

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subless
I have what I believe to be an old AT&T radio tower less than 100 yards from
my house. It was so overgrown with brush you cloud barely see the building,
but just yesterday they cleared the brush off. It's located in Gaffney, South
Carolina, and it's the only one I've ever seen that looks similar to the ones
from [http://long-lines.net/](http://long-lines.net/) website, but it's not
listed as one on their website; South Carolina actually isn't listed on their
site at all.

~~~
subless
Here's a picture: [http://imgur.com/HTSdbdN](http://imgur.com/HTSdbdN)

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VLM
Its like they're pretending Google doesn't exist, for fun.

Its kinda interesting reading the story of the Oct '73 cable cut or seeing the
old route maps for the L-1 cable and the microwave reroute. Excavators dug up
copper cable in the old days, long before they developed their well known
taste for optical fiber.

Its secret in the sense of you probably have no idea of the location or
routing of the wires between you and the nearest central office, but if you
looked up at the phone poles you'd rapidly get the idea. Not secret in the
sense of the world being run by a cabal of reptilian space aliens.

I found multiple references the bunker onsite got sold (probably for
warehousing) but google maps hasn't been updated. The maps aerial view shows
it covered in semi trailers.

~~~
mindcrime
_the world being run by a cabal of reptilian space aliens_

How did you find out about that!@?!?? Who have you been talking to? Don't
move, some very nice people are coming to _cough_ talk _cough_ to you tonight!

~~~
lfowles
It got slipped in Futurama, you can't just _make up_ something like the Space
Pope.

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exabrial
Kansas resident here... I've seen a lot of towers with that sort of
construction and microwave horns while hunting and traveling. There's a
massive one on along 50 highway between Newton and Florence, though I can't
recall the exact location (near Peabody, KS maybe?)...

IIRC, I think the tower I'm thinking of points to the northeast. It'd be
pretty cool so figure out the links that used to be connected!

