October 1986
October 1986
After sale to American Tower
After sale to American Tower
Courtesy of Terry Michaels
Courtesy of Terry Michaels
Courtesy of Terry Michaels
Courtesy of Terry Michaels
Courtesy of Terry Michaels
Address: 4776 Lower Mountain Rd., Buckingham, PA
Latitude: N40-19-07 (40.3186)
Longitude: W75-02-34 (-75.0428)
Elevation: 513 ft.
City/County of License: Buckingham/Bucks, PA
Active Callsigns: None
Canceled Callsigns: KGA27
Buckingham consists of an 82-foot-tall cylindrical concrete tower abutting a rectangular structure housing a stairway.
Buckingham was a repeater (an "auxiliary station" in AT&T terminology) linking Wyndmoor, PA and Martinsville, NJ via TD-2 microwave radio. As of Feb. 7, 1984, FCC records show the station having six microwave channels in the 4 GHz band.
Buckingham was also licensed for the 451.325 MHz radio frequency used for AT&T system maintenance, under callsign WZA692.
The silo-like building indicates that Buckingham is one of AT&T's earliest commercial microwave stations. According to A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: Transmission Technology, p. 301, "Structural steel was scarce in the postwar era, and it was thought that there would be economies in a poured-concrete structure built like a silo. Only a few of these were built before before it was clear that they were not economical."
The high-performance parabolic ("dish") antennas seen in the 1986 photos are not original. It's likely that Buckingham began service with two pairs of delay-lens antennas.
In 1967, Buckingham was part of a route known as TVS [Television Section] 21, used occasionally to carry television programming between Troy Hill, PA (near Pittsburgh) and Jackie Jones Mountain, NY (near West Haverstraw). In that year, the station was included in a coast-to-coast transmission test intended to measure the performance of TD-2 radio systems for network TV service. Excerpts from the report on that test can be found in the Documents section of this web site.
Buckingham is no longer an AT&T microwave station, and all of the antennas for that service have been removed. The silo was sold to American Tower Corporation, and now hosts antennas for a number of tenants, including cellular-telephone companies.
October 1986 |
October 1986 |
After sale to American Tower |
After sale to American Tower |
|
Courtesy of Terry Michaels |
Courtesy of Terry Michaels |
Courtesy of Terry Michaels |
Courtesy of Terry Michaels |
Courtesy of Terry Michaels |
Updated on February 20, 2004 at 18:26 by Albert LaFrance