# Cable + tower structures (for radio?) off Trans-Canada **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 21, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cable-tower-structures-for-radio-off-trans-canada/365421 "2006-07-21T00:50:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cable-tower-structures-for-radio-off-trans-canada/365421/1 "2006-07-21T00:50:36Z")
My friend recently returned from his honeymoon, during which he drove way out east to the coast. Somewhere in Ontario (or perhaps Quebec), he came across a series of cable structures he’s hoping someone here can identify. (I told him he’d know in a day ;)) They consisted of pairs of towers perhaps 15m / 50 feet tall (with cables strung between the tops and the bottoms, with vertical cables strung between these main cables. Next to each of these constructions was a small brown shack about the size of an outhouse. ```auto Teh lame diagram, not to scale: |\ /| | ------ | | |||||| | | _______ | /\ |/ \| || ``` There were many of these pairs of towers, apparently not oriented in any particular direction, and some of perhaps differing heights. The location was likely near the Trans-Canada, but not for certain. My guess was some sort of low-rent radio telescope, but my Google-fu returns nothing. Anyone got an idea what he saw? ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cable-tower-structures-for-radio-off-trans-canada/365421/2 "2006-07-21T01:00:32Z")
Looks like an HF (high frequency, 3-30 MHz) radio antenna. HF broadcast stations, like the BBC, often have large antenna farms that contain many antennas optimized for different frequency bands and target areas. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cable-tower-structures-for-radio-off-trans-canada/365421/3 "2006-07-21T01:18:57Z")
Well that’s interesting. It’s a bit furthur east than where he said he saw it, but it seems the CBC has a [facility](http://hawkins.pair.com/rci1.shtml) in Sackville New Brunswick for [Radio Canada International](http://www.rcinet.ca/) that [looks](http://hawkins.pair.com/rci/rci30.jpg) quite [like](http://hawkins.pair.com/rci/rci29.jpg) the description he gave me. He’s gone for the day, but I’ll see what he says tomorrow morning. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cable-tower-structures-for-radio-off-trans-canada/365421/4 "2006-07-21T01:19:28Z")
It wasn’t the CBC shortwave transmitter array in Sackville, NB, was it? AM radio stations have arrays of masts… I don’t remember seeing horizontal wires between them, buit I wouldn’t rule it out… :: checks antique electronics books :: My copy of the 1961 ARRL Handbook mentions multi-band folded dipole antennas with reflectors that end up looking somewhat like your diagram. It didn’t look anything like the antennas on [this page](http://home.swipnet.se/radiomuseum/208/scott.htm) or in [this Google image search](http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=antenna+array+&btnG=Search), did it? ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cable-tower-structures-for-radio-off-trans-canada/365421/5 "2006-07-21T02:11:57Z")
It sounds like it’s a Bobtail Curtain HF antenna. They’ve been around for a long time. Vlad/Igor ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cable-tower-structures-for-radio-off-trans-canada/365421/6 "2006-07-21T12:26:04Z")
Sterba Curtain [http://www.hamuniverse.com/sturba.html](http://www.hamuniverse.com/sturba.html) ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cable-tower-structures-for-radio-off-trans-canada/365421/7 "2006-07-21T15:46:07Z")
Awesome - thanks for the replies. 🙂 We think it must have been the RCI shortwave installation he saw, and that the cross-country cannonball run with his new wife wasn’t conducive to geographic accuracy. 😉 (all those pictures of stations are incredible - if it weren’t for the occasional CD or LCD display, you’d swear they were taken in the 70’s. :D)