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Discarded AT&T Microwave Bunkers For Sale
Posted by
chrisd
on Wed Sep 11, 2002 08:38 PM
from the good-place-for-a-party dept.
from the good-place-for-a-party dept.
InitZero writes "American Tower is selling nearly 2000 old AT&T Long Line microwave locations that are no longer needed thanks to fiber. These towers -- spaced about 50 miles in every direction -- and their associated bunkers were designed to withstand World War III. The average location (find one near you) has two acres of land, 1,800 square feet worth of bunker and a tower of 200 feet. Some locations still have their hardware (60KW generator, microwave feedlines, equipment racks, feed horns, etc.) All this for an average price of just $25,000. If you're a ham radio operator, building a data center or just looking for a place to put your wireless access point, these locations look awesome."
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Discarded AT&T Microwave Bunkers For Sale
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Re:Slashdotted? (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't most people read the article before replying?
Okay, getting back on topic, is it possible to aim these things? I have a noisy neighbor that I'd like to
Re:EMP Hardening (Score:4, Informative)
The buildings supporting the towers were hardened against a nuclear blast, and some of them in high-danger areas were underground. The towers themselves were engineered to withstand all but a close (within 5 miles) blast. The microwave horns were covered with a protective shield to keep out not only the elements, but also radioactive fallout. The buildings were shielded with copper to protect the equipment against the Electromagnetic Pulse associated with a nuclear explosion. Foot-thick concrete walls protected the vital electronics and people inside the base installations of these towers. Thick copper grounds went deep into the bedrock beneath each tower. Fallout showers, backup generators, sleeping facilities all existed to keep the network up in times of war.
So while the equipment itself is likely hardened, the building is shielded.. It doesn't say how much shielding, etc there is however
Re: EMP Hardening (Score:4, Funny)
+4 Hrarfug
Kruig chxofp lnyuvtezna en BEOWULF CLUSTER boj plorndles? %&)
No kidding... I remember these well. (Score:5, Interesting)
They are hell-for-stout, no doubt. You could wipe out everything above ground in the US, and still get a dial tone. Most are in remote locations, naturally, and include fuel storage tanks (propane) and blast shielding. Just the ticket for anyone looking for the ultimate private bomb shelter.
Re:No kidding... I remember these well. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No kidding... I remember these well. (Score:4, Interesting)
The dialtone joke is just that...how can any govt. think it is doing the populace good by keeping the phonelines up when they won't be seeing daylight for a generation or two.
Ok, I'll answer my own Q...they were spending cold war $$ while providing 'make work' for the communications industry. 'money' is the key word in why these were built, not concern for the American way.
Sadly... (Score:5, Funny)
World War III... really? (Score:3, Insightful)
blast pressure (Score:5, Informative)
take that, SIGINT sattelites! (Score:3, Funny)
These sites are awesome! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:These sites are awesome! (Score:5, Interesting)
Even as careful as we are to try to maintain a standard layout, each of the sites I maintain all have their own quirks. But then, we have auxillary equipment that varies from site to site so that screws up the attempt at standardization.
More Long Lines information (Score:5, Informative)
Slashdotted Already? (Score:5, Informative)
Guess I'm not the only one to dream of owning a nuke-resistant bunker.
Here's the Google cache [216.239.51.100] of the site map to salivate over...
Good news if you're back east or in the Bay Area, bad news otherwise.
Say, wonder if Mrs. Moody would mind running a home daycare out of one of these?
Re:Slashdotted Already? (Score:5, Informative)
I appreciate the effort, but I think we should all know google's capabilities.
Made for parties (Score:5, Funny)
Broadband 2 boonies (Score:5, Interesting)
Hell, or get paid for offering an alternative route for congested hops.
Re:Broadband 2 boonies (Score:5, Informative)
The one I'm familiar with is near Mount Cory, Ohio, and is situated in the middle of a corn field (or is it soybeans, this year?). It consists of a man-made hill, twenty-or-so feet tall, with a couple of small buildings on top. The tower itself is as other posters have described - not terribly tall (less than 200 feet), with an incredibly wide base. Giant feedhorns flow gracefully from it. I'm told by people who've been into it that the space below ground is much more expansive.
High-tension transmission lines live nearby to supply power. It has its own substation.
It would be a very poor choice as a location from which to which to distribute massive amounts of bandwidth.
For one thing, a wireless ISP [comwavz.net] set up their NOC in an abandoned local telco building about a quarter-mile down the road from there. They constructed a rather monstrous, more modern-looking tower. I'd estimate height at 600' - it positively dwarfs the AT&T relay station.
For another thing, it must have made more sense to build new, than buy the little relay station, or lease tower space, or whatever. Else, they wouldn't have done it. And if a couple-hundred feet would've been OK for this ruler-flat Ohio landscape, I doubt they'd have gone as far up as they did.
And ironically, I had a conversation that went something like this when I had the comwavz installers at my house, not long after service rollout:
Him: So, the DS-3 should be up Real Soon Now, after AT&T gets their head screwed on straight. For now, all we have is a T1.
Me: Well, that's fine. What's the holdup on the DS-3?
Him: I guess they can't figure out how to sell it to us via microwave.
Me: This is the same AT&T with the relay station right over there [/me points], right?
Him: Yeah. Strange, huh?
It's -hard- to get bandwidth out in the sticks, even if you've got a cold war microwave relay within spitting distance. I doubt things would improve much by owning one or two instead of just being near one.
Friend bought one (Score:5, Interesting)
What really boggles my mind is the BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars that went into building these things in the 60's. They are truly incredible, inside and out. Someone decided that there WOULD be long distance (and there was).
Re:Friend bought one (Score:4, Informative)
They were heavily compartmented, and built much like a bank vault, where you have a box inside a box inside a box. There was at least one central cavity that was meant to be home for worst case attacks.
As I recall, this was pre ATT, and they were built for ITT, under a government contract to provide domestic communications if WWW III (as stated) broke out. And yes, there was considerable money invested.
There's a good thing in this... (Score:5, Informative)
Ask Slashdot... (Score:5, Funny)
Note: Resistance to oncomming ground troops is a big plus.
(if you don't get it, just move along)
Was This Public Property? (Score:3, Interesting)
Fiber huh? (Score:3, Funny)
M@
Long Line Information (Score:3, Informative)
Looks like a bargain to me (Score:3, Interesting)
First off, it's cheaper.
Secondly, these are more conveniently located
Lastly, it looks like there's a lot more of these than missile silos.
For $25k, it's a cheap way to get a couple of acres with some improvments.
nuclear blast design criteria (Score:3, Interesting)
Given that wind resistance for a given surface area increases exponentially (I think... been a long time since physics class), that 1000mph figure is astounding.
Also this: "Above ground structure (microwave and troposcatter antennas) require at least two thirds of the structure to be below grade to prevent tilting or rotation". Does that mean these 200ft towers are rooted 400ft deep?
IMPORTANT INFORMATION (Score:3, Informative)
From: Ross Elder
To: 'John Hoffman'
Subject: RE: Sites of interest
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 15:44:03 -0400
Please note that the message posted yesterday on Slash Dot is incorrect.
American Tower Corporation has only a limited number of Surplus towers for
sale that can be accessed by clicking "Sites For Sale" on our home page.
These are the only towers that are for sale. Please also note that these
Surplus sites are sold on a strictly "as is-where is", all cash basis.
If the site you are inquiring about is not on the "Sites For Sale" list,
then it is not for sale.
If you are interested in a Surplus site, please contact me via email.
If you are having difficulty accessing our website, please try again later
as we were experiencing technical difficulties earlier today.
Thanks,
Ross Elder
Senior VP/Development
American Tower Corporation
The actual list of available sites can be downloaded at:
http://www.americantower.com/acweb/ATCSDMAREP02/P
nevermind (Score:3, Informative)