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Giz Explains: How Cell Towers Work

i.gizmodo.com — I recently visited a cell site shared by Clearwire and two other unnamed carriers—without frying my nuts. We've all driven past them so many times, but have you ever actually wondered how they work?

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 22, 2009

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  • burchie2, on 03/21/2009, -6/+34I'll digg anything submitted by MrBabyMan!
  • crazymaster16, on 03/21/2009, -5/+18Really interesting article with a lot of images which help us to understand it
  • sockpuppets, on 03/22/2009, -1/+11Mine gave me herpes. Apparently it wasn't being honest about how many people it connected with.
  • rath01, on 03/22/2009, -4/+13Dugg for "Giz" :P
  • TheSkunkMonkey, on 03/22/2009, -1/+10Please don't use "Giz" .. I initially read that with a soft G... "Jizz Explains:.."

    Do not want!
  • azureskies88, on 03/22/2009, -2/+11Non-ionizing radiation, such as is used by cell phone towers and cell phones, bears no health risks. Stop promoting ignorance and fear.
  • superfusion, on 03/22/2009, -0/+8When did it become Giz?

    I have rarely Gized on this site.
  • kjlowe, on 03/22/2009, -1/+9Love it. I l'd like to see a sequel with some more detail.
  • brklynmark, on 03/22/2009, -0/+8Your provider doesn't use that tower.
    /rtfa
  • BDJC, on 03/22/2009, -0/+6I did some electrical work at one of those other 'bunker' style buildings. The ground grid around the building was quite complex (compared to normal buildings). The building was built off-site. It was about 10'x16'. Inside was basically a mini server room. A couple of racks with Ethernet switches, some other random telecom equipment, UPS/batteries and an A/C system. Really quite simple. A helluva lot larger than the one described on giz but still pretty cool.
  • TheHerk, on 03/22/2009, -0/+6I for one would like to know how they run only fiber up the tower. How do they convert that to an amplified broadcast without running copper up for power?
  • Greengoo, on 03/22/2009, -0/+6Our apartment complex is at the highest point in Ann Arbor. T-mobile payed a BUNCH of money to mount a cell tower on our roof. It looks badass, like I live in some sort of fortress.
  • brklynmark, on 03/22/2009, -0/+5Obvious troll is obvious, if you get my point.
  • MtheoryX, on 03/22/2009, -1/+5Bacon.




    Prove me wrong.
  • benologist, on 03/22/2009, -1/+5I'm willing to cut them some slack with their Giz Explains. It's the only time they actually write anything first-hand and that is far more interesting and worthwhile than the 50 short summaries they post about other people's news.
  • blapierre, on 03/22/2009, -1/+5So basically to sum up this article on "how cell towers work":

    Your phone sends a radio signal to a tower which then sends a signal back to your phone.


    Thank you so much for that explanation. I really didn't understand it before.
  • azureskies88, on 03/22/2009, -2/+5P.S. No, they don't.
  • inactive, on 03/22/2009, -1/+4What DOESN'T give you cancer these days?
  • krische, on 03/22/2009, -0/+3probably a different carrier's tower.
  • MtheoryX, on 03/22/2009, -0/+3The reception is much better once you pull your head out of your ass.
  • Ratteler, on 03/22/2009, -0/+2I wonder how hard it would be to make your own tower DIY. Get enough DIY towers set up for just data transfer all connected with Line of Site Microwaves, and we can make a secure network for P2P that would be much harder for the Copyright Terrorists to attack.

    Maybe we could even set up mobile units in Vans. Radio Free America for the Information Age.
  • MtheoryX, on 03/22/2009, -0/+2Um, something deadapostle's sock is full of right now, Alex?
  • ralfan01, on 03/22/2009, -0/+2I really wouldn't worry about living under a cell tower. With the frequency that cell phones operate on plus the attenuation and multipath that occurs when a signal is being sent or received from the cell tower, the amount of power actually hitting you is on the order of pW (picowatts - 10^-12).
  • Chairboy, on 03/22/2009, -0/+1SuperAlive1, you neglected to mention the effect they have on your precious bodily fluids.
    POE
  • Shaunzio, on 03/22/2009, -0/+2animal semen
  • d-ude, on 03/22/2009, -0/+2Here's a hint for a good start..use existing equipment. Building a tower can be easy. Making it reliable and able to withstand wind, ice, and lightning are not. That's why all towers are grounded so well, and have a lot of testing done on the soil beforehand. Wind loading is a big factor depending on height and the terrain around you. Ice can form on your tower then come crashing down on lower antennas and slice through your cables from your shelter to the tower.

    A good example of what you propose was started in the 40's by AT&T. They built a nationwide network of towers all linked together by line-of-sight microwave and used it to carry TV, telephone, and military communications. Most of the towers still exist with the original antennas on them, but only a few are still in service. 99% were sold off to American Tower Corp. and you can use the map on their site to locate them. They will happily rent space to anyone who has the cash.

    Light up the old network and turn it into your own personal internet. Yes, they had mobile units too. THey were backups in case there was a tower failure and had to get the microwave route back up and running in a hurry. THey also used them for some special presidential broadcast out west but I am a little fuzzy on that story. You can get the whole history at Albert LaFrance's website here: http://long-lines.net/index.html

    The American Tower locator site is here: http://www.americantower.com/sitelocator/default.a ...

    You can also see a map of many Pittsburgh area towers and their interconnections that I made here: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&a ...
  • inactive, on 03/22/2009, -1/+2Neat. Now I'm left wondering how it is that I live next to one of these things and STILL get ***** reception.
  • phqu88, on 03/22/2009, -1/+2
  • MavRevMatt, on 03/22/2009, -1/+2You want to answer phones all day for a living?
  • Whackly, on 03/22/2009, -1/+2What would you like to know?
  • MrSantonio, on 03/22/2009, -0/+1Hmm, looks like you forgot to rotate a picture there.
  • Ratteler, on 03/23/2009, -0/+1Good stuff. Thanks d-ude.
  • wikityler, on 03/22/2009, -0/+1Obviously you've never experienced a radio burn. Non-ionizing radiation in the RF and microwave bands causes heating of body tissues.
  • moppsy, on 03/22/2009, -3/+3As well as injecting a lot of misinformation.

    All lead acid batteries contain corrosive liquids and OSHA requires that hazards be labeled.
    Cell towers are not thick to contain wires.
    Fiber is a dumb choice for delivering a signal up an antenna tower.

    There is no reason for Wilson to have made any of the comments in the article lambasting existing infrastructure.

  • Thinkbig12, on 03/22/2009, -0/+0Thanks, it's reassuring ! :)
  • tractordriver88, on 03/22/2009, -0/+0That would confirm a suspicion. This School's internet died at the same time people around me on a cell phone lost their calls.
  • BDJC, on 03/22/2009, -1/+1Sounds like something on the Simpsons... Are you sure they didn't actually destroy historical documents at the Smithsonian and have opt to have a cell tower installed on their house rather than pay for the repair of the document?
  • electrichead, on 03/22/2009, -1/+1Dugg for quoting movie that really should have had more exposure: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/
  • AlaskaLoneWolf, on 03/21/2009, -9/+9As usual Giz manages to leave a lot of stuff out. Decent pictures though.
  • CrazedLeper, on 03/22/2009, -1/+1Don't worry; the foreclosure should fix that.
  • ngmcs8203, on 03/22/2009, -2/+1Nice to see I wasn't the only one who didn't get the reference automatically.
  • phonejunkie30, on 03/22/2009, -1/+0Go Giz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! good article pictures are cool but you got to get up them poles man take a picture looking down.....
  • deadapostle, on 03/22/2009, -4/+2semen?
  • Thinkbig12, on 03/22/2009, -2/+0I live under a cell tower....
  • EMGroup, on 03/22/2009, -4/+1With the speed of cell phone data transfer, you would think that Internet speeds would be just as fast.
  • adverpart, on 03/22/2009, -7/+3"How do cell phones work? If there's two duplicate phones and I call the same number, do they both ring at the same time, or is there..."
    "That's not how it works."
    "Yes, it's a radio signal, so it..."
    "No, it's a network. The network checks each area. When it finds a phone, it stops ringing. It only rings the first one."
    "This one's ringing."
    "Right."
    "So the one your doubIe has in RusseIIfieId can't be."
    "Right. I think we broke symmetry."
    "Are you sure that's how ceII phones work?"
    "No."
  • inactive, on 03/22/2009, -8/+2I hope it's true because Indian people are taking our jobs. Less Indians means less competition, if you get my point.
  • DavidGX, on 03/22/2009, -11/+5babyman = buried as spam
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