Why America's Forgotten Microwave Skyway Network is still standing

Why America's Forgotten Microwave Skyway Network is still standing | Abandoned

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Күн бұрын

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America's first wireless communication network, known as the Microwave Radio Skyway, launched in the 1950s and transformed our ability to communicate long-distance. Over half a century later, however, technology has advanced to the point that vast amounts of old infrastructure, including hundreds of towers, have simply been abandoned. In today's video, we will look at what remains.
Chapters:
00:00 - How your grandparents made wireless phone calls
00:47 - The history of long-distance “Relay” communication systems
03:18 - The History of early telephone technology
05:36 - The Unexpected side effects of telephone technology
07:47 - Nikola Tesla’s World Wireless system
09:00 - How Guglielmo Marconi successfully implemented wireless communication
10:22 - America’s first wireless communication system
13:40 - How AT&T’s Microwave Skyway Network Changed the World
15:37 - When fiberoptic wires replaced Microwave networks
16:55 - What remains of AT&T’s abandoned skyway network
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IT’S HISTORY - Weekly Tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.
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» CREDIT
Scriptwriter - Ryan Socash
Editor - Sebastian Ripoll
Host - Ryan Socash
» NOTICE
Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.

Пікірлер: 598

@ITSHISTORY Жыл бұрын

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@barrycaplin1394 Жыл бұрын

Thumbs down for having a sponsor and many more if I could for the low life act of interrupting your content to spew garbage. Welcome to ranks of garbage youtubers!

@ChristianConservativ Жыл бұрын

I can't believe you left out Cher Ami on the carrier pigeon part, or the Carrington Event on the telegraph, or the Japanese Ku-Go “Death Ray” weapon, or the Transatlantic telegraph cable, or the Transatlantic communications cable, or even the Moscow-Washington hotline and there are several others but I guess you would lose the attention of the audience. Oh and the "Talkies".

@Charlie-Oooooo Жыл бұрын

So why ARE unused microwave towers still standing? Too much money to take them down? Or left up as potential backup if some future crisis occurs? Or planned to be re-purposed for something else?

@ChristianConservativ Жыл бұрын

@@Charlie-Oooooo Too much money to take them down and some are planned to be re-purposed for something else.

@Charlie-Oooooo Жыл бұрын

@@ChristianConservativ thank you for replying sir. They sure did build them to last!

@ethanlamoureux5306 Жыл бұрын

The title of this video promised us one thing: “Why America's Forgotten Microwave Skyway Network is still standing.” And after having watched a video which spends 18 minutes reviewing the history of communications, we still don’t know.

@daveh2612 Жыл бұрын

They’re still standing because a) no expense was spared constructing them and b) because they are typically too costly to demolish or dismantle. Some sites have been repurposed for cellular or muncipal communication, WISPs etc

@americanpatrol4603 Жыл бұрын

I was wondering the same thing. I hate being click-baited and won't be watching anything else from this guy.

@a1973stang Жыл бұрын

Just saved me some time. 👍

@ripwednesdayadams Жыл бұрын

Thanks for saving me from wasting my time.

@specialed6357 Жыл бұрын

He said cause it was built into building designs. Another words not easily removed, so they're just left alone.

@mercuryfusion8325 Жыл бұрын

As somebody who to this day works on microwave networks.....these are still in use by hundreds of entities in the US alone. They are used in places where laying fiber optic cables would be cost prohibitive or is flat out not allowed (through national parks, etc). This equipment is still manufactured and progressing and is now capable of supporting speeds up to 10Gbps.

@Emily_M81 10 ай бұрын

I design word docs for circuits using them sometimes and I hate them lol. They're inventoried in our TIRKS database in all kinds of bullshit ways and we basically have to get told by an engineer a carrier we need to use is some microwave between mountains XD

@mercuryfusion8325 10 ай бұрын

@@Emily_M81 They function great, but we do all our own documentation in house lol. Hybrid circuits are always a PITA though, I much prefer pure microwave networks overall. As soon as you start introducing fiber inbetween on the circuits it gets way too messy and complicated (from a monitoring standpoint).

@HappyHermitt 10 ай бұрын

I've worked many cell sites linked on mw.

@jamiesuejeffery 8 ай бұрын

I live in the desert west of Nevada, grew up in Idaho. Yes. Many of these are still in use. Some are now smaller than they used to be. I am now an ham radio operator. We use similar microwave radios to jump from mountain to mountain for our repeater network. Telecoms still use these older system.

@deepspacecow2644 8 ай бұрын

How good do those e-band links handle rain?

@mikekwayne Жыл бұрын

When I was born in 1961, Dad took a job with a team that service, upgraded, and installed new Skyway towers. It was one of several teams. Teams had to live in travel trailers of a maximum length, so they could drive in any state by day or night. We were always moving from one tower to another. The teams became VERY close knit. Even after Dad quit when I started school, he kept in touch with old team members for decades.

@brandonblack8735 Жыл бұрын

Nice story. I think the social aspect of government projects is one of the most undervalued benefits they often bring. The relationships forged during these projects are still paying off till this day. Just the Apollo program alone is still paying back this country. Traveling as a youngster must have been quite the adventure during that time period.

@toomanyuserids Жыл бұрын

My father worked on these, not on site but tuning things in the office. We'd go on a road trip and he knew every tower would be on I-80...

@RE-rt7pv Ай бұрын

Our Godfather, Robert Shennum, invented Digital with his lab partner while working for Bell Labs. Shennum's unrelated 1954 PhD thesis from Caltech is avail online. Later, Digital Patent owned by AT&T on embedded code multiplex switching credits Shennum and Leonard as co-inventors. "Digital" was coined later.

@scumpoozie Жыл бұрын

I worked for a WISP before owning my own. We used one of these in a rural South Louisiana area. Truly remarkable how NO expense was spared in every facet. I had the pleasure of talking for 45minutes with an older Gent that managed this Long Lines Site. These were an overlooked factor in this Nation's infrastructure.

@watchthe1369 Жыл бұрын

much like the concrete arrows for the early airmail......

@tfmn218 Жыл бұрын

I'm curious where you found the term "Skyways"? Every website and document I've ever seen on the AT&T microwave network referred to them as the "Long Lines".

@hugh007 Жыл бұрын

Long Lines was a branch of AT&T Bell System. It connected the various local companies to each other and internationally. It also carried network radio and TV programs across the country. I worked for them in the analog days into the fiber and digital days. It was discontinued by the court ordered divestiture, and its functions absorbed into AT&T.

@andythekitsune Жыл бұрын

Trans Canada Skyway is what Bell Canada called the system

@wyliesdiesels4169 Жыл бұрын

yup the correct name is AT&T Long Lines NOT skyway

@philipcollura2669 18 күн бұрын

@hugh007 Me too. Long Lines 1966-1984, retired 1997, back as a result of TCG purchase (renamed ATT Local, then retired again in 2016. My job as a Craftsman was at NR, the TVOC at 32 AOTA.

@tedmoss Жыл бұрын

I was a radio engineer for APS in Arizona back in 1967 after I got out of the USAF. We still used tubes then, but over several years converted to transistor equipment. The old tube equipment was made by RCA and called CW-20 microwave relay. Our system ran all over the state on the mountain tops. You really had to know a lot of different things like snowshoeing and climbing towers (280 ft). Back then we worked by ourselves which was a little dangerous, things have changed a lot now.

@bkbroiler8069 Жыл бұрын

As a member of the analog age I can attest that making a phone call 40 years ago was almost exactly the same as today on your pocket computer. We just had to remember the numbers and dial them

@thatyoutubeguy7583 Жыл бұрын

Pocket computer. Never heard cell phones be called that

@jamescameron6819 Жыл бұрын

Often had way better connections back then. Way more reliable

@wzpu3283 Жыл бұрын

@@thatyoutubeguy7583"handheld computer with telephony"

@michaelw6277 Жыл бұрын

I remember that my grandpa had a pocket calculator that could be programmed to hold names and phone numbers. I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

@JustinVodden Жыл бұрын

I call it a pocket computer too

@lisamiller8174 Жыл бұрын

As someone who worked at MCI for a number of years, I can appreciate this video. However, there was no mention of MCI. Who contributed much to microwave communications. They also won their case against AT&T, thereby breaking up that monopoly. Also, no mention of Hedy Lamarr, whose work contributed to telecommunications.

@grayrabbit2211 Жыл бұрын

"That's Hedley" - Mel Brooks

@Johnny_Socko Жыл бұрын

@@grayrabbit2211 I love Mel Brooks, but I hate that he turned that highly accomplished woman into a punchline.

@grayrabbit2211 Жыл бұрын

@@Johnny_Socko That punchline made me look up who the real person was and I was quite amazed. I don't think she gets enough recognition.

@dwightpries8330 Жыл бұрын

MCI, as in Micro Communications Inc? With offices in Manchester, NH at Grenier Field? If so, you may have worked with my dad, Walter.

@firewalker1372 Жыл бұрын

MCI huh, wow that’s a name I haven’t heard in many many many years. That and cellular one, I even remember the jingle. 😂.

@Scottocaster6668 Жыл бұрын

Ps: Kudos to this comment section, it has tons of information on these towers not covered by Ryan. Good Work Guys! 👍

@towertone Жыл бұрын

a few notes- AT&T sold all of their towers, including cell. Many of these are retrofitted with cell antennas. Many were built to withstand hurricanes, power outages and floods so they will likely still be around for 50 more years. MCI started off as Microwave Communications, INC and also had network of these. Microwaves are point-to-point, so the curvature of the earth limits their distance depending on height of dishes (which reduces reliability), elevations of site and of course anything in the way, even trees.

@theabbottagencylive5210 Жыл бұрын

I have been to a site with its building still standing after the Washington IL EF 4. I can certainly say that the whole being resistant to hurricanes is and strong weather is right.

@dominicm2175 Жыл бұрын

It’s always been my understanding that the original ATT microwave tower network connected military bases across the US to communication hubs.

@dominicm2175 Жыл бұрын

Clickbait..the video has literally nothing to do with the title until the last minute or so….the title should be “ History of telecommunications in the US.

@towertone Жыл бұрын

@@dominicm2175 I had hoped for more discussions about the towers themselves, freqs used, Traveling wave tubes, yada yada

@edletain385 Жыл бұрын

I remember having a farmer dig up a 50K pair cable that was at the time the main trunk between Edmonton and Calgary (not his fault, the location was not marked properly, a discrepancy between planned and 'as built'). service was rerouted via the nearest microwave tower but it didn't have the same capacity. Some poor outside plant guys spent many hours in a wet muddy field under a tent splicing it back together. That tower is still standing, hosting many cell antennas. Fibre replaced the copper long ago.

@fordson51 Жыл бұрын

Everything you said is true, but you missed a detail. Marconi's 1901 transmission was transatlantic, but it did not originate in Newfoundland. It originated in Wellfleet, MA on Cape Cod where Marconi build his station to send radio messages across the Atlantic. Newfoundland was suppose to just be a relay station, but when the message was first sent it was found to be going directly to Cornwall and bypassing the Newfoundland station.

@ron.v Жыл бұрын

I don't disagree but what he says is misleading. It shows he clearly does not understand much of what he's talking about as if he only read it from various internet websites and created his narration therefrom. See my lengthy comment (above) for details.

@SeanLamb-I-Am Жыл бұрын

Railway semaphores weren't used in the way that is suggested in the video, as in sending individual letters to be decoded further down the line. The telegraph, once it was introduced, was used to transmit complex native-language messages, initially via morse code. Railway semaphore signals were more equivalent to street traffic lights. They were signals to the train drivers to tell them the status of the track ahead of them and had only a few aspects that roughly equate to Stop, Caution and Go. Generally, there was one pole for each track approaching the signal gantry, with multiple semaphore arms for tracks that had points for diverging routes.

@vijayanchomatil8413 Жыл бұрын

Nevertheless, the fact that they were handed down to a different industry (railroads) is a valid point.

@jim2lane Жыл бұрын

The horn antennas shown at 10:45, 11:13 and 11:33 did collect microwave transmissions, however, these were used for astronomy and satellite communications, not for early terrestrial communications experiments. The one shown at 10:45 is the Holmdel Horn Antenna in NJ which is now a national landmark. It was instrumental in the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) which is a key piece of supporting evidence of the Big Bang theory

@meh11235 Жыл бұрын

Big bang is false … the dishes were comms systems … they date back to the 30s when wireless was being tested by the agency.

@Nobody85746 Жыл бұрын

Wave guides, sorry it was my thing 😢

@MitzvosGolem1 Жыл бұрын

Dr Penzias CMBR noise. True

@The-Friendly-Grizzly Жыл бұрын

Holmdell was also the US station for Telstar, the very first “live” communications satellite. The other station was in Goonhillie (so) Down in Scotland. I recall seeing the first live telecast from Europe.

@Scottocaster6668 Жыл бұрын

Wow, look at you guys with more info than Ryan Socash! 👍

@thomthumbe Жыл бұрын

The horn antenna at 11:24 doesn’t and never did have anything to do with communications or telephone. It is a horn antenna at the Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, WVA and was used for radio astronomy purposes. It was used to detect clouds of hydrogen in outer space. It is still there, but hasn’t been used for many years (like most of the rest of their antennas). Last time I walked up to the horn, it was covered in overgrown vegetation and simply rotting away. 😩

@glennso47 Жыл бұрын

The “operator “ on Rowan and Martin Laugh In. Ernestine “One Ringy dingy. Two ringy dingies.”

@jim2lane Жыл бұрын

Ernestine as played by Lily Tomlin 😉

@glennso47 Жыл бұрын

@@jim2lane Thank you for sharing the name of the actress.

@jim2lane Жыл бұрын

@@glennso47 that was always one of my favorite skits on that show 🙂

@gushiperson Жыл бұрын

I still don't know how you didn't say the words "Long Lines" once in this video.

@bretthibbs6083 Жыл бұрын

these were also known and the long lines and they were used more than just for phones they were also used in the broadcasting industry too for news and the government also used these as back up comms. Also the majority of these sites had bunkers for the equipment that was bomb proof. As far as I know there is a tower in the St Cloud mn area as well as the one on top of the Qwest building in downtown Mpls.

@grayrabbit2211 Жыл бұрын

Microwave transmissions are still used in the telecommunications systems in the USA today. My own office has to separate microwave links on the roof at two different frequency bands which provides our internet and phone connections to the outside world. Many cell towers are connected to the rest of the world via microwave, especially in rural areas. And for awhile we were using microwave-linked Aerostats (blimps) for cell and internet service on Fort Myers Beach after Cat 5 Hurricane Ian completely destroyed the phone & cable cos in the area.

@Elfnetdesigns Жыл бұрын

Also literally your homes WiFi router is a microwave transceiver for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.

@Press1for Жыл бұрын

Popcorn 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿

@FerociousPancake888 Ай бұрын

I’ve decommissioned these towers. Climbed towers for 10 years and it was pretty rare they (AT&T) would have us take these (the horn antennas) down. Back In the beginning they used to let you keep the scrap and holy cow you could get like $25K just from the metal. It was great. If you’re into tower history I recommend you check out the old network from the “H Towers.” It was a line of H shaped towers that ran across the US and I believe it was one of the first microwave networks (and I believe it was used for military activities) even predating the AT&T horn antennas. Tower history is absolutely fascinating. To this day if you visit a tower site that is way up in the mountains and hard to access, a lot of that equipment is still there.

@albertowen1025 Жыл бұрын

This is an excellent upload! Brings me back to a time when the "Great Monstrosity" ruled our skyline, a 300-foot microwave tower, back in the 1970s, in the town I grew up in Florida. Every time I went by it, I knew one day I would be working for the Bell System. Upon graduation from high school in 1984, I decided that my skills and knowledge would be well enough to apply for an apprentice installer's position, and sure enough, I interviewed for an opening and was hired on the spot. I worked there until 1989, when I was hired by AT&T and stayed there for 15 years when I decided to enter college. Needless to say the old microwave tower was by then just a skeleton of what it once was...but this video reminded of the "good old days" of the Bell System and the job I used to do. THANK YOU!!

@domgag1756 Жыл бұрын

Actually lots of these tower are still in use. It's for rural wireless internet providers.

@TheJstewart2010 Жыл бұрын

One of my Dad's brothers worked for the telephone company in rural western PA. He said that aligning the microwave transmitters and receivers between two widely separated towers could be quite an ordeal.

@deepbludude4697 Жыл бұрын

Very cool video. In 1982 I hired on with RCA as a tech working on the Missile Test Project, We supported, microwave, submarine cable and HF/VHF as well as a new Satcom link for uploading and transmitting data from the Shuttle and other USAF/USN space projects I got to work up and down the range before they closed majority of the sites. It was fun, hard work, harder partying, great people that had a get it done work ethic. I feel so blessed to have been involved.

@TheBaldr Жыл бұрын

Most news vans had remote microwave transmitters and that is how they did remote across town live broadcasts.

@AddieDirectsTV Жыл бұрын

Still do. But we tend to use cell-based backpacks now.

@user-wl8yu7hi1h Жыл бұрын

Semaphore is still used in US Navy. At least one signalman is required on every ship.

@ChrisBullington Жыл бұрын

For decades I've wondered what that odd extremity on top of that building in downtown Los Angeles is. Thank you for solving a long standing riddle.

@Johnny_Socko Жыл бұрын

Yes, that is the microwave tower atop AT&T's switching center. It was the tallest structure in that part of town before Bunker Hill was redeveloped with the big skyscrapers in the 1980s. I always thought it was so odd & mysterious when I was a little kid.

@carolinaeric8500 Жыл бұрын

I actually have a relative who worked for Bell Labs, as a matter of fact he invented micro mirror switching technology for fiber optics. Basically it’s where cables connect from what I understand and where the signal needs redirecting from connection to connection. Anyway, this video was extremely informative I thought and I’ve seen several of these towers before with the horns on them and always wondered about them

@Iamdarthplague Жыл бұрын

I live in northern Ohio and I have always wondered what those towers were! I had theorized that perhaps an inter-war radar facility but had no proof. Ive examined the Castalia, Birmingham, and Lorain towers but have never gotten inside. Thank you for explaining what the towers are and their function!

@daveh2612 Жыл бұрын

If you search AT&T long lines you’ll find a wealth of information about these microwave towers.

@iriquoispliskin7185 Жыл бұрын

You said there's one in Lorain? Where at? I'm near there and I'd love to take a look

@Iamdarthplague Жыл бұрын

@@iriquoispliskin7185 its technically Birmingham.

@mishmashmedley Жыл бұрын

@@Iamdarthplague then tell @iriquoispliskin7185 where it is... that's what he asked for, just saying "it's birmingham" doesn't answer "where can i go to see it?"

@worldofbrandan Жыл бұрын

@@iriquoispliskin7185 41.415230, -82.144528 good luck, as of 2021 it's hiding behind the tree line

@safetymikeengland Жыл бұрын

In 1979, I was an enlisted soldier in the US Army, trained as a radio operator / teletype operator / - it was called MOS O5C at the time. Part of that job was called radio relay - we had line-of-site radio sets and we would receive a message from one direction and retransmit it in the opposite direction, basically performing the same function as one station on the old semaphore-relay network.

@mumblesbadly7708 Ай бұрын

These “forgotten” microwave towers need to be used as a plot element and setting of a post-apocalypse sci-fi flick!

@rd946 Жыл бұрын

14 minutes of telecommunications history, 4 minutes about the actual microwave skyway. 😕

@johnley8168 Жыл бұрын

It's nice for you to share history that I lived through. I'm amazed sometimes that young people have no idea about things I take for granted.

@panatypical Жыл бұрын

People still don't know Jack about telephone etiquette. Even businesses, they ask who you are before they introduce themselves....

@toyyoda3710 Жыл бұрын

Wow ... Mind Blown! ... Rest in peace Corning. We loved Corningware and i had no idea (Probably forgot) that Corning had so much to do with the development of fiber optics. I still remember getting my Popular science magazine in the mail in the 1980's as a young teen talking about how amazing fiber optics was but at the time in 1984 (My best guess) it was mainly used for decorations and toys.

@spacecowboy2483 Жыл бұрын

Corning is far from dead, it is alive and kicking, bringing glass to a lot of areas of modern technology. For instance, guess who developed the high resistance glass used for smartphone screens, a.k.a. gorilla glass? You guessed it!

@LlyleHunter Жыл бұрын

I miss Corning’s art glass maker Steuben Glass very much. Some of their pieces were legendary like the Nautilus. As a child my family and I took a tour of Corning Glass in the early sixties and it was mind blowing ( along with glass blowing .)

@boardnski156 Жыл бұрын

Corning Inc. is very much alive. Steuben glass is still a thing too.

@toyyoda3710 Жыл бұрын

@@boardnski156 I will give you some time to catch up... unless some other company came along and bought them out in the last 7 days... i think we have to bid farewell the the great, historic company of our past... I have no information on Steuben glass

@drlong08 Жыл бұрын

Not sure why anyone thinks Corning is dead. I was meeting with their Board regarding negotiations on Fiber Optic lines for our broadband project that was about 20 million in budget and they were very well positioned to assist. They may not make kitchenware but they are doing pretty well in the internet and communications markets.

@spoonified52 Жыл бұрын

There is actually one of these towers not to far from me, what amazes me is I still see people up there on a semi regular basis doing maintenance. While it doesn't seem like it is currently active, I do wonder if it is kept in operating state for an emergency backup for critical communications.

@tfmn218 Жыл бұрын

Many of the towers do have secondary transmitters on them for various reasons and customers. The only reason the horn antennas remain is the excessive cost to remove them. Many other KZfaq videos of the interior of the transmission buildings show they have had all their original equipment removed.

@fromthefireside5677 3 ай бұрын

The grandparents did not make wireless phone calls with this system. The calls were land line calls but over long distances...

@slamdvw Жыл бұрын

I vaguely remember the commercials for, I believe it was US Sprint - "Calls so quiet you can hear a pin drop." I only assume it was because of the noise of the microwave link vs a fiber link. Pretty wild, microwave was king,... then almost overnight - obsolete.

@thecianinator 5 ай бұрын

Holy cow! I live right by one of these things and I didn't even know!

@steveshoemaker6347 Жыл бұрын

l am in my 80's and i have seen some of these changes.....Thanks so much..... Shoe🇺🇸

@Penske_Truck_Roseburg-Ore 27 күн бұрын

I'm a Radio Communications technician part time in California, I see these Long Lines all over the place on many sites I work, many of them were taken down and replaced with MotoTRBO system on DMR, also Ham Radio Operators also placed their systems in the same tower that AT&T had. On Mount Diablo, the whole site of Long Lines were all removed and replaced with some more DMR systems and P-25 Digital systems. I believe they removed them on Diablo in 1999.

@mackpines Жыл бұрын

I recall seeing an array of these huge antennas on top of a building in Portland, Oregon a few years ago. Always assumed they were for radio or TV. Never would've thought they were for telephones.

@mercuryfusion8325 Жыл бұрын

They are likely used for data not just telephones, still in use today with modern capabilities.

@joshschoonover6429 Жыл бұрын

The microwave relays system was also used to broadcast TV coast to coast, too.

@benjurqunov Жыл бұрын

I don't get into downtown Portland much lately, but I noticed those horn antennas were finally removed a couple years ago.

@willskol Жыл бұрын

Homing pigeons were used for carrying messages. Carrier pigeons were hunted for their colorful feathers which were used on hats etc., and eventually all were killed.

@scampeezo 5 ай бұрын

I believe you are referring to Pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius) which were extirpated by the end of the 19th century.

@joaopedroalbernaz Жыл бұрын

AT&T Long Lines

@chriss-nf1bd Ай бұрын

Tesla was recognized as the inventor of radio by the US supreme Court.

@BryanTorok 17 күн бұрын

Unfortunately, there are still people and sources who credit Marconi. This is similar to people who think of Edison as a great scientist or inventor. While he did develop and patent many things, in my opinion Edison was a hack and a promoter.

@mikmik9034 Жыл бұрын

Jump to 18:05, prior is just history of communications. All worth listening to.

@danielashton5697 Ай бұрын

It’s really quite simple why these structures are still out there, it costs too much to take them down.

@DesertFarmer22 Ай бұрын

Eerie is exactly the right word to use. I was hiking through the Arizona desert and came across one, the closer I got, the stranger I felt.

@donscheid97 Ай бұрын

A side note for you, the toll free 800 area code resulted from a military contract with AT&T to provide secure high-speed communications between bases. The deal was the military paid for all 800 numbers but only used a set potion of them, and the leftover numbers could be used by AT&T as they chose, thus the 1-800 toll free system is (or was) military subsidized.

@garthhancock3373 Жыл бұрын

Bob Moses did a concert on the top of the tower in Topanga CA. Now I know what the hell that tower was used for.

@mattjohnson1775 Жыл бұрын

Man those old microwaves were still in service in the late 90s. The wave guides always reminded me of the kitchen microwave ovens. We were just putting up repeaters on towers with the old school wave guides that resemble a steampunk cornacopia. Lol

@Ramblin_DMC Жыл бұрын

I love looking fot these towers whenever I travel somewhere new. I'm fortunate to be able to see a massive one from my place of work in Milford, MI.

@daviddimit2257 Жыл бұрын

I have a Map of the system from 1960 and its way more than 100 Towers, its thousands!. They were spaced every 30-40 miles across the US. most abandoned or sold off to tower companies that lease to cell providers> Fiber has replaced most of them.

@victoredwards5714 Жыл бұрын

I live near the I-80 corridor in Ohio. My high school was/is located about a mile from one of these towers. I always remember looking off in the distance trying to understand why it looked so much different than all the modern cell phone towers. We use to pretend that it actually contained a hidden ICBM missile. The interesting thing about the towers in my area, they are made entirely from local sandstone quarried out of the earth. As far as I know the towers are still in use today with new updated antenna gear, not sure what types of signals they transmit.

@Og-Judy Жыл бұрын

I was a kid in the 1950s My grandmother was afraid of storms so they never had a telephone

@JohnWilson-wg4gk 9 ай бұрын

I was a kid in the 1960's. One rumble of thunder and Mom would run around the house unplugging everything.

@kaiyack Жыл бұрын

Long lines sites had bunkers and were hardened.

@r66fplaysgames Жыл бұрын

Haven't been able to watch the video yet, as of writing this comment, but know that there is an old AT&T Long Lines microwave tower on US 24 highway East of Dover, MO.

@stevemiller6766 Жыл бұрын

That's a long way around to explain AT&Ts Long Line system.

@areguapiri 11 ай бұрын

What is that?

@blakebowers8842 Жыл бұрын

Interesting photos, but the sites have not been abandoned, ATC, American Tower Company has made a lot of money purchasing the bulk of these towers and leasing space out to state and local government, Wireless Internet providers, Cell comnpanies, etc. My company has dealt with about 300 of these towers, and yes, they have made quite a bit of positive revenue from the same companies. You might want to get your facts straight. Just because a site has brush growing up, and does not appear to be used, does not mean it is abandoned.

@stellamcwick8455 Жыл бұрын

you should have mentioned that fiberoptic communication also required the invention of LASER technology to work over long distances.

@wilsjane Жыл бұрын

Although fibre optics go back a long way, no one seems to have realised that it was only following the Roswell incident in 1947, we miraculously discovered that by using pulsed light, they could transmit data. To this day, no one on this planet has claimed to have INVENTED the system.

@kendavid4386 Ай бұрын

THIS IS TYPE OF INFORMATION THAT SHOULD BE THOUGHT IN HIGH SCHOOLS GOOD VIDEO.

@RandomRollRaceLeague Ай бұрын

Went near one of those to get some pics of a bird and within five minutes my whole body felt insane amount of tingling and eventually turned into sunburn feeling in my body hours later.

@mbiehl2 2 ай бұрын

In my home town in southern Illinois there is an AT&T Central Office that had a microwave tower on the top of the building. Back in 2014/2015 AT&T removed the tower because it was no longer using it and it was getting too costly to maintain. It was interesting watching crews take it down and scrap the steel and receivers.

@keithstudly6071 Жыл бұрын

i think that this piece was unnecessarily confusing, mixing the history of wireless communication with long distance data transmission. The microwave network was built to provide a cheaper alternative to copper transmission cables for long distance trunk lines. They fell out of use because of 2 reasons, fiber optic cables and to a lesser extent satellite. The rise of microwave might be linked to the development of high frequency radio tech for radar during WW2 because that produced the amplifiers and receivers for microwave communication that made Skyway Network possible.

@CurCam713 Жыл бұрын

We used to see these towers in the middle of towns here in the South. I guess they were connecting the Central Offices of Ma Bell. My father became a telecomm tech at some point before he left the USAF. He contracted to do telecom work and we lived in Iran in the 70s when a microwave system was setup to relay between the "listening posts" at the edge of the Soviet border down to Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf. There were many sites in remote, dangerous areas. Later he worked for Datran which competed with Ma Bell here in the states with a system of towers between Washington, DC and Houston. I got to see some of the equipment in the buildings. It was later when I became a tech that I learned more about what was really going on with these systems and the digital data transferred via the Datran system. I think the Datran system was later sold to Sprint.

@mc3lizard Жыл бұрын

This explains why long distance calls were so expensive. It costs a lot of money to build and maintain that network.

@jamescostello6529 11 ай бұрын

Actually it was how your congress critters sucked up to AT&T. It was based on the LATA system. Every time your call passed through another system you paid fees and charges. Gainesville to Orlando passed through 7 such exchanges.

@freetolook3727 Жыл бұрын

Btw, signal flags are still used in the military particularly the Navy. How else to communicate during communication blackouts where any type of electronic signal is a dead giveaway.

@ronaldwojtylko4375 Жыл бұрын

Vast numbers of these "relay" towers were purchased by companies such as American Tower which is a Communications tower rental company that primarily leases space on towers to the cellular carriers.

@LuMaxQFPV Жыл бұрын

@4:32 that's probably not a photo from the USA. I realize it's a stock photo, but as a geeky guy into this kind of stuff, I had to mention.

@optical_ideas Жыл бұрын

When i was young i always wondered what these horn like structures with white panels on these towers are, now i know, thanks 🙂

@Scottocaster6668 Жыл бұрын

Im 56 and i literally grew up in the best era. I had old school lifestyle and now, all the instant "luxuries" of whats going on today with technology. Not to mention the music we all grew up with!

@k.b.tidwell Жыл бұрын

When I saw the thumbnail I was transported back to the 1970's, when one day I was riding in the back seat of my grandfather's car on the way south to Birmingham, Alabama. I saw one of these towers a few miles north of B'ham, and asked him what it was. He told me it was a microwave tower, but that was the extent of his knowledge. Since nobody had microwave ovens yet at that time, to my young brain it was nebulous science fiction, but I remember thinking that the big square units on it were probably some sort of repurposed television sets. That tower stood for many, many years, and now that I think about it...I can't remember when it actually came down. It was always there...and now it's not.

@mattalbrecht7471 Жыл бұрын

Scary thought: advances in technology, using dense wave multiplexing via ciena multiplexers, DISA shoves 10 to 12 OC-192's down ONE pair (one transmit, one recieve) of glass fibers. That's a shitload of bandwidth

@glennso47 Жыл бұрын

There is one of those towers in downtown Rockford, Illinois. As far as I know it is no longer in use.

@AutoDudes 2 ай бұрын

I actually work at an underground bunker for AT&T. It’s still owned and operated by AT&T. It was built back in the early 60s during the Cold War era. Although it does not use communication microwave anymore (obviously) it does still a decent bit of fiber and telephone equipment.

@ginamiller6015 Жыл бұрын

Interesting video! This network of towers was also known as ATT Long Lines. There’s one in a rural location not too far from where we live. It’s a very interesting installation that was definitely built to last. The horn antennas are still on the tower, and appear intact. All the copper feed lines have been removed. The tower has been retrofitted with an assortment of cellular antennas. The sign on the building reads American Towers, LLC the current owner.

@jimboscomp 11 ай бұрын

As someone who operates a WISP, I was always mesmerized with that tower at the top of Topanga (I grew up in Southern California). I always wanted to buy it and turn it into a funky home, and central base of my operations!

@ThundercatDarklion Жыл бұрын

Awesome Video!!!! An microwave relay tower that was at the AT&T office building in Downtown Rockford Illinois was torn down. The white strobe during the day and red flashing light at night can be seen quite an distance and I used it as an landmark. Now two new radio repeater towers was put up by the railroads in the rail yards and their white strobes / red flashing LED lights now can be seen.

@Backroad_Junkie Жыл бұрын

Microwave transmission was a big deal when I was a kid. The big obstacle was line-of-sight. Weather and other factors interfered. Satellite communications sucked, because of the latency of the signal having to be transmitted up, then down. I remember totally annoying long distance phone calls, where the latency of 1/2 to 1 second made you constantly step over the other person's conversation. High-speed twisted pair worked for a while, but yeah, fiber was the way. The additional perk to fiber, is it could be hit by lightning, and wouldn't fry the equipment at both ends like copper did...

@DavidHansen725 Ай бұрын

I thought these were known as AT&T Long Lines. There's still a tower in San Jose where I used to live on top of what the locals call Communications Hill.

@petermgruhn 26 күн бұрын

Community bonds were strengthened.

@joek511 Жыл бұрын

Nice history, he gets to the title at 17 minutes

@alphonsobutlakiv789 Жыл бұрын

There is one in the state park in my village in NY, and in the last 10 years years the removed the equipment from the top, but the tower is still abandon. Making it a viewing tower for the park I fell is best for this one.

@kenharbin3440 Жыл бұрын

Cool video,, learned something, thanks. There is an abandoned microwave tower on Blue Mountain that I like to hike to. Incredible view from the top. Got to climb it in winter though, otherwise it's a giant wasps nest.

@timothystockman7533 Жыл бұрын

Most of the pictures you show of horn antennas are apparently of the AT&T Earth station built for Telstar at Andover ME and of the Holmdel Horn at Bell Labs in NJ which was used for the Echo satellite balloon experiments. The Cosmic Microwave Background was discovered in the mid-1960s by engineers using the Holmdel Horn, which was seen as a remnant of the Big Bang which created our universe. Unfortunately, this historic antenna structure is in danger of being demolished by land developers. You do show a few pictures of the original Skyway towers, as well as the more familiar AT&T microwave towers which followed them with their distinctive Hogg Horn antennas. Although AT&T decommissioned most of their microwave relay network, replaced by fiberoptic cables, and often removed the Hogg Horns, many of these towers are still in use for various modern wireless systems. One aspect which you don't mention is AT&T shortwave radio stations, which were used to transmit telephone calls thousands of miles, for example, between North America and Europe, before the first transatlantic telephone cable TAT1 became operational in 1956. Shortwave radio was also used in the high seas service, allowing ships and aircraft at sea to make and receive telephone calls; this has been replaced by satellite services.

@GrnArrow092 Жыл бұрын

There's one of these in my city. When I was a kid, I was told it's a radio antenna for transmitting music from the station to peoples' receivers. The tower is old and I never thought it was part of a microwave communications network. The building its attached to is still being used by AT&T, but I wonder now if the tower itself is abandoned or still in use. It doesn't look like it's seen a fresh coat of paint in years.

@adamfrazer5150 Жыл бұрын

Highly recommend either (definitely both) Thunderstruck and Dead Wake, both by Erik Larson.

@emmettwong4118 11 ай бұрын

It’s amazing how technology has advanced for long distance communication. Today we have the ability to communicate and command spacecrafts launched over 40 years ago and traveling beyond our solar system.

@ncdave4life 11 ай бұрын

0:13 No, this is not "how your grandparents made wireless phone calls." It's how they made long distance phone calls. 10:35 = the start of the information about microwave towers. 13:28 No, microwave relay towers were not an alternative to undersea cables.

@FSstudios1 3 ай бұрын

There is ALOT more involved in the AT&T long lines system. There were several different generations of communication channels. There was the L3 line, L5, and many others. AT&T had thousands of these sites and put a lot into American infrastructure. MCI had a huge involvement as well. Now, many of the sites are owned by American Tower Corporation and have since been converted into cellular towers. Microwave horns are still used commonly in the US. There are a lot of data sheets, articles, and forums about longlines

@wyliesdiesels4169 Жыл бұрын

the system was actually called AT&T Long Lines not skyway

@Shadobanned4life Жыл бұрын

I remember having to call 'long distance' to a friend that lived 5 miles away. Long distance was a big biz!

@mattalbrecht7471 Жыл бұрын

What is always puzzled me about these advances in technology is what becomes of the old technology? When fiber optics connected telephone exchanges between communities, it was a step up. Inevitably in our rural area of the state, someone would accidentally sever a fiber line and cripple service between communities, but service within the community was not impacted. Long distance, toll free numbers, and operator assistance may be down because of that fiber cut... and here i was asking "what did you do with the old copper lines that USED to connect these towns? Did you cut the wire off at the ground where it came into the switching office? Why was tgere never a backup in place making use of thay copper.

@marcr1333 Жыл бұрын

I heard Spectrum is upgrading their coax cable equipment. They claim that the coax can push fast speeds as well as fiber. So pretty much they’re going to be using those “old” lines. I only heard about this from some spectrum employees… I’m not educated on this type of stuff.

@MarkBarrack Жыл бұрын

The old copper lines are still there in a lot of cases. Due to nonuse, no maintenance they have deteriorated. The dollars are not there to keep them going. The bandwidth for legacy copper is pretty slow. Sometimes a company would "shotgun" a connection into a location to increase speed. They used two lines. As far as coax, it is no where near as capable in terms of bandwidth as fiber, but it is very good. The plus side is the equipment needed is cheaper so I can see a company wanting to stay with coax.

@paulmorgan4177 Жыл бұрын

The problem with ATT Skyways is that it work on line of sight which means another tower had to be built every 30 miles due to curvature of the earth. The Troposcatter link system is by pointing microwave signal at the right angle towards the sky, it would bounce off a layer in the atmosphere and could travel 200 miles. This is what was used in Alaska and Canada. And if you’re wondering how big invention fiber optic is, the entire capacity of the ATT Skyway infrastructure can be sent over one strand of a fiber optic cable.

@pjmarkert1 Ай бұрын

My Dad was part of the team that designed and set up NY Tel Co microwave relay stations across New York state.

@QuantumRift 4 ай бұрын

If Edison had his way, we'd be saying "AHOY!" on the phone instead of "Hello".... LOL

@markiangooley Жыл бұрын

A friend now dead worked on this system for a while, I think, or some sort of microwave relay. He mentioned something about long-distance transmission of live TV signals as well as telephone. I had only one decent conversation about it with him and now of course it’s too late.