Long Lines site: Brinktown, MO

  • Common Language Identifier: BRTWMO
  • Coordinates: 38°8’16.15″ N, 92°4’53.00″ W (38.137819 N, 92.081389 W)
  • County: Maries
  • AT&T call sign: KAK80 (inactive)
  • Antenna Structure Registration (ASR): 1005484
  • Height (overall): 81.7 meters (268 feet)
  • Current owner: State of Missouri (Missouri Statewide Interoperability Network)
  • Currently in use? MOSWIN repeater
  • Horn antennas? No
  • Original hops: Barnett, Rosati

In 1963-64, an unmanned microwave repeater site was constructed near Brinktown in rural Maries County, Missouri, as the sixth hop east of Kansas City on a telephone/television microwave route between the Kansas City district office and Halifax on the eastern side of the state. From Halifax, the route continued across the Mississippi River to Oakdale, Illinois.

The site consists of a “semi-hardened” concrete base station of a common design along the Kansas City-Halifax route. Atop a self-supported, 268-foot tower were originally four KS-15676 horn-reflector antennas. One pair were aimed northwest at Barnett, and the other pair aimed southeast at Rosati.

After AT&T retired the Long Lines terrestrial microwave system in favor of fiber optic cables and satellites, the site was sold to McCullough Comsites, who leased tower space to users. The State of Missouri later purchased several of the ex-AT&T sites from McCullough for use with the Missouri Statewide Interoperability Network, which allows various public safety agencies, such as law enforcement and fire departments, the ability to communicate with each other.

Like other MOSWIN sites, the original horn-reflector antennas were removed to make way for dipole arrays to communicate with users’ land mobile radios. Brinktown also has four shrouded parabolic dishes to talk with surrounding MOSWIN repeaters in Linn and Jefferson City.

Photos: August 2024

I took these photos during a trip to the Brinktown site on Aug. 21, 2024.

Approaching the former Brinktown, Missouri, AT&T Long Lines microwave relay site Aug. 21, 2024, on Maries County Road 613. The site’s original horn antennas were removed to allow it to be used for the Missouri Statewide Interoperability Network, a private (P25) land mobile radio network for responders such as law enforcement and fire departments. There are a few other ex-Long Lines sites used by MOSWIN, including Windsor (three hops west of Brinktown on the Oak Grove-Halifax route) and Aullville.
The typical “semi-hardened” concrete base station found along the Kansas City/Oak Grove-Halifax route in the AT&T Long Lines microwave relay network is seen Aug. 21, 2024, at the Brinktown, Missouri site.
The former Brinktown, Missouri, AT&T Long Lines microwave relay tower seen Aug. 21, 2024. The tower is now used by the State of Missouri for the Missouri Statewide Interoperability Network, a private (P25) land mobile radio network connecting responder agencies such as law enforcement agencies and fire departments. Brinktown originally had two microwave hops: a northwestward hop to Barnett, and an east-southeastward hop to Rosati. The horn antennas that originally supported these microwave links were removed to make room for MOSWIN’s newer shrouded parabolic microwave antennas and dipole arrays (seen at the very top).
The former Barnett, Missouri, AT&T Long Lines microwave relay tower is seen with its FCC tower registration number — 1005484 — Aug. 21, 2024. The site is now owned by the State of Missouri for the Missouri Statewide Interoperability Network.

Submitted (C. Vance) photos: July 2022

C. Vance took these photos of the Brinktown site in July 2022. He has listed these photos under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Creative Commons license. (Photos added Nov. 20, 2022.)

The former AT&T Long Lines microwave relay tower near Brinktown, Missouri, is seen from a short distance away.
A close-up of the top portion of the former AT&T Long Lines microwave relay tower near Brinktown, Missouri. The horns have long been removed and replaced with public safety dipole array antennas, which are used with MOSWIN (Missouri StateWide Interoperability Network).
A view of the former AT&T Long Lines microwave relay facility near Brinktown, Missouri, from just down the road.
Another look at the top platform of the former AT&T Long Lines microwave relay tower near Brinktown, Missouri.
A closeup of the generator exhaust (right) and waveguide air dryer vent (middle) above the “blast shield.”
A view of the building from the south. It is nearly identical in construction to other sites along the Kansas City-Halifax route, which was constructed in the mid-1960s. The site consists of the semi-hardened concrete building and 268-foot tower.

Photos – July 2021 (submitted)

These photos were posted on a Long Lines Facebook group by Evan Glen Brendel, who was gracious enough to grant me permission to republish them here.

The site is under surveillance, due to it still playing a critical role in the MOSWIN radio network used by public safety/law enforcement agencies in Missouri.
A great photo of the so-called “blast shield.” The “blast shield” protected ventilation from the fallout of a nuclear blast, which these sites were constructed to withstand.
While McCullough still had the KS-15676 horn-reflector (“Hogg horn”) antennas installed on the site around 2002 when the mentioned archived page was posted, they were likely removed after the Missouri Highway Patrol purchased the site.

Photos ©2021 Evan Glen Brendel. Special thanks to Evan for letting me republish these photos. Photos submitted 7-18-2021.

“S.W. Bell To Build New Relay Station”

The following article, about Brinktown’s construction, was published in the Nov. 28, 1963, issue of the Unterrified Democrat. A PDF version of the story can be accessed here.

Terrance R. Long, manager, Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., announced that construction will begin soon on a section of a major transcontinental communications route which will include a radio relay station 8 miles southwest of Vienna near Brinktown.

Long said that the Brinktown station will include a 3,006 sq. ft. air-conditioned building and a 250 foot tower. Work on the building will begin about the middle of this month and construction of the tower is scheduled for the first of the year.

Construction is being done by the Long Lines Dept. of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. G.G. Dorr, division plant superintendent of Long Lines, St. Louis, said the Brinktown station is one of 12 radio relay stations being built along a 360 mile route between Kansas City and St. Louis. This link will join a new transcontinental route that stretches from New York to California, at Kansas City and Oakdale, Illinois.

This is the second radio relay route between Kansas City and St. Louis, according to Dorr. He explained that an increase in communication requirements has necessitated construction of the additional route. When the route is completed, it will be capable of carrying up to 1,200 two-way phone conversations at any one time.

Dorr said the radio relay stations, which are placed about 30 miles apart, provide a direct line-of-sight transmission path for microwave signals. The relay stations also serve as boosters for the signals which loose power as they travel.

The new route is scheduled to be available for service in the fall of 1964.