From here:
Unlike some attorneys, engineers know that the laws of physics are not subject to negotiation.
Music, pure music.
Category: General
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.
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.
The Last Radio Station
Back in the cold war days, the federal government took emergency warnings quite seriously. So much so that they spent about $2 million in 1972 to build a LF (low frequency) radio station WGU-20, in Maryland designed to integrate into the public warning system. This was known as the “Last radio station” because it was designed to operate after nuclear armageddon. Using the first all-solid-state AM transmitter designed by Westinghouse, the station transmitted on 179 kHz (power 50 KW) with a loop that stated:
“Good evening. This is WGU-20, a defense civil-preparedness agency station, serving the east-central states with emergency information. Eastern Standard Time seventeen hours, twenty minutes, twenty seconds.”
The greeting would change to “Good Morning…” or “Good afternoon…” as appropriate.
One small problem arose from this system, no one had long-wave receivers. The government attempted to persuade manufacturers to market, and the public to purchase radios that would only receive periodic tests or that they were likely going to die in the next 15 minutes. It was a tough sell from the start.
Military planners decided that they might integrate the DIDS (Decision Information Distribution System) information gained from surface-to-air radar that would give the approximate impact areas of incoming ballistic missiles. The idea was, the public would then know which areas to “avoid.” It may have appealed to the military mind, but most others didn’t quite see the value in it, especially since reaction times would have been 10 minutes or less.
Plans were to build several of these radio stations throughout the US operating on Low Frequency, which would have replaced the EBS over-the-air daisy chain system that remains in effect today with the current EAS. Unfortunately, the public never bought into the concept, and around 1990 or so, WGU-20 was turned off for good. The nearest thing was to have to it today is NOAA weather (or all hazards) radio.
EBS and EAS have never had to work in a time of emergency and if the circumstances are dire enough for someone to attempt to activate EAS, it is very likely the system would fail.
Communications infrastructure vulnerability
I was speaking with a friend of mine recently about some interference issues he was having at an FM transmitter site. There were several cellular and PCS tenants at this site and something from the FM transmitter was interfering with the GPS receivers. This one very small glitch was causing multiple carriers to go offline, basically shutting down the entire wireless infrastructure at this particular site.
GPS signals are used for syncing carrier frequencies and modulation timing for CDMA and TDMA that all cellular, PSC, and 3G, 4G (or whatever G) wireless systems use to seamlessly hand off users from one site to another. Without it, the entire system will shut down.
What would happen to communications in this country if all GPS were interrupted? When I was in the military, we spoke often about high-altitude nuclear detonations and the possible effects they would have on our communications circuits. In fact, we drilled for such things. Often. What, if anything, are wireless carriers doing to keep their sites online if, heaven forbid, somebody does something to disrupt GPS? If terrestrial radio and television broadcasting is going to be replaced by 3G and 4G wireless networks, how redundant are they? I know, for example, many cell sites do not have long-term backup power. They have battery banks, which in a power outage, may last 6-10 hours, but after that, the site is down.
Further, how about vulnerabilities getting the data to and from these sites? Most cell sites rely on some type of TELCO circuit, usually a T-1 (DS-1) or multiple T-1 to interface with the wired network. This includes voice, text, and data services. If those circuits are down, then anything connected to them will be offline.
What about redundant transmitters, antennas, receivers, etc? How much of the current wireless infrastructure is backed up with spares? It causes me worry to think that someday traditional broadcasters will be going out of business due to poor financial planning, leaving us all to subscription-based data services that may or may not be there in an emergency. At least with many radio and TV stations, there are generators, backup transmitters, microwave systems, and so forth. Most good broadcasters have emergency plans for the restoration of service during a disaster. EAS may not be the greatest thing ever, but right now, it is the only emergency communications plan we have. Radio is still the best and most robust way to communicate vital information during emergencies. Cell sites go offline along with whatever G wireless service, cable TV systems go offline due to power outages or damaged distribution networks, landline phones can be taken out due to power interruptions at the company office, or damaged networks.
Why do I care? Why should you care? Because, as I have eluded in previous posts, with the demise of local newspapers, the demise of local radio, the erosion of local TV news coverage, and the general trivialization of our political apparatus on the local and national levels, we are losing our voice. We will lose our democracy. Right now, the US is on the verge of becoming an oligarchy or a corporatocracy.
What road are we traveling down when unrestricted free access to information is gone? The internet is a great resource, but it is not free. What will happen to the price of internet access when competing information and entertainment technologies such as radio, TV, and newspapers disappear? Look to our transportation sector for an example. Gone are the vast majority of passenger railroads that crisscrossed the country for nearly 100 years. In many places, public transportation is laughable. How do you get to work? How do you get to the store? How much will $5.00 per gallon of gas affect your life? More importantly, what can you do about it when the cost of fuel gets expensive? Nothing. Most people are stuck in their suburban homes with not even a convenience store within walking distance.
What will happen when terrestrial radio goes away? I shudder to think.