Radio Beacon Tower

This morning I left the house at 5:40 AM and climbed up to the old radio beacon tower on Nugget Butte. Back in 1926 these were state-of-the-art navigational aids. The rotating light is gone now and the NDB transmitter, if it ever had one, is gone too. Space is available if you have an antenna to hang.

I remember watching the rotating beacon on Mount Nebo from our house three miles away, although I can't remember now if it was green-white-green-white every five seconds or just a white flash every ten. When we climbed up to the Mount Nebo tower we found that the concrete base was part of a forty-foot long concrete arrow pointing, we thought, due north. Actually it was pointing to the airport. The Nugget Butte tower's arrow points to the Grants Pass airport, or it would if it weren't buried under brush and leaves.

The old radio beacons are all but gone now. Soon the VORs will follow and then all we'll have left is GPS. When that fails we'll have to rely on ded. reckoning.

Update: Dave Handy says "It was green-white-green-white every five seconds. I was closer than you at Pilger on Harvard and had a direct view from my bedroom window."