Sentinel, OK

Common Language Location Identifier (CLLI): SNTNOKQ0010
Geolocation (GL) code: OK1650

Site Data

Address: off CR 2090, about 4 mi. south of Hwy. 55, Kiowa County, OK
Latitude: N35-05-55 (35.09861)
Longitude: W99-15-14 (-99.25389)
Elevation: 1710 ft. (521 M)

FCC Microwave License Data

Location: 5.6 mi. SW of Sentinel, Kiowa County, OK
Active AT&T Callsigns: none
Canceled AT&T Callsigns: KLV97
(cancelation date unknown; station listed as canceled in March 1998 FCC database)

Description

Thanks to McCullough Comsites Corporation for permission to adapt material from the company's Sentinel web page for use in this section.

This 2.06 acre tract, a former AT&T microwave relay site, is located atop a gently rolling hill in the plains of southwest Oklahoma. Access is good (private drive from a paved county road), and view is excellent in all directions. The perimeter of the property is fenced with barbed wire and two gate provide entry to the property, giving a circle drive in front of the large solid concrete building, which faces the west. The tower is located behind the main building and has its own 8' chain link fence.

The main equipment building is a solid, monolithic concrete structure containing over 4,000 square feet of space. The ceiling height inside is 13'6". A vestibule is located at the front entrance which has a 3'6" door, and double doors are located at the rear of the building. Inside, there is one large "L" shaped equipment room, a generator room measuring about 14'x 23' and an AC/power panel room measuring 16'x 24'. The large air conditioning system has four compressors on the roof with the blower and auxiliary equipment in the AC room. There is no restroom inside the building. There is a commercial outdoor toilet located on the southeast corner of the property.

The main equipment room has a tile floor, fluorescent lighting, and approximately 75 racks of microwave equipment still in place. While most former AT&T sites have the equipment removed prior to the sale, this one is still largely equipped, including Western Electric TD-2 and AR-6A microwave radios. Numerous boxes of spare parts are also in the room. Building is clean and in good condition. Most light circuits are active and lighting is good. The generator room contains the emergency standby generator which is powered by a 12-cylinder General Motors Detroit Diesel engine, model number 7125-7230. The generator is clean and intact, however the underground fuel tank has been removed from the premises, along with the rack of batteries normally located in the generator room.

The tower is a massive 324' 4-legged self-supporting structure, lighted by a medium intensity strobe system (Mfg.; Flash Technology Corporation of America) with an alarm system (FBIIX4).

History

AT&T route maps from October 1966 and from 1979 show Sentinel having microwave links east to Mountain View, OK and southwest to Reed, OK. The maps suggest that Sentinel was auxiliary (relay) station on a radio route linking Oklahoma City to Wayside, TX (south of Amarillo). The 1979 maps shows the route intersecting a long north-south radio route. The north-south route shown on the 1966 map as being in service for telephone and television traffic north of Amarillo, and as planned construction for telephone and television south of Amarillo.

The 1966 map shows that the Oklahoma City - Wayside route was for both telephone and television. The 1979 map does not indicate the type of service carried on the routes.

As AT&T continued the conversion of its long-distance network to fiber optics, it sold Sentinel to American Tower Corporation, a large tower-site firm which bought many of AT&T's microwave stations. American Tower, in turn sold the station to its current owner, McCullough Comsites Corporation, which offers space on the tower for lease to cellular telephone, PCS and paging providers, and other users of radio communications systems.

Thanks to Terry Michaels for contributing additional data and documentation.