Posted on 08/31/2009 10:54:02 AM PDT by meandog
Intense wildfires in Southern California are dangerously close to facilities atop Mount Wilson, threatening damage to cell phone and TV broadcast towers, as well as a famed observatory.
The blaze, which started August 26, has burned approximately 20,102 acres and as of Sunday was only 5 percent contained, according to the Web site of the California governor's office. Known as the "Station Fire," as it began about one mile above the Angeles Crest Fire Station, the inferno has spread throughout the San Gabriel Mountains in Northern Los Angeles County.
At an altitude of 5,715 feet, Mount Wilson houses a number of TV, radio, and cell phone transmitters known as the Communications Facilities, all providing service to the Los Angeles area, according to the LA Times. Also threatened by the fire is the historic Mount Wilson Observatory, home to critical astronomy projects and research.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.cnet.com ...
am I a terrible person for thinking the same thing when I heard about it? LOL.
It is when they’re most people’s only source of evacuation info.
No problem... Obama will give them money to rebuild... only catch is that he’ll now own them all.
You mean we won’t get all that filth out of California. That would be like a day without sunshine. Sounds like a “WIN-WIN” situation to me.
Yeah it is true folks all station here in LA are threated
well, except for the standby transmitters...
http://www.fybush.com/sites/2005/site-051216.html
Mount Wilson, Revisited and Annotated (part I)
http://www.fybush.com/sites/2005/site-051223.html
Mount Wilson, Revisited and Annotated (part II)
Good.
Cell towers and TV antennas are easily replaced. Not so the observatory infrastructure up there. Historic and priceless.
Hey don’t worry about KFI Radio I hear from Bill Handel that transmitter is in La Miranda far away from MT Wilson LOL!
There is an incredible historic observatory up there. But don’t let that stop your celebrations.
FYI, I don't live in CA --fled from there over a quarter-century ago and glad I did-- but there are things & people in CA worth saving.
I've done some work on mtn sites towers that had ice and lightning damage. None were easily replaces or repaired. And that was just the towers. You damage the shack with the radio gear and hopefully you've got good spares to throw online. Most commercial broadcast don't have adequate backups. Remember how long it took KFI to get their tower back up?
Wow—what about all of the produce from California? Talk about a day without sunshine....
I agree that there is difficulty and leadtimes. My point was that the observatory infrastructure is historic and not replaceable. (Of course the functionality is replaceable and in some cases is outdated - just not the historic aspect of the installation.)
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