Power to the People!

Heh. Tower is ontop of the pole, coax is run along the side. Very common though in Virginia most carriers stick the coax into some tubing... I sense the gauntlet has been thrown down. Might have to dig up some power tower shots...

BTW in Maryland where PEPCO operates those towers are installed on energized lines (live). I think VEPCO and the coops de-energize the line when folks work on the towers.

I would not want to be around that tower if lightning hit it.

Why? The electrical tower has multiple earth grounds. I'm not saying go out and hang off of it during a storm but the site is protected aginst lightning strikes like a normal cell tower would be Most of these electrical structures are 30+ years old. The industry has best practices in place for lightning.

Many cell towers are like that here also in the Amherst area. I know of 5 in about a 2 mile area.

Depends on how you define "next to". Many that use monopole electrical towers have the cabling run down the side. Sites that use traditional towers runt he coaxial cabling inside the antenna monopole that goes down the middle of the tower (tower is really used as a reinforcement). I'll see if I can dig up some examples as the week progresses.

Yes. See images entitled 'Tower on top of power lines' and 'On top of power lines, W&OD Trail'. The first image is what I would call the classic example of a cell in power tower. That shot is how almost 95% of the cells in power towers in Virginia look. It has the monopole I was refering to in a prior reply. The WOD shot is more common to NOVA but is an example of how carriers sometimes mount the coax to the power companies structure directly. Not common but really the only alternate to the first picture I have seen.

There are interesting sites here in tidewater where VEPCO replaced the original power tower with a beefy power monopole and the coax is then run inside of the structure. I have a picture of this I'll see if I can post on Friday. Then there are the H like structure but now I'm going into the exceptions and not the norms.

Interesting tower indeed. Looks like a newer Verizon type antenna maybe?

I couldn't get close enough to tell. =jlk=

That's ok. The antenna types used in the picture are what Verizon changed one site in my area to, that's why I guessed Verizon.