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Coordinates: A: 38°32'22.40" N, 90°45'02.30" W (38.53956 N, 90.75064 W)
B: 38°32'21.50" N, 90°45'02.30" W (38.53931 N, 90.75064 W)
Antenna Structure Registration (ASR): A: 1005494; B: 1240176
Height (overall): A: 110.6 meters (362.86 feet); B: 85.3 meters (279.86 feet)
Current owner: American Tower Corporation
Currently in use? Yes
Horn antennas? No
Original hops: 1960 — Hermann (NW), Wright City (NNW, telephone only), St. Louis CO (ENE), Hillsboro (SSE, telephone only).
Later hops: 1979 — Sullivan (SW)
Hidden by trees off Route 66 about 30 miles southwest of downtown St. Louis is the Gray Summit, Missouri, microwave repeater for the AT&T Long Lines network. Built in the mid-1950s, this site originally hosted four hops — two carrying telephone and television traffic along the Kansas City-St. Louis route, and two carrying just telephone traffic along the Elsberry-Campbell-Memphis, Tennessee, telephone route. Between 1966 and 1979, a fifth hop was added southwest to Sullivan, which continued southwestward to the Rosati site along the Kansas City-Halifax-Oakdale, Illinois, route.
The Gray Summit site consists of two towers and multiple base station buildings. All previous antennas, such as the KS-15676 horn-reflector antennas and a parabolic aimed toward Hillsboro, have been removed by American Tower Corporation — who currently owns the site and leases space to wireless communications companies.
The taller of the two towers is labeled "Gray Summit 1A" and currently has various antennas installed up and down the tower. Its top platform could hold two antennas. "Gray Summit 1B" appears to have been used as the main tower, with two top plaforms that could hold six antennas. The "B" tower has several cell repeater antennas on it, like the adjacent, taller "A" tower.
Two modern base stations were installed by American Tower Corporation around the base of each tower. Some external equipment, likely used for the cell carriers, are mounted in their own outside enclosures. One such carrier is AT&T, who has equipment and multiple cable markers along the northern edge of the property off Little Tavern Road. (I confirmed AT&T uses the site, as my phone displayed full signal strength at the site.)
Along the southern edge of the property is the original AT&T base station building. Gray Summit originally had a white concrete block building like the other repeater sites along the Kansas City-St. Louis microwave route. However, the building was expanded — likely in the early-mid 1960s — with a concrete "semi-hardened" facility similar to those found at repeater sites along the Kansas City-Halifax-Oakdale, Illinois, route. At the southeastern edge of the concrete addition is the generator air intake "blast shield", generator exhaust and a rear entrance. A weathered "Warning" sticker can be found on the rear door. The sticker is original, as the original Bell System logo — predating Saul Bass' 1969 logo — is still visible after decades of weather and sunlight, although just barely.
Writing in permanent marker — including "Gray Summit" (or "Grey Summit," sic) — can also be found on pieces of the waveguide racks running between the two original AT&T base station buildings and the tower bases.
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Aullville ◇ Barnett ◇ Brinktown ◇ Cole Camp ◇ Dayton ◇ Dover ◇ Gray Summit ◇ Halifax ◇ Hermann ◇ Hillsboro ◇ Holden ◇ Holts Summit ◇ Jefferson City (CO) ◇ Kansas City (CO) ◇ Lawrenceton ◇ Oak Grove ◇ Prairie Home ◇ Richwoods ◇ Rosati ◇ Slater ◇ Windsor