Long Lines bunker

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Күн бұрын

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@JohnLeslie68 7 ай бұрын

Thanks for posting this. I’m 69 and my late teens was the last of the lifespan of the Ma Bell long lines system. In my youth I was very interested in communications and I spent many hours on the road around NH and Mass seeking out and photographing communications installations which of course included Bell long lines microwave sites which were still on line at the time. I have pictures of the link starting in Concord NH and heading south and west to carry long distance calls. Fantastic radio technology which like all tech changes and got obsoleted.

@princesswalt4010 7 ай бұрын

magnahelic gauges measure differential air pressure in inches of water column. It’s the pressure required to push water up a column, in this case up to 2”. 2” WC is approx 0.07 psi.

@ocsrc 7 ай бұрын

The coolest sites are the ones with the underground bunkers The one I see when I step outside has the super hardened above ground 3 story structure and has a basement bunker, and next to the above ground is the entrance to the 3 story underground bunker that was manned by 24 people 24/7 The underground site was listed as a DOD site It was bought by a new infrastructure company and they use it now. They did a lot of upgrades to the bunker. Really awesome

@Summerguy24 7 ай бұрын

That basement panel was for door alarms. If a door was opened during an event, alarm would sound.

@blakebowers8842 7 ай бұрын

Absolutely. One site, Ennis Texas, was actually a shelter for local government and their emergency operations

@bentheguru4986 7 ай бұрын

It's a shame these old sites are left to rot. Even though the tech is out of date, the building could be retrofited with newer, modern gear and reuse for data centres and ISP cores.

@nick21614 7 ай бұрын

They aren't located in places where they would be useful for those purposes.

@user-cz8do7xl8u 7 ай бұрын

If any site had that value would have been kept. The infrastructure was already paid for. The challenge is most of these sites are 5 miles to the west and east of no-where and sometimes just as hard to find. The mw signal can only be thrown so many miles and it has to hit repeaters. Fiberoptic can throw its signal 25-75 miles on a fraction of the equipment and cost. They rightfully should have just been razed, but that cost more than the building and land was worth.

@bentheguru4986 7 ай бұрын

@@user-cz8do7xl8u Just seems a waste, we don't have things like this sitting around here in Aus, I would love a joint like that for a DC use.

@bentheguru4986 7 ай бұрын

@@nick21614 can be made to pretty quickly these days.

@chris76-01 7 ай бұрын

I agree. They used up so much money and effort to build all that and now it's just a dystopic post apocalyptic wasteland.

@Josh_FSD 7 ай бұрын

I love seeing this history, I was probably 10 years old when the Berlin Wall came down and I grew up within 10 miles of at least 5 silos that I knew about, not to mention airbases and the pyramid of North Dakota only an hour away. All of this history especially the microwave sites are slowly disappearing… I’m happy to see someone documenting these, keep up the great work!!

@grabasandwich 7 ай бұрын

11:35 Those screamin' Jimmies are awesome! I bet a collector would love to grab that an mount it on a trailer and bring it to shows to let it sing again!

@joek511 7 ай бұрын

Never burn the bridges you cross, you may need them one day. Some things need to be preserved. Old tech is better than none at all. I imagine everyone gets my point

@kotnapromke 7 ай бұрын

После апокалипсиса связь будет через почтальонов на коне. Нам это уже объяснил Голливуд!

@KlodFather 7 ай бұрын

@@kotnapromke - And morse code over crude radio equipment. We will return to using sticks and rocks.

@richardvg7670 5 ай бұрын

Can agree more about the burning the bridges and not reusing old tech because old tech is way more reliable than new tech it's held up all this time until now so that says something for sure

@kotnapromke 5 ай бұрын

@@KlodFather Мой кот уже умеет передавать мне секретные сообщения мяуканьем. Чтобы сказать мне что я должен дать ему еды!

@KlodFather 5 ай бұрын

@@kotnapromke - And it is amazing that cats understand my language as well as yours when you pet them. They train us well LOL

@itz_mxxri 2 ай бұрын

Remembering my days in the 70's when I spent time with my dad at a toll CO when he worked for PT&T (Bell System), on the microwave floor. That alarm panel indicated what kind of equipment alarm. PWR is a power alarm, C1 alarm was the order wire bay for communicating with the Main CO in the region, LMX is L carrier multiplex - channel modulation of phone circuits over TD-2 or TD-3 microwave radio, not sure of the others. The bottom row looks like all the different open door alarms. There also would of been colored light bulbs hanging down from the top framework on every isle : red is a major alarm, amber is a fuse alarm and green is a minor alarm. You can still see the alarm bells mounted on a board on a pillar in the background.

@itz_mxxri 2 ай бұрын

Oh, that's right, the B is for basement and the 1 is for first floor. The TD-3 alarm was the microwave terminal equipment, FM probably refers to the frequency modulators (FMT's and FMR's) .

@Gymnos2 7 ай бұрын

Thanks for giving us a look inside! Very cool. @7:50 "Lower Tank Pressure" perhaps?

@marcberm 7 ай бұрын

I live very near the TAT-5/TAT-6 cable landing site and have for a long time wanted to get access to film a tour. I'm not sure what, if anything, the bunker is used for these days with those undersea cables deocm'd, but I think it was also a microwave site at one time. If the current tower was part of the installation, then the horns have been removed at least. Trying to get in touch with anyone about it via the AT&T behemoth has proven pretty much impossible. Now I understand where the channel name comes from.

@Sylveste22 7 ай бұрын

You have absolutely zero chance of being allowed to film inside an active cable landing station. Zero. Nothing particularly special in there though. if you're expecting to see something like a giant floor mounted water cooled laser cannon coupled into the fiber, you'll be disappointed. The transcievers are just standard namebrand rackmounted things the same as used for city-to-city fiber runs. The undersea fibers have amplifiers and retransmitters, after all.

@marcberm 7 ай бұрын

@@Sylveste22 TAT-5&6 were galvanic and are no longer in service. The cables and bunker penetrations are purported to still be there, though. At least as of the early 2010's. As far as I'm aware, there's nothing else active there today, except for cellular. I work in telecom, and back in the day there was a whole safety and competency training that needed to be completed/passed before any individual contractor tech would be allowed to descend to the cable room.

@Sylveste22 7 ай бұрын

@@marcberm Ah okay, then you understand. Yes confined space training etc for the splice pit. They're always interesting sort of places to visit for the history at least.

@mikekochanek9068 6 ай бұрын

@@Sylveste22 right because light decays when transmitted in a reflective vessel........ surrreeeeee

@BilgeDweller 18 күн бұрын

The gauges are Magnehelics. They're made by Dwyer Instruments and they are for measuring very low pressures. Two inches of water column equals 0.0723 psi. Not a lot, but enough to keep fallout out of the building. I have a Long Lines site south of home. The tower was called Lee, and it was part of the first coast to coast microwave link in 1948. It is also privately owned.

@djm5k 4 ай бұрын

It would be interesting if one of these Long Lines sites in fairly good condition could be restored for use as a museum so visitors could go and see intact original equipment (doesn’t have to be operational, but would depict what is was like back in the day. It should also have an original tower with the horns in place (again, not necessarily operational, but intact). These sites are extremely historic and some which are in good condition, preserved. I know that in downtown Los Angeles, there is an AT&T Long Lines site with a mid-century style concrete tower that holds the horn antennas. I think it is still there today!

@wtmayhew 7 ай бұрын

This looks like a newer site, and it is initially a bit surprising that so much is above ground. Apparently the building material is up to withstanding several PSI of overpressure and things like power generation equipment could be located in the top floor which looks not to be entirely hermetically sealed. I believe the older sites were built with cut and cover and almost entirely underground except for the concrete tower for the microwave horns. Probably the concrete in the mostly underground sites did not need to be as strong, relying on the ground around the underground building to absorb blast energy. A lot of work was done in the 1950s tests to understand the overpressure impulse and ground shockwave generated by aerial, surface and below ground nuclear detonations. My assumption is that data were not available when the original Long Lines bunkers were being designed, hence the decision to build almost all below ground.

@Systemrat2008 7 ай бұрын

The red Fm200 warning may refer to halon gas fire suppression system. It was very common in large data centers. Normally triggered by a combustion detection system, vesda. Normally, the system triggers audible alarms and red flashing warning strobes to allow anyone in the area to get out to avoid asphyxiation. Normally there is an abort button to allow the automatic release. I know of one case where hot work was being done without isolating the system and a very large Fm200 gas bottle was released. The refill cost $200,000.00 plus the system called a fire alarm resulting in four fire trucks attending which may have cost $4000.00 each for a false. I am not sure if Fm200 is still used, as it's ozone depleting. Perhaps CO2 now.

@wtmayhew 7 ай бұрын

I’m not sure what is in FM200, but understanding is that it is less damaging than old halon to electronics in the case of a gas release. I worked in a small data center with an FM200 system. When an alarm registered, an extremely loud bell began to sound and a human had about 20 seconds to cancel the release via a large red button. The FM200 is oxygen displacing, so you don’t have long to get out, or you’ll suffocate. The data center moved to a new site and the FM200 canister went along in the move. I never talked about the cost with the boss, but as noted above, it was obvious the gas canister is very expensive asset.

@davewood406 7 ай бұрын

In all the other hardened sites, fallout areas are generally clearly placarded and include warnings on the doors unless those were stolen.

@s3vR3x 7 ай бұрын

Wow!!!!, keep these videos coming!!!!

@SamuelP-m9o 7 ай бұрын

Awesome video, I have a lot of interest in both Long Lines and Autovon. Here in the DC area, there are many former LL sites, including some that are mostly intact (TD-2 horns are still up on the top of the tower), and there are two AT&T Troposcatter sites (hardened sites) in the area and both are in use for other projects by AT&T.

@George-eq8oi 16 күн бұрын

There was a site in New Jersey in Netcong, all the equipment was mounted on coil springs.

@norm5785 4 ай бұрын

You wouldne amazed at how many of these sites are still active, in a ready state to return to service and how they have been updated and kept updated. The security for those is very impressive. And as some have said it is not going to be possible to video within any of these that still has equipment. Those who try to enter are dealt with extremely harshly.

@TheKnoxcountry 19 күн бұрын

Your videos on these are great! Thanks for bringing us along! So many places are just not accessible to most. It’s amazing stuff ✨👏

@CompuHacker 7 ай бұрын

10:14 Row 2, "OTHER DOORS", "BACK DOOR", "REC[..] DOOR", "FRONT DOOR".

@jilbertb 7 ай бұрын

Doors breached warning lights

@oOTBONE77Oo 28 күн бұрын

Brilliant upload thank you… Always wanted to own a bunker and renovate it into a home

@bruehlt 7 ай бұрын

That must have been fricken awesome to see in person!! I love videos of these places.

@Dmreeves1 15 күн бұрын

What would be interesting to see is how they sealed the wall penetrations. How they got the microwave signal out of the building, power, etc

@rockercover 7 ай бұрын

10:14 The only alarm abbreviation on this panel recognized is: PWR/power. Seems this site used abbr.’s of Radio alarms. From the last two videos watched from your channel, most equipment seen, appears to support the microwave radio equipment, one way or another. Pass-through / repeater sites appear unique. Only early microwave radios I was around were Federal-(real antique little to no info. available now days - Much adjustment required to keep operational) and Collins Radio. (Oldest equipment seen). Trip down memory lane for any worker of M.W. radio equip.

@cascadianrangers728 Ай бұрын

Not only do You need to run pressurized to keep outside air out you actually need to run at an overpressure of more than one atmosphere so that the outgoing air precludes air entering, It's basically always blowing out with more force than the atmosphere would normally push in

@bretthibbs6083 7 ай бұрын

This is awesome I remember a few years ago I binged watched any long line video I could find on KZbin lol. I live in Minnesota and I know for sure we have a long lines site in downtown Mpls and I also think there's one in St. Cloud Minnesota too. I'm 50 years old so I kinda knew about these even back then but nothing like now and it's actually kinda sad that these sites are falling apart or decommissioned cause it would have been a great back up for communications in case of the worse case scenario.

@rupe53 7 ай бұрын

they were for back up communications in the day.... but salvaging them now would be like using Morse code combined with black and white TV.

@jilbertb 7 ай бұрын

I'd love to find the one in St Cloud. Being 500 miles away from Ellsworth and Minot, and 300 miles away from Marinette, makes us a prime target for fallout.

@christopherrasmussen8718 7 ай бұрын

One was for sale outside of Miami. It was between two highways so kind of hard to use (like I had $)

@Vile-Flesh 7 ай бұрын

Loved this!

@brr9247 7 ай бұрын

As for the annunciatior panel ~10:30, I’ll give you my best guess on the indicators. I worked in a lot of ATT facilities but never a MW relay site unfortunately. BLG - probably related to any type of environmental alarm within the building; HVAC, water detected, high temp, etc. ENG - Engine alarm. Gen Run, low fuel, over speed, etc.. PWR - some type of AC or DC alarm. Commercial power failure, Rectifier failure, battery on discharge, low voltage, etc.. CI - I’m not sure but could be a generic alarm for the switch located in the facility. A lot of the larger relay sites had switching equipment for Autovon. LMX - I’m not familiar with but sounds like it’s associated with multiplexing equipment. Common in these sites. FM-AS - no idea. Probably related to TD3 technology. TD3 - the type of Microwave radio used in this facility. TDRM - Probably a radio alarm of some type. I - no clue B - no clue OTHDRS- could indicate some Over The Horizon technology that was in place at the time, but I’m speculating. Or could be ‘Other doors’ BK-DR - was probably back door open. Or could be radio related. REC-DR - was probably receiving door open (loading dock). Or TD3 radio. FNT-DR - was probably Front door open. Or radio again I have no idea about the last indicators in red but are probably related to the radio system. Hopefully a real TD3 guy will chime in and correct me😂