what is this strange flagpole looking device?

there is this massive flag pole like looking device with a bronze looking ball on top located next to our major interstate. I've always wondered what it was so today i drove up to it and took some pictures. Says somthing about the FCC and alot of warnings about tresspassing all over.








[edit on 28-3-2010 by hiii_98]

Well not the normal kind of antenna I see around. Kinda looks like a giant car antenna...maybe the rest of the huge car is buried underground.
NVM yeah it does look wierd...
btw what does it say in the small sign on the upper right of youir second pic?

[edit on 28/3/2010 by Chamberf=6]

reply to post by hiii_98


From the registration no. in your pic:

wireless2.fcc.gov...

Cell phone tower. We have one that tries to look like a tree, and it's not fooling anyone!! lol.

reply to post by schrodingers dog
Nice find man.

I should of thought to do that.

I was about to say it looks exactly like to a cell phone tower to me, but looks like s's dog beat me to it with the actual registration info for it.

the odd giant brass ball on top of it is what mae me wonder... I have never seen any other cellular tower look like that.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Nice work.

Other subtle indicators I noticed was the signage stating that it was an FCC antenna structure and a US cellular contact number.

reply to post by Chadwickus


Pfff ... you guys call yourselves conspiracy theorists?

A look further down the rabbit hole will reveal that US Cellular is a subsidiary of a corporation called TDS.

TDS also stands for Target Development System!!!

So it stands to reason that all these odd looking cell towers are an nefarious front for:

en.wikipedia.org...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a21df6001ecf.gif[/atsimg]

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Ah yes, I should have know!

The old atomic cannon in the cell phone tower trick eh?

Well I'm sorry to say but we're fully mobile now, no large, fixed towers anymore!

Alice just found one helleva rabbit hole!

en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 28/3/10 by Chadwickus]

I have installed many of those very structures... they are a type of tower called a monopole. They are great for metropolitan areas where space is limited, or for a city/town that has 'beautification ordinances'. Commonly installed for cellular colocates, paging systems, wireless internet...etc

reply to post by Wookiep


Funny you should say that, we have put a few of the stealthier poles up. Alot of times the client will want the tree poles put up late in the dead of night as to not be subject to the ordinances (as if no one will notice there is a brand new tree which is about 40 feet taller than the rest of the trees)...OSHA loves that...

They also have tree poles that look like palm trees... ever seen an 80 foot palm before??

Palm Tower


Flag Pole Tower

Pictures are courtesy of www.waymarking.com

well if anyone really wanted to know i guess they could call the phone number on the fence or in the picture to get more information then the government would show up

Nah, I'm guessing it is just some kind of antenna or something. Like maybe for a radio or something like that.

reply to post by LiteralLimbaugh


We had those in Las Vegas when i lived there, those things stick out like a sore thumb...lol..

reply to post by schrodingers dog


To response to your link, wireless2fcc.gov .then on this page antenna structure registration.. FAA study. what does EMI stand for? Electro magnetic impulse. I do not know just curious.

[edit on 3-4-2010 by nite owl]

Yep, it's a monopole structure for antennae.

If you look you'll notice that the upper few sections have a different lustre than the sections toward the bottom: the upper structures are fiberglass "stealth" covers designed to hide the antenna within, usually due to some local ordinances, but occasionally due to the desire to actually hide the type of antennae contained within. Given that there's a sign about the government operating radios there either or both could be true.

The ball on top could be part of the overall 'stealth' treatment to the tower- to make it look like a flagpole. I've built a few around San Francisco and Los Angelese that are literal flagpoles- with ropes, flags and everything. The ball could also be part of the lightning arrestor system designed to divert lightning strikes to ground instead of through the cables in the tower and into the component room / compound.

You know a thought ran thru my head about EMI. Why would a cell phone tower have an Electro magnetic Impulse. Are they worried about our earth being hit by some electro magnetic impulse? comming from where? Space? I wonder how our earths shield is holding up against the suns rays lately. First line of defense against that would be to protect communications, yes? Maybe im reading to far into this EMI thing.

reply to post by nite owl


From what I can glean from the glossary in he linked page:

EMI = Electro Magnetic Interference

EMI - The FAA's determination of no hazard to air navigation may be based on the assumption that transmitting equipment on an antenna structure meets only minimum FCC standards for spurious emissions. This means that prior to beginning any transmissions from the facility, there must be contact with the FAA spectrum management officer(s) to arrange procedures to verify that no interference is caused. There may be a need to deploy extra filtering or take other measures if transmission disrupts other services.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Why thank you dog. now that i am informed of this, i will head no indifference as to the purpose of the devise. thank you for the info, this makes me feel much better.