Why Cell Towers Look Funny

I suddenly have a strong urge to climb one and reveal the local area map. Damn you, Ubisoft.

I work on cell towers. Done it for 15 years and it's nice to see just facts and not opinion when it comes to a very simplified version of what i do but you got the nail on the head great video

I'm a city dweller so I haven't seen the cactus towers, but the tree towers are getting much better. They're actually passable for more than a glance while driving by at freeway speeds now.

Having worked for a mobile carrier since 2006... I love this video! Really accurate, and yup we use microwave for a lot of backhaul, esp in rural areas. It's also one of the biggest points of failure. You mention the antennas being angled downwards to reduce interference, but that's not totally correct... Carriers usually own a big chunk of spectrum, and we plan adjacent towers to run at different frequencies. They're typically angled downwards as the antenna are so directional, that if you don't angle them you end up with black spots directly under the tower... Some towers we can even change these angles remotely.

Fun fact: my great-grandfather helped develop microwave transmission technology, specifically for television at the time. He was NOT happy to learn that it was going to be used for anything OTHER than educational programming! But his team's work helped bring us the greatest communications infrastructure that's ever existed. If only he had lived to see what good has come of it!

in addition to the cactus disguise, there are also monopole towers disguised as pine trees or palm trees. I always thought it was funny that many city-dwellers want good cell signal but can't bear to see an antenna or tower.

Love how the cosmopolitan multilingual foreigners are so flustered by inches and miles

40 miles is about 64km for those who couldn't be bothered to pause and look it up

I'm a civil/structural engineer who specializes in the steel design of these towers. It's a pretty interesting, in-depth topic that a lot of people don't realize exists.

Even since I got covid vaccine, my 4g phone is connected to 5g network... just kidding.

My favorite ones are the little poles with the 4 boxes and a tubular antenna on top. MM wave is awesome

40 miles == 64 km 6 miles == 9.6 km

As a Dutchie who works as a tower climber I'm always amazed by just how different the towers look across the Atlantic. Way bulkier and technically completely different. Here you'll usually have a tower (usually either by VDL or Kaal) and each provider that's in there only has three antennas. Sometimes an operator adds another but that's to boost a certain frequency for example or as an added upgrade. Feeders and combiners are starting to become a thing of the past as more and more sites have their radios up in the tower as well. Mechanical down tilt is used sparsely as it can be done electrically for up to 6 degrees with the vendor were working with. Also no concrete building to put the hardware in, just cabinets on a steel frame and a fence. Roof-top sites are always completely different and depending on the roof. But I guess the main difference is that the operators don't actually own the towers over here. Only the temporary structures and usually not even those are owned by the operator but owned by the contractor who builds them. Back in 2007 KPN, one of the major operators here, owned most of the towers but because of the monopoly that was arising it was forced to sell all of them by the competition authority. Now you have companies owning towers but not doing anything with telecom and you have actual operators. Works quite good. All three operators are in a trade association as well, making guidelines to make work in towers and on roof-tops a lot safer. A lot can be said about the Dutch telecom-sector but it is actually very well organized.

Coolest looking towers are the old AT&T long lines microwave towers with the horn antennae. In rural areas, they’re these massive, imposing towers that can be seen for miles, and it’s fun when you get the right angle, and can see the next long lines tower the horn antennae are pointing at

I live on Birmingham, Alabama. And I saw a cell tower designed to look like a pine tree. It was hilarious!

Not a suggestion per say, but it would be nice if you would write the units in international recognized kilometers as well miles O.o Thanks 🙏

You forgot to include distance value in metric

Funny how I click this video, it starts and data breaks down on my phone... Almost as if my cell company doesn't want me to know how their towers work.

What's funny is that there's a building here in Nashville TN that is called the Batman building that's mostly filled with AT&T... Except it's definitely more reminiscent of the tower of sauron according to some photo editors lol. Look it up, it's hilarious. Your Sauron eye edit reminded me of it

Linus should do a video climbing a Cell Tower!!