Bedford Flag Pole Stealth Site

All photos taken on May 15, 2003, and July 1, 2004

Along Rt 101 at the corner of Chestnut Drive in front to the Carlson GMAC Real Estate Office is a fat flagpole with a US Flag on it.

One thing for sure, the base of the flag pole has a few small posts around it, with a small chain. Inside this "gated" area is a small transceiver box, with exposed wires coming out of it which proceed into the base of the pole.

I called the phone number that's on the box and a gentleman from T-Mobile answered the phone. I didnt ask any details on this site, but I may call back to ask what this is all about.

Very interesting but still illusive, as it's a very tiny site, with really small RF wires, and a simple POTS line running from the telephone pole to the cable. Everything is exposed and there is no security installed anywhere (besides locks on the snall cabinet box doors).

To me, it seems like some kind of monitring point, rather than a cell serving T-Mobile customers. Part of the reason I say this is that T-Mobile has a full-fledged cell site less than one mile (in Line of sight) from this location

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Feb 6, 2007-2008 PBW writes:

The box at the base of the flag pole is the main electronics "cabinet". These are rare, I think they are Lucent. I have seen them used *only* by Nextwave Telecom who has since removed the 4 sites they had in Virginia (I only know of one still around in Dover). Their sites consisted of this type of cabinet only.

The grey box next to the power meter on the telephone pole is a typical smartjack shelf enclosure. I think the small square where the OCI sticker is, is the CPE part of it. Blue RJ-45 is "T-1" cabling between the smartjack and the "cabinet". This should/probably will be done away with in the near future. I've seen Sprint PCS and Triton PCS do this to get T-1 service ASAP while waiting for the local telco to make the final run from the drop point to the smartjack via buried facilities.