Long Lines site: Windsor, MO

Common Language Identifier: WNDSMO
Coordinates: 38°35’43.00″ N, 93°31’27.00″ W (38.59528 N, 93.52417 W)
County: Johnson
Callsign: KAJ76 (inactive)
Antenna Structure Registration (ASR): 1005508
Height (overall): 82.6 meters (271 feet)
Current owner: State of Missouri
Currently in use? MOSWIN repeater
Horn antennas? No
Original paths: 1966 — Holden (NW), Cole Camp (SE), Deepwater (SW, planned at the time)

Built in 1963-64, a microwave relay site near Windsor, Missouri was part of the AT&T Long Lines network between the 1960s and 1980s. This site was used to relay telephone calls, television broadcasts and other signals before the microwave network was replaced in favor of fiber optic networks.

The site is on the Kansas City-Halifax-Oakdale, Illinois, route. The Windsor site has microwave paths to the northwest to the Holden site, and to the southeast to the Cole Camp site.

In 1966, a southwestern hop to Deepwater was added to Windsor. This route continued westward through Kansas and Oklahoma to Frick, Colorado.

Much like the Holden site, the Windsor site features a semi-hardened concrete building that was designed to withstand somewhat close nuclear weapon detonations. However, as a manned terminal site, the Windsor site is much larger and has some advanced features than the unmanned sites like the adjacent Holden and Cole Camp sites. This hardened design features a concrete building with a “blast damper” inside the ventilation system to protect from nuclear fallout. One potential explanation for this site being hardened is the Windsor site’s proximity to the Whiteman Air Force Base, a major Air Force base that formerly housed controls for Minuteman ICBMs.

While Google Maps Street View footage from May 2009 shows the Windsor site still having the KS-15676 horn-reflector antennas still installed, they have since been removed.

As with the Aullville site in Lafayette County, this site was formerly owned by the McCullough Comsites Corporation, which have since sold the sites to the Missouri Highway Patrol for housing a repeater for the Missouri StateWide Interoperability Network (MOSWIN) radio network. The site currently has the ASR #1005508, which shows the site being first registered in August 1964. While McCullough had this site located on their Missouri sites page, the link to the detailed page on this site is broken.

This site is located approximately five miles north of Windsor on Route WW, or approximately ten miles southeast of Whiteman Air Force Base. The site is located at the extreme southeastern corner of Johnson County, Missouri.

Photos: November 23, 2024

Former AT&T Long Lines microwave relay tower site seen Nov. 23, 2024, near Windsor in rural Johnson County, Missouri. The site is currently a repeater for the Missouri Statewide Interoperability Network (MOSWIN), a P25 public safety radio network.

Northern side of the base station, including the main entrance and ventilation air intakes.

Three large air conditioning condensing units mounted on the roof.

Four-bay garage on the north side of the property.

Modern antenna aimed west on the lower top platform.

Missouri State Highway Patrol logos on doors to the facility.

Gated entrance to facility. — Main entrance gate off Route WW, which is electronically controlled.

Windsor facility from south — Looking at the site from the south along SE 1050th Road.

Looking at the site from approximately two-thirds of a mile south-southeast at SE 1100th Road and Route WW.

Windsor tower from north — Looking at the former Windsor, Missouri, AT&T Long Lines microwave relay tower site Nov. 23, 2024, from the north on a corner of Route WW.

Same view from north-northwest of the site, now including an adjacent FM transmitter guyed mast for J-98.5 FM (ASR 1225874).

Photos: May 8, 2021

The former AT&T Long Lines site near Windsor, Missouri.

The Windsor site also featured a four-bay garage, likely used for AT&T/Southwestern Bell service vehicles.

The hardened building for the Windsor Long Lines site. Notice the ventilation vents, and the air conditioning/chiller systems located on the roof.

Ironically, a Sprint cable marker was located near the entrance to the Windsor site, formerly used by AT&T/the Bell System.

A photo of the FCC registration number located on the locked entrance gate, which also provides a better view of the ventilation vents.

A photo taken about 1,900 feet away from the site on Route WW shows the true scale of the site.

The Clinton Eye: Jan. 10, 1963

An article found in the Jan. 10, 1963, issue of The Clinton Eye details — with photographs — site path testing at what would eventually become the Windsor and Deepwater sites.

A PDF of the full story is available here. (Opens in new tab)

An AT&T company crew adjusts the dish-type antenna elevation to determine the required height necessary to support permanent antennas for reliable radio transmission between proposed relay points. The movable antenna slides up the track of the portable test tower under control of the winch operated by one of the crewmen. Electronic equipment mounted in the truck is used to measure the radio signal strength transmitted between proposed sites. (The Clinton Eye, Jan. 10, 1963)

The Windsor Review: Feb. 17, 1966

The following picture was found with a story detailing the Windsor site’s 1966 expansion for the Deepwater hop that continued westward to Frick, Colorado. Prior to becoming a terminal station for the Windsor-Frick, Colorado, route, Windsor was an auxiliary repeater on the Kansas City-Halifax-Oakdale, Illinois, route.

A PDF of the full story is available here. (Opens in new tab)

Testing radio equipment — TESTING NEW EQUIPMENT — LeRoy Miller, AT&T equipment maintenance supervisor at the company’s station north of Windsor on Route WW, and Stanley York, from the Dover office near Waverly, are shown testing some of the new equipment that has been added to the station. York is talking to the company station in Burbank, Oklahoma, attempting to open an initial radio line to that facility. The television screen at the top of the picture is used for visual aid in opening the line. Two men, Miller and Barney Walker, equipment maintenance men, reside in Windsor. Mr. York is married to the former Reta Scrimager, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Otis Scrimager, Rt. 3. (REVIEW photo)

Map

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