Saturday, September 10, 2016

Bethesda TV tower goes dark for 3rd time in 21 months

The Crown Castle telecommunications tower behind McDonald's in the 5200 block of River Road in Bethesda had no aircraft warning lights overnight. This is the third time since January 2015 that the tower has gone dark for a night; the tower had never gone dark for decades prior to this. Normally, this requires a Notice to Airmen to be issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, as the tower is 850' tall.

Crown Castle has had frequent problems with the lights on this tower. When they are on, one or more of the flashers have frequently operated at intensities that exceed light pollution regulations. The problems are apparently contagious. A cell tower operated by Crown Castle at the nearby Kenwood Golf and Country Club recently had its reliable red warning light replaced with one of these unreliable, cheap white flashing lights.

The record of Crown Castle makes one wonder how long it will be before that tower starts having light issues as well. Meanwhile, right over the border in the District, several TV towers continue to successfully use the standard red flashers. I've advised Crown Castle during numerous communications to reinstall the red lights, which never failed over several decades, and have never generated light pollution complaints.

Here we go again. Crown Castle has usually been responsive when I contact them, but it is clear that they have no intention of permanently solving these problems.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Remember when Dyer claimed that the FCC Channel 20 to abandon this antenna?

Anonymous said...

In this article, I learned that red lights never fail, only white ones.

Anonymous said...

In other news, Smashburger is still open, and doing well.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous is having a busy morning dissing Dyer.
Bless his ever-lovin' little tryin'-so-hard heart.

Anonymous said...

Dyer still has anonymous coming back for more! Another loyal reader!

Robert's audience is surging and his reporting is filling the MoCo news gap since The Gazette closed.

Alan said...

Anonymous is having a busy morning swearing Dyer.
Bless his ever-lovin' little tryin'-so-hard heart.

I believe the audience is surging but as a reader I would have no idea. Nor would 9:10.

Alan said...

***sweating :)

Robert Dyer said...

6:51: Not only is your statement false, but it is completely garbled and can't be translated by the rest of us who aren't fluent in Neanderthal.

5:37: That was an inside job, not a scoop. If you have a business deal with somebody, and part of the agreement is they can't talk to Robert Dyer when he contacts them, that's not journalism, son.

Anonymous said...

Dyer @ 11:23 AM -

Here is something to help you with your memory loss.

http://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-night-lights-went-out-in-westbard.html?m=1

Anonymous said...

The comments on the 2015 article also explain why the white lights have superseded the red lights.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Robert, the bright lights are an issue for those who live close by. Your taking up this issue in the past has been appreciated.
This night, all the lights seem to be out!

Robert Dyer said...

5:30: Yep, they're still out as of 11:49 PM tonight.

Robert Dyer said...

5:03: I'm afraid that explanation was unconvincing. Few birds other than geese travel at night in this area. It's pretty clear the white flashers are cheap as heck, and that's why the residential area-friendly red lights are being phased out.

4:07: You're not only lying, but you're up to your old Saul Alinsky tricks. "If every letter must receive a response, send 30,000 letters."

What I DID say in the article, which is factually correct, is that the federal government indeed ended analog broadcast TV. Turn one of your old sets on and try it, "Mr. Dumass."

Anonymous said...

Keep denying what you actually said, Dyer. You said that the FCC shut down all "broadcast TV", without distinguishing between analog or digital.

And you tried to claim that this was the reason why Channel 20 abandoned this antenna, when the actual reason was the consolidation of their broadcast facilities with those of Fox 5, several years before the FCC mandate for digital broadcasting.

Robert Dyer said...

7:48: Analog *is* the broadcast TV that ended, Mr. Dumass. As far as the switch of uses, you obviously don't know which channels and stations were using this tower. Probably best not to opine on it, in that case.

Anonymous said...

Dyer can never, ever admit that he was wrong. He just keeps digging the hole deeper and deeper. LOL