Wood Pole Tower "H" Frame TL Radio Relay System
Openwire

by

Douglas G. Schema

Wood Pole Tower "H" Frame TL Radio Relay System
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Wood Pole Tower
This independently owned telephone cooperative TL Radio System hut and two-pole supported active and passive antennae, is located just a few miles past the Colorado border. It is a unique installation. Most of these have bitten the dust after over 60 years--and this installation was probably built in the early 1950s, judging from the equipment inside the hut. Philco Microwave Systems equipment is complete within and the waveguides and other facilities are untouched after all these years. The Bell System used to construct similar installations, using a two pole support, but applying ten-pin crossarms one foot six inches above the ground, to hold the microwave equipment inside steel housings. This indeed is a rare find. Many of these early installations were built in the 1950s to 1965 period. Bell System Practices offer construction guidelines for similar "TL Radio Towers" and are dated "1962." Many of these short-haul radio systems substantially offered alternative voice and data channels when open wire exchange systems were loaded to capacity.