Jump to content

My Adventure up Black Mountain


n925tv

Recommended Posts

Good evening everyone, (if this is in the wrong thread please feel free to move)...

 

Took a hike up Black Mountain earlier today, located in Northern San Diego County near Rancho Penasquitos for those of you familiar with the area. While I went for the adventure and views, the various microwave towers and satellite dishes up there sparked my interest. As I explored around, I noticed most of the microwave towers (if that's what you call them), were owned by the telecommunications companies, even with former companies such as Cingular there, now taken over by AT&T.

 

As for the satellite dishes seen in the photos here, there were no markings whatsoever about who owned them or even if they are used anymore. They are located in large compound on the summit located behind a gate which shows AT&T emergency contact info, but would that company have any use for 5 dishes up there? What kind of use would they be for on such a remote summit? The only other mountain top that I can recall here locally that has dishes on it, is Mt. San Miguel in South County, home of KNSD's transmitter and dishes. I would highly doubt these ones specifically on Black Mountain are for that use.

 

More importantly, any locals around here in the SAN area know of any local TV stations using this peak for their services? I'm planning on going back up there again, so if there's any transmitter or receivers to look for, let me know and I'll try to pay more attention to them.

 

I've also posted a few random pics of the dishes and whatnot up on the tower, for those of you who enjoy that kind of stuff.

20180817_102722.thumb.jpg.80cdb6fb933899980253df05d6233257.jpg

20180817_102841.thumb.jpg.94395c4f1f2c31985d0f8f0e9f432c8a.jpg

20180817_103238.thumb.jpg.892ac3fc757a205c17ba4dce485dd58b.jpg

20180817_103349.thumb.jpg.ea4be6fdf8c5e298660e86b569a799a4.jpg

20180817_103418.thumb.jpg.c0406159ff4cbd6025ae08455ff8b774.jpg

20180817_103559.thumb.jpg.ace29956a75ef7a11b4ee72e0d11a5ef.jpg

20180817_103923.thumb.jpg.f3389ebdf6df87b5e3331041db567c90.jpg

20180817_104237.thumb.jpg.e6ee7d63093a5115469a7ff0ae60960f.jpg

20180817_100749.thumb.jpg.5f1a5bd680ed04f37a09da78688cf5ec.jpg

20180817_103441.thumb.jpg.fa333ae47d32c7db2a9ddd6f98d3d27a.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I want to say it is cell service and transmission for military and emergency services. This mountain is quite similar to that of Santiago Peak in the Cleveland National Forest of Orange and Riverside counties.

 

(Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good evening everyone, (if this is in the wrong thread please feel free to move)...

 

Took a hike up Black Mountain earlier today, located in Northern San Diego County near Rancho Penasquitos for those of you familiar with the area. While I went for the adventure and views, the various microwave towers and satellite dishes up there sparked my interest. As I explored around, I noticed most of the microwave towers (if that's what you call them), were owned by the telecommunications companies, even with former companies such as Cingular there, now taken over by AT&T.

 

As for the satellite dishes seen in the photos here, there were no markings whatsoever about who owned them or even if they are used anymore. They are located in large compound on the summit located behind a gate which shows AT&T emergency contact info, but would that company have any use for 5 dishes up there? What kind of use would they be for on such a remote summit? The only other mountain top that I can recall here locally that has dishes on it, is Mt. San Miguel in South County, home of KNSD's transmitter and dishes. I would highly doubt these ones specifically on Black Mountain are for that use.

 

More importantly, any locals around here in the SAN area know of any local TV stations using this peak for their services? I'm planning on going back up there again, so if there's any transmitter or receivers to look for, let me know and I'll try to pay more attention to them.

 

I've also posted a few random pics of the dishes and whatnot up on the tower, for those of you who enjoy that kind of stuff.

 

I can't say for sure, but Black Mountain is an old AT&T Long Lines site (the big tower with square platforms around it) and my guess would be those satellites are old and part of AT&T's satellite communication network. Everything else looks like microwave relay, cellular service, and two-way radio (i.e. the City of San Diego, CHP, and at some point up until 2001, Home Depot). I spy some Ubiquiti AirFiber units in one of the pictures.

 

A partial list of other services using the tower can be found here: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?action=fccProx&lat=32.9811953&lon=-117.1165775&r=1 You can see they're mostly emergency services and state/local agencies. If you click around in that Radio Reference link, you can see a lot of the licenses have several locations listed, and my guess would be all those dishes are redundant links to connect them all together.

 

I poked around in the FCC database, but couldn't find any records showing that Black Mountain is used for any sort of TV service (even microwave relay.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I poked around in the FCC database, but couldn't find any records showing that Black Mountain is used for any sort of TV service (even microwave relay.)

 

I was trying to look but it kept crashing when I search on the FCC site with ASN and Lat/Long.

 

Aren’t a lot of TV microwave receivers in domes that are steerable?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was trying to look but it kept crashing when I search on the FCC site with ASN and Lat/Long.

 

Aren’t a lot of TV microwave receivers in domes that are steerable?

If they're for ENG receive, yes. Those antennas usually look like short white cylinders facing upwards. You can see them clearly in this photo of the roof of 30 Rock that I borrowed from Flickr user Anthony Quintano.

 

upload_2018-8-18_12-13-13.thumb.png.b7b113774f2845314e816ac66eccd25e.png

 

But a fixed relay between two fixed points would just be a standard microwave antenna similar to those in n925tv's photos and elsewhere in that 30 Rock photo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good evening everyone, (if this is in the wrong thread please feel free to move)...

 

Took a hike up Black Mountain earlier today, located in Northern San Diego County near Rancho Penasquitos for those of you familiar with the area. While I went for the adventure and views, the various microwave towers and satellite dishes up there sparked my interest. As I explored around, I noticed most of the microwave towers (if that's what you call them), were owned by the telecommunications companies, even with former companies such as Cingular there, now taken over by AT&T.

 

As for the satellite dishes seen in the photos here, there were no markings whatsoever about who owned them or even if they are used anymore. They are located in large compound on the summit located behind a gate which shows AT&T emergency contact info, but would that company have any use for 5 dishes up there? What kind of use would they be for on such a remote summit? The only other mountain top that I can recall here locally that has dishes on it, is Mt. San Miguel in South County, home of KNSD's transmitter and dishes. I would highly doubt these ones specifically on Black Mountain are for that use..

 

The dishes were cable TV "head-end" for Southwestern or Time Warner (COX head-end was on Cowles) cable (way back when)...

They had receivers for all the LA tv stations, and it made sense to place the C-band HBO and CNN sat dishes up there also. The dishes are abandon, but who wants to pay someone to haul them down the mountain when nobody is complaining.

 

ATT has always had bunch of Telco stuff up there like long lines and microwave multiplexers. Local broadcaster had other choices like Mt.Soledad, and Mt. Miguel

 

When you mix very high powered broadcast transmitters with telephone and cable -tv stuff you can get major interference problems on the site. it's best to have those high powered items seperated from the local telco system. ATT was happy with Black Mountain because the location was pretty "clean" from problems. Plus ATT was there first. The longlines linked to the ATT building in San Diego (Hillcrest) at 6th st and Robinson.

 

Cable TV was welcome on the site because they just needed a good path for the reception of L.A. broadcast TV...because that's what cable TV delivered in the 60's and 1970 to San Diego...more L.A. channels...and that new fangled 'HBO". Nowdays you can place the cable tv head-end anywhere you wish because of satellites, but in the olden days you placed the cable tv stuff on the mountain.

 

As far as Two-way radio...

There is some state and federal microwave ...but the 2-way transmitters are mostly on other peaks for the same reason...interference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Why am I just seeing this post?!

You just brought back memories. I used to hike that mountain a lot when I was younger. The views are amazing and it’s crazy you can see Downtown from up there.

Since ive relocated north, ive been so busy I’ve yet to climb up San Bruno Mountain which is home to KNTV and some iHeartRadio and Entercom stations and not that far from where I stay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/22/2018 at 2:07 AM, SFTV said:

You just brought back memories. I used to hike that mountain a lot when I was younger. The views are amazing and it’s crazy you can see Downtown from up there.

 

Was there nearly as much equipment up there back in the day? Must've been crazy to be in the middle of nowhere as well, with no residential development around! 

I've gotta try the Mt. San Miguel hike one day with all the transmitters up there. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, n925tv said:

Was there nearly as much equipment up there back in the day? Must've been crazy to be in the middle of nowhere as well, with no residential development around! 

I've gotta try the Mt. San Miguel hike one day with all the transmitters up there. 

Still looks the same.

i remember in elementary school during recess, we saw a large spark. Unfortunately one of the paragliders got electrocuted. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using TVNewsTalk you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.