DAY 11.1 30112017
It would be my last day in North Dakota, and I was going all out. At 10 am, I was supposed to meet Lyle Nelson, transmission engineer for KVLY. Afterwards, I would meet Beth's mom at Elm Bend Farm for a few stories about the Tower. To cap it all off, I would spend the rest of the day making sure I got all the footage I needed. That was the plan, anyway.
Part 1: Lyle Nelson
This part is relatively straightforward. I supposed the biggest surprise here is how emotional I got leaving the city, going north one last time. It felt like I had unfinished business somehow, like I hadn't quite gotten what I came here for, only fragments. It was morning, roughly 9 am when I left, and I hadn't seen the fields in quite this light - they were stunning. As I approached the Tower, I looped back so I could park and get some shots from afar, this being the first time the tower was not back-lit.
I was told to ring a door bell on the base of the Tower after 10 am. It was 10:15. There was no car parked at the base. There was no bell. I stood there, taking a few photos, ready to email Doug to see if if there was some misunderstanding (was I at the wrong tower this whole time?), when I heard a noise from inside the building. I knock on the metal door and hear the reassuring voice of a man saying "Come on in!". I push the door open, and there's Lyle Nelson, small frame and only a few short grey hairs on his head, leaning over this huge diesel generator. The room is a mess of parts - wires and scrap metal and tools strewn about in neat and almost-but-not-entirely organized piles. We shake hands, make our introductions, and get right into it. This time I ask for permission to record, though I'll just relay the highlights of my hour long tour.
Lyle has worked for KVLY for 41 years now, starting as an apprentice and soon after handling the servicing of the actual Tower. He describes how the Tower works. The KVLY programming is beamed to the Tower from their Fargo studio using microwave transmitters fastened to its side (those dish-like instruments you've probably seen in the photos by now). The signal is then converted, amplified, and sent up to the digital antenna at the very top using 3" nitrogen-pressurized wires. Interesting note about the antenna: what you see at the very top is actually the old, decommissioned analogue transmitter. In 2005, the FCC required all broadcasts to be converted to digital, and so the whole system was upgraded. The new antenna is mounted right beside the old one, and it's much narrower, barely visible in the photos, but on this last day, as I drove in, it reflected the morning sun perfectly.
He brings me upstairs to see the solid state amplifier which replaced the fully-analogue tube amp in one corner. The room looks like it's been used by the same person for 40 years, and it has. There are circuit boards and busted electronics everywhere, tool cabinets and old monitors. Lyle pulls out an incredibly useful fact-sheet about the Tower, which I've reproduced here:
FEET ABOVE GROUND DESCRIPTION
2063' Top of Lighting Rod
2058' Top Beacon Level
1951' Top of Tower
1946' Guy Level 9
1916' Sidelight level 7/Top Elevator Landing
1895' CH-44 Antenna Center of Radiation
1850' CH-28 Antenna Center of Radiation
1766' Beacon Level 6
1743' Guy Level 8
1616' Sidelight Level 6
1496' Guy Level 7
1473' Beacon Level 5
1323' Sidelight Level 5
1256' Guy Level 6
1173' Beacon Level 4
1031' Sidelight Level 4
1023' Guy Level 5
881' Beacon Level 3
806' Guy Level 5
731' Sidelight Level 3 (LED Sidelights)/Radio Repeater
596' Guy Level 3
588' Beacon Level 2
570' 2 Ghz TSL Dish
438' Sidelight Level 2 (LED Sidelights)
389' Guy Level 2
296' Beacon Level 1
183' Guy Level 1
146' Sidelight Level 1 (LED Sidelights)
93' 7Ghz Northbound Dish (Cummings)
80' 7Ghz SW Dish (Galesburg)
63' 7Ghz Southbound Dish (Gardner)
Each Tower section is 30' long.
Tower has 21 painted bands, each is 98' high.
About those painted bands: one thing I couldn't help notice is the aesthetic differences between this Tower and it's cousin to the east. I asked him why these beacons slowly pulse red, and why the ones on the other tower strobe white. He explained that painted towers are visible during daylight, so only need the beacons at night. The other tower is left raw, galvanized, and may not be as visible, so the strobes are on 24/7. This Tower is repainted every 20-30 years, and is due for a fresh coat next year (something I had noticed in my photos, the paint visibly peeling and fading).
He shows me construction photos of the massive anchors that hold the guy-wires, roughly 40' long, being encased in concrete. I take a few more photos in the control room. He then offers to bring me past the fence, right up to the base. I mask my anxiety well. Outside, the wind has picked up. We pass the gate, and I have to ask him, for my own sanity, if I should be weary of anything, if I should stay away from anything, to which he replies with a chuckle and a firm "No". The whole amalgamation of steel and wires and tubes is perfectly safe, insulated - no real danger to speak of. Staring at the footings now, I believe I was a bit disrespectful in my earlier post when I compared the 3 Tower legs to a cheap railing. The things are massive, bolted down to a concrete slab which sits on 98' wooden piles. I can see the tiny two person elevator and ask him if he's ever gone up?
"Oh yeah, all the time back in the 70's and 80's. Eventually our insurance got too expensive and we had to start contracting out even simple repairs."
He says the same about the fences, those being recent additions as well. I ask him what it feels like, being at the top, and all he can say is, "It's strange. You're up there, and if you let go of the tower you can feel it move. On windy days the top can sway by about 10 feet in any direction." We head back inside after I've taken my photos. It's not nearly as windy as yesterday, but there's a chill nonetheless. Before I leave, I have to ask him about the base-jumpers, still skeptical.
"Yep. In the late 70's, before there was a fence. Not that that would have stopped them. They'd come out here right around 5 am and climb the ladder. And that would take, oh, 2 maybe 3 hours. And these guys had to have been in relatively good shape, it's pretty tiring climbing straight up. They'd get to the top and wait for the sunrise and then jump. It would have to be on a fairly windless day otherwise they'd get blow back into the Tower."
I can't fucking believe it.
I tell him that I'll be going over to Elm Bend Farm to talk with Karen Brown and her daughter Beth, and his face lights up. He starts telling me about Karen's late husband, Buster Brown (nicknamed after the Brown Shoe Company mascot, Buster). He would get in touch with the station to let them know when the beacon lights needed changing, if people were partying in the fields below the tower, if they were trying to climb the tower, if they were trying to shoot the beacons. I stop him at that last one. He elaborates, explaining how people would target practice using rifles. Their aim was to take out a red beacon, which I think reinforces the idea that if we ever make contact with alien spacecrafts, some hillbilly is going to shoot at them and start a war. Anyways, he says that they never really managed to hit the beacons, but they did bring the whole network down once. Responding to an alarm on the pressurized wires that carry the signal up to the antenna, he found .22 calibre bullet holes in the protective enclosure. They'd missed the beacon but hit the most sensitive part of the Tower.
I thank him for his time and he promises to email me some technical data sheets about the tower. I wish I could stay longer and take more photos, but he seemed busy and he'd already given me an hour of his time. I tell him I plan to stick around the Tower for a while, that I'll probably see him when he leaves at 4, but I never did.
Outside, I get in my car and drive back to the furthest Guy-Wire, setting up a time lapse and giving Beth a call. She answers on the first ring. It's noon by now and I ask if I can head on over. Of course, she says. I pack my bag and start the long walk towards Elm Bend Farm.
