I have made something of a hobby trying to find out where the cell phone towers that surround me are. This is more of a challenge than it may initially appear, as they are often cleverly disguised. This post documents some of the more interesting ones I have discovered in the San Francisco Bay Area and other places. If you would like to send pictures of your discoveries, I will post them here. The effort that goes into this seems much more than what an aesthetic sensibility calls for. My sense of this is that especially in heavily populated areas, the general concern with the detrimental effects of cell tower radiation makes the added cost worthwhile. If you just drop a big old cell tower in a neighborhood, you are going to catch some flak. I suspect that this is just part of a much larger picture of the growing disconnect between our technologies and our sensibilities.
NEW ENGLAND GENERIC CELL TOWER
It is hard to appreciate the scope of this thing from this picture, but I think I was about 3/10ths of a mile away from this. It is perhaps 100ft tall and is GIGANTIC. Something like this could never go up in an urban area of CA. I saw many of these installations driving around New England. |
Another Cell Phone Tree |
CHIMNEY CELL PHONE TOWER
This is another one I like, a cell phone chimney |
Is Cell Phone Radiation Safe?
These is an ongoing controversy about whether cell phone radiation is harmful. Turns out there is an FCC Public Exposure Standard. Given that at the FCC, along with the FDA and other government agencies, these standards are set by industry lobbyists, this standard would be the bare minimum that does not result in immediate harm. This cell tower (pictured above) is about 15 feet from a house on my block – if that were my house I would have to move. |
RUSTY CAN CELL PHONE TOWER
This one is in my neighborhood, a cell phone can. It is surprising how few of my neighbors know its there, and how upset they can get about having a high-energy radiation source suddenly appear in their neighborhood without any notification or discussion. |
 WINDMILL CELL PHONE TOWER
Here is another award winner, a Cell Phone Tower Windmill. This is on Route 80 just outside Vallejo. It originally was quite a rural area, and I must have looked at it a few times before realizing what it truly is. |
| NEW ENGLAND GENERIC CELL TOWER
It is hard to appreciate the scope of this thing from this picture, but I think I was about 3/10ths of a mile away from this. It is perhaps 100ft tall and is GIGANTIC. Something like this could never go up in an urban area of CA. I saw many of these installations driving around New England. |
 Here is an antenna cluster on an apartment building in Vancouver, BC. Looks almost like art, and it is impressive to imagine living in a home a few feet from this cluster. Please note living units are 10 – 20 feet from this array. |
CHURCH CELL PHONE TOWER
This is very common, however this one blends particularly well with the background. Note the thickness of the line delivering power to the antennas. There are some serious watts emanating from this installation. |
| NEW ENGLAND GENERIC CELL TOWER
It is hard to appreciate the scope of this thing from this picture, but I think I was about 3/10ths of a mile away from this. It is perhaps 100ft tall, and is GIGANTIC. Something like this could never go up in an urban area of CA. I saw many of these installations driving around New England. |
FLAG POLE CELL TOWER
Lower Village, Kennebunk ME The story behind this one is that the shopping mall it is installed applied for a permit to put up a flag pole. So it went through the town council meetings as a place to put up an American flag. In the details was the true intent, but it slid through without comment. When it was first installed, there was a giant flag on it, but it made so much noise they had to take it down so the neighbors could sleep. The only “tell ” that it is a cell tower are the microwave antennaand the thickness of the pole. |
More to come…