In 1962 I had a summer job in engineering with Bell of PA (well before the breakup of AT&T) so I have some knowledge about the long lines network.
Interestingly, at that time AT&T owned many of the local operating companies (e.g., Bell of PA which actually owned Diamond State Telephone Company, the operating company that covered Delaware). There were many other operating companies that were not AT&T owned. IT&T was an example of one that owned lots of local operating companies. How they interfaced, both technically and financially, with AT&T is beyond my knowledge.
Long distance phone calls were routed through a hierarchy of several levels of aggregation, ultimately to something like as few as ten (recall is hazy) top-level centers. These had long distance microwave communication from one to the next, where the call would then be routed downward through its hierarchy to the local destination. I don't remember the specific nomenclature for the top-level centers. One is in downtown Wayne. You can see the tower on Google Maps or Google Earth at West Wayne Avenue and South Bellevue Avenue. It used to have horn antennas, but now has various other dishes and antenna structures.
As I recall, the horn antenna can be thought of as being a sector of a full dish. At the frequencies then in use, the full dish would have been huge, probably too big to put up on a tower. However, for a reasonable signal to noise ratio, the directionality you get with a dish would have been important. So they used part of a dish.
I don't know whether in general, they didn't have hazard lights. I'll have to check some night when I'm out, but I'm pretty sure the one in Wayne does have lights. Both the FCC and the FAA have regulations regarding when lights are required. If I remember from my ham radio days, one of the criteria had to do with the height of the antenna and the distance from an airport.
In 1962 I had a summer job in engineering with Bell of PA (well before the breakup of AT&T) so I have some knowledge about the long lines network.
Interestingly, at that time AT&T owned many of the local operating companies (e.g., Bell of PA which actually owned Diamond State Telephone Company, the operating company that covered Delaware). There were many other operating companies that were not AT&T owned. IT&T was an example of one that owned lots of local operating companies. How they interfaced, both technically and financially, with AT&T is beyond my knowledge.
Long distance phone calls were routed through a hierarchy of several levels of aggregation, ultimately to something like as few as ten (recall is hazy) top-level centers. These had long distance microwave communication from one to the next, where the call would then be routed downward through its hierarchy to the local destination. I don't remember the specific nomenclature for the top-level centers. One is in downtown Wayne. You can see the tower on Google Maps or Google Earth at West Wayne Avenue and South Bellevue Avenue. It used to have horn antennas, but now has various other dishes and antenna structures.
As I recall, the horn antenna can be thought of as being a sector of a full dish. At the frequencies then in use, the full dish would have been huge, probably too big to put up on a tower. However, for a reasonable signal to noise ratio, the directionality you get with a dish would have been important. So they used part of a dish.
I don't know whether in general, they didn't have hazard lights. I'll have to check some night when I'm out, but I'm pretty sure the one in Wayne does have lights. Both the FCC and the FAA have regulations regarding when lights are required. If I remember from my ham radio days, one of the criteria had to do with the height of the antenna and the distance from an airport.