Somewhere in Utah, a phone company is missing it’s microwave site…

I followed this link to this site called “SurvivalRealty.com” and saw this article about what looks to be a former ATT microwave relay site in Utah turned into a residence.  The site is much smaller than the former ATT site in Kingston that I profiled in this post.   Still, that is a Western Electric tower and those are KS-15676 antennas.

Former ATT microwave site turned into a residence
Former ATT microwave site turned into a residence

If I were that guy, I’d take those antennas down a scrap them.  Looks like the waveguides are already gone.  I might have tried to put some windows in while I was renovating it.  It would drive me crazy to live in a house without any windows.  I guess if one were waiting for the big one, windows might not be a desired feature of a survival bunker.

I wouldn’t really call it a “communications bunker” though.  I’ve been in communications bunkers, they are mostly underground and are much more robust than that building.  Still, it is built better than an ordinary commercial building or a regular house.   It would take a special person to live out in the middle of nowhere like that.

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4 thoughts on “Somewhere in Utah, a phone company is missing it’s microwave site…”

  1. It appears to be a type “L” tower, however the building is of a style I have not seen before. The horn antennas are made of aluminum alloy 6061-T6 but have many stainless steel rivets. It took us about a day to cut up two of these horns, working continuously with “chop saws”. Cutting holes for windows into a building like this is a little involved. The concrete in my buildings is 6000 psi strength with reinforcing rods and walls 18 inches thick. There were many designs of these buildings. I have some “blast-proof” designs from the late 1950’s through 1967. They were designed to withstand nuclear blasts. Some of the underground installations were set on steel spring foundations. Compared to what they cost AT&T when new, these sites could have been purchased 10 years ago at “bargain basement” prices. Getting water and plumbing would be major hurdles at this site.

  2. This looks like the old Santa Clara site (relay between Mormon Mesa left and Big Mtn right). Interesting that one of the right path horns had been rotated. Drove by in 2011 and tower was gone …. so goes another piece of American telcom history.

  3. This was the Santa Clara repeater station on the seventeen-hop relay route between Salt Lake Junction (aka East Bench) and Turquoise Mt. near Baker Cal. The tower was a 50′ Type H (this route was built before Type L & M towers became available). The radio building is a concrete version of the 24′ x 48′ cinder-block buildings of earlier construction; they’re likely an early manifestation of cold-war ‘hardening’. This route is shown ‘under construction’ on the march 15 1960 route map seen on another post this site. Most of the towers on the route are still standing but nearly all horns are gone – i visited one of these sites in 2016 that still had horns. The four Nevada sites – Mormon Mesa, Arrow Canyon, Arden, & Beer Bottle Pass may all be seen from the I-15 (if you know where to look – getting to them may be a bit daunting).

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