All the stuff that he was saying that you don't need it and you can take it out. If it wasn't needed the phone company would not have put it in the first place. That is the air handling room for the entire facility. Remember your underground, anything that's heavier than air will settle in that building including your own exhaled carbon dioxide. Without forced air ventilation that would become a death trap. Also naturally occurring methane gas and radon seeping through the concrete would also build up. And being below grade, the temperature is stable, however there's nothing to control the humidity. And you would find that that site became very wet very quickly. So the air conditioning and Air Handlers were very important. That was why there was usually at least one generator dedicated to keeping them operational. It may be Overkill but trying to retrofit smaller equipment into it would be almost as expensive as having that whole system overhauled. And the original equipment would last much longer.
The air compressors have two purposes, number one it was used to pressurize the feed line after the air was filtered and dried that went up to the microwave towers, also it was used for maintenance tools in the building as well as a start boost for the turbine generators. To reinstall the batteries, and reconnect the generators would not be that difficult. Maintenance on those generators is fairly straightforward as there are modern design. Your biggest expense would be fuel lubricating oil and changing the air intake filters every couple years. Assuming you lost utility power the equipment racks they were left in place, one of them looks to have the Dual battery chargers still in place. Each one of those Chargers is worth a couple thousand dollars. As they also contained a sophisticated battery conditioning device. Without a lot of modification you have an excellent hardened underground facility to ride out any natural disaster. And still have all the creature comforts. Not to mention the 300 ft Tower outside, could be rented out for two-way and private microwave.
This was not a microwave site, this was part of the hardened L5 carrier route that went across northern Nevada. This site was called Pronto. All carrier and microwave toll facilities were replaced by light guide (fiber optic cable).
@allen_steel1236 you seem to be at least somewhat familiar with those generators - any insight as to why they would've gone with those thirsty beasts instead of something more conventional? For 200KW they don't seem especially compact, and they'd QUITE a lot of airflow... though I suppose with that airflow they might not require a massive cooling system?
It would've been cool to see where the L5 coax entry point was. The mushroom looking thing you identified above ground where you said it would catch the light of a nuclear blast--that's not correct. That particular one is a gamma ray detector, and doesn't have anything to do with visible light. Notice there are no clear "windows" in the outer shell which could allow visible light. There were other sensors which reacted to visible light, and others for atmospheric overpressure. All three were frequently deployed at hardened sites which handled important military circuits. Those Solar turbine generators, while thirsty, are very good pieces of equipment. A couple hundred hours of runtime on one of those is literally nothing. Thanks very much for posting this!
@@southtexasprepper1837 Great, you learned that gamma rays are a type of light even though you can't see them. So are x-rays, that's how you can use them to take pictures on film. Now quit being an asshole
Aw hell this is bada$$. I would turn that place into my own server room and have all my weird machines in those racks, together with some ham radio gear and stuff. You're a lucky man to have that place, let me tell you. If you ever wanna trade I have a place in Kentucky that's real nice and has a doublewide with new mechanicals and a metal roof and a 30x30 steel garage on slab. It's on flat, gently sloping ground on 1.5 acres. The soil is really really good and it keeps the grass growing like CRAZY. I never had a garden out there but i bet you could grow ANYTHING. There's lots of deer up there too. I've been wanting to move out west ever since I started driving and got to see lots of it.
Probably about as many as those who feel they need to make up cutsy names to discuss their gross disloyalty to their mates. There are worthless immoral people everywhere.
Just bought property in winnemucca. Where is this! A retired comm tech. Quite an interesting property!! Ive been in Diablo Canyon in the com room below the control room. Amazing stuff in there. Was it A At&t communication room. Some of that stuff you should be Careful not to damage it, worth $$$$. Use what you can use . Looks Like battery chargers 24v or 48v for the battery banks. Worth $$$$ . Gary
L carrier was a carrier system that allowed multiple phone calls to be on a dual pair of wires. I'm guessing this was a link, originally installed by PT&T, in the line that went across Nevada from San Francisco to Wendover, UT. It connected to AT&T Longlines there and went on east. All of this has been superceded by fibre optic cable.
Yes, my dad worked for PT&T and then for AT&T Long Lines. This L5 carrier site, called Pronto, was installed by Nevada Bell. L cxr toll systems used coax cables. These hardened routes were all underground. Back in the 70's, I got to see inside a L3 cxr underground site in the California Mojave desert called Beacon. All carrier and microwave facilities have been replaced with fiber optic cables.
@@jimprice1959 You're thinking of either K-carrier (twisted pair) or J-carrier (open wire pair). L-Carrier was coax. L5 was the final generation and wasn't deployed widely, as compared with L3.
@@itz_mxxri When you saw that site, had they just cut the L3 cables at the entrance point, or did they excavate and actually pull the cables out of the ground? I think actually pulling the cables out of the ground was pretty rare unless there was a specific reason to do it, because of the expense involved.
I have found one of these in California. I am working with the owner to acquire it. The one I found has been left unkept for years now and vandals have gotten in. If I can get it would you help me get it up and running again.
Why are the generators no longer working? It seems that in all AT&T bunkers the generators have been disconnected. Is there a reason? Is it possible to put them back into operation?
I would have expected Always Taking & Taking ($$$) to have repurposed the site for fiber regen. You don't really need an old cold war nuclear fallout bunker for that purpose, I did some work at the regen sites in the Winnemucca area when I was with Sprint, and they just needed small, above ground shelters. But if you already own it, and you know it will withstand WWIII, why not continue to use it? Perhaps the cost of upkeep on this facility made it impractical.
Yes, the next main repeater to the west was called Viewland, not too far from Susanville. The next main repeater from there was Red Bluff, the next one was south, called Dunnigan, and then to the Oakland toll office. These main repeaters were for the L5 carrier system that operated on coaxial cable that carried thousands of long distance phone calls. These main stations were about 100 miles apart, with smaller auxiliary repeaters in between. It was all retired by 1992, when it was replaced by fiber optic cables.
