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Common Language Location Identifier (CLLI): AYLTVAQ0010
Address: Rt. 608 (Shaw Rd.), Aylett, VA
Latitude: N37-47-34 (37.79278)
Longitude: W77-10-38 (-77.17722)
Elevation: 200 ft. (61 M)
Location: 4 miles west of Aylett, King William County, VA
Active Callsigns: None
Canceled Callsigns: KYS82 (per March 1998 database)
Aylett's physical facilities consist of a steel lattice tower and a concrete equipment building. FCC records show the tower's height as 322 ft. (98 M), while American Tower's site brochure gives the height as 290 ft. (88 M).
Aylett was a major microwave junction station in the Long Lines network. By the late 1970s, thirteen technicians and a manager worked there, and the station had 24/7 coverage.
A January 1970 route map shows the station having radio paths to Oak Grove, Cauthornville, Mount Pleasant, Richmond, and Oilville, VA. Maps from October 1966, January 1976, March 1979, and December 1988 show the same routes, less Cauthornville. The 1966 map indicates that Aylett's routes were for telephone-only service, not television, but this may have changed in later years.
Aylett's microwave facilities consisted of Western Electric TD-2 and TH radios on the Long Lines routes, and TL/TM radios on the C&P Telephone route to Cauthornville. The station had L-multiplex equipment, including mastergroup multiplexers, which combined and separated many telephone trunk lines on a single radio channel. Broadband restoration patch bays were provided, so that technicans could quickly rearrange circuits to bypass disabled portions of the network.
Aylett's maintenance facilities included test benches for TD-2 radios and for L3 coaxial-cable equipment, the latter being used to support of the nearby cable route between Richmond and Edge Hill, VA.
Emergency power was supplied by two 225-KW Diesel engine-alternators.
An unusual feature of Aylett was the presence of Western Electric baseband analog encryption equipment on selected mastergroups (600 multiplexed voice channels) on the TD-2 radio routes terminating at Washington and points north. That equipment was installed at certain Long Lines stations to provide security for potentially sensitive communications, presumably related to national defense.
Aylett is no longer in service as an AT&T microwave station. It is owned by American Tower Corporation, which leases space at the site to wireless communications providers.
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Updated on October 13, 2002 at 16:10 by Albert LaFrance