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Old 05-03-2019, 08:27 PM
swaghauler swaghauler is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bash View Post
AT&T's Long Lines microwave relays should also be mentioned here. While they were being phased out in the 90s (in our world) in favor of fiber optic lines, in the T2K timelines they would have likely remained operational much longer. Many Long Lines sites were blast and EMP resistant structures meant to survive a nuclear exchange. Many sites had blast-resistant antennas made out of concrete like this one:



MilGov and CivGov would definitely be interested in capturing and maintaining these microwave sites as they could be used in place of long distance copper or fiber optic lines damaged in the TDM. As long as a local transceiver could hit a relay any landlines connected to that transceiver could reach as far as the relay network.

Analog telephones are interesting in that they're relatively simple and connecting two phones in a semi-automated fashion is fairly simple. Replacing an automated central office with manual operators is a cost/resource hurdle more than a technological one. A switch board is a pretty simple electrical device to build and phone lines are simple DC circuits. Building out a telephone network would be well within the capability of MilGov or CivGov and any relatively well resourced local government.

Telegraphs are even simpler than telephones and a small DC current can power a fairly long line. You can put together everything you need for a wired telegraph out of easily scavenged parts (even if the original devices were rendered inoperable by an EMP). Remember both of these were invented and commercialized in the 19th century before transistors or microelectronics. Since the principals are well known and understood they don't need to be reinvented or rediscovered, just reimplemented.
I can SO see somebody sanctioning a raid on a facility like that. I'm guessing the range on those must be close to 1000 kicks.
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