Repurposed former-Southwestern Bell microwave relay site: ASR 1056038

Another microwave relay site owned by American Tower Corporation, repurposed for a wireless internet service provider (WISP).

While driving down Route C near Russellville in southwestern Cole County, Missouri, an interesting tower always captured my attention on the small town’s outskirts. The tower resembled some of the later AT&T Long Lines relay sites built, and still had the mounts for the four cornucopia horn reflector antennas that were removed at some point.

A former Southwestern-Bell microwave relay tower outside Russellville, Missouri, is seen missing the four cornucopia-shaped, parabolic relector-horn antennas it would have originally featured when it was likely built in the late 1980s. According to Maprad.io, Southwestern Bell had registered microwave links to Eldon and Holts Summit from this site. Today, as pictured June 1, 2024, the tower is owned by American Tower Corporation, who leases tower space to a wireless internet service provider. Small tiny white antennas at the top of the tower link to surrounding towers in the area.

A closer look revealed the site as being registered to American Towers Corporation — which owns many former Long Lines sites, along with other tower sites. Registered under ASR 1056038, FCC records indicate the site was constructed in 1998. (However, I’m doubtful that’s accurate based on information discussed later.) FCC records show the site once belonged to Charles McCullough (dba Stateline Communications; Charles also owned McCullough Comsites, who owned many former AT&T Long Lines sites) before American Towers acquired it in 2001.

The site consists of a roughly 140-foot tower with the four aforementioned antenna mounts and a rather small base building. All waveguide has been removed.

Zoomed view of the small, concrete block building found at the base of a former Southwestern Bell microwave relay tower outside Russellville, Missouri, seen June 1, 2024. The site is now owned by American Tower Corporation, who leases tower space to a wireless internet service provider.

According to Maprad.io, a wireless internet service provider, Wisper, uses the tower to provide wireless internet access to those in the surrounding rural area. Wisper also has a microwave relay link to another tower north of U.S. 50 near Centertown.

Maprad.io also shows the tower was previously registered by the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, and had hops to a site near Eldon and, oddly, the Holts Summit Long Lines site. These hops were registered in August 1990 and canceled before the expiration in August 2000, likely shortly before or when the tower site was sold to McCullough.

A sign with the FCC registration information on the fence for a tower site near Russellville, Missouri. (June 1, 2024)
The entrance to an American Tower Corporation microwave relay site near Russellville, Missouri, seen June 1, 2024. The site, once a Southwestern Bell microwave relay site, is now leased by a wireless internet service provider to support broadband internet access in the nearby rural community.
The base of a former Southwestern Bell microwave relay tower near Russellville, Missouri, is seen June 1, 2024, with the small concrete block building close by. The waveguide that would have fed the tower’s four cornucopia-shaped, horn-reflector antennas is gone, along with the antennas themselves. The site is now owned by American Tower Corporation and used by a wireless internet service provider.