- Common Language Identifier: BDSNMO
- Coordinates: 40º18’16.10″ N, 94º45’57.10″ W (40.30447 N, 94.76586 W)
- County: Nodaway
- AT&T call sign: KAR61 (inactive)
- Antenna Structure Registration number: 1005482
- Height (overall): 74.1 meters (243.11 feet)
- Current owner: American Tower Corporation
- Current use: Unknown
- Horn antennas? Yes
- Original paths: 1960 — Helena; Braddyville, Iowa
Located just 6 miles southeast of the northwestern Missouri community of Maryville is a traditional Long Lines site that once supported two microwave paths — one northward to Braddyville, Iowa, and another southward to Helena. The Bedison site repeated both telephone and television traffic.
Bedison consists of a 243-foot (74-meter), self-supported lattice tower that continues to support six horn-reflector antennas for the two paths. At the base of the tower is a white block building that would have housed the radios, generator set and other ancillary equipment for the site.
Photos: July 15, 2025, by Robert Perkett
Special thanks to Robert Perkett, of the AT&T Long Lines Facebook Group, for generously allowing me to republish these photos.
“AT&T Microwave Tower at Bedison Put Under Guard”
On May 28, 1961, two microwave repeater sites — one at Wendover, Nevada, and the other at Cedar Mountain, Utah — were destroyed by the American Republican Army. This act of domestic terrorism interrupted service for the southwestern region of the United States until temporary equipment could be installed, which took just a couple days.
Although its impact on the Transcontinental microwave relay system was somewhat minimal, the Bell System still sought to protect other, traditionally-unmanned sites throughout the nation by having them guarded temporarily. As The Maryville Daily Forum reported on May 31, 1961, Bedison was one such site.
The microwave telephone relay tower near Bedison is being guarded by the Nodaway County sheriff’s department, assisted by the sheriff’s posse, in connection with the nationwide action being taken by the American Telephone and Telegraph Co.
The precautionary measures were taken by the telephone company after three microwave stations in Utah and Nevada were dynamited early Sunday, and officials indicated the possibility of sabotage.
A fieldman for the telephone company contacted Sheriff James E. Tucker at 3 p.m. Sunday with the request for armed guard at the tower at Bedison during the hours of darkness.
Sheriff Tucker and Deputy Sheriff W.R. Jackson, along with a telephone company representative, guarded the tower Sunday night. Johnny Ellis, member of the sheriff’s posse, guarded the tower Monday and Tuesday nights.
A PDF of the archived story can be downloaded here.