The Five Towers Traditional Cache
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The Five Towers
Radio masts and towers are, typically, tall structures designed to support antennas (also known as aerials) for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television.
Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Like all other electromagnetic waves, they travel at the speed of light. Naturally-occurring radio waves are made by lightning, or by astronomical objects. Artificially-generated radio waves are used for fixed and mobile radio communication, broadcasting, radar and other navigation systems, satellite communication, computer networks and innumerable other applications. Different frequencies of radio waves have different propagation characteristics in the Earth's atmosphere; long waves may cover a part of the Earth very consistently, shorter waves can reflect off the ionosphere and travel around the world, and much shorter wavelengths bend or reflect very little and travel on a line of sight.
In order to receive radio signals, for instance from AM/FM radio stations, a radio antenna must be used. However, since the antenna will pick up thousands of radio signals at a time, a radio tuner is necessary to tune in to a particular frequency (or frequency range). This is typically done via a resonator (in its simplest form, a circuit with a capacitor and an inductor). The resonator is configured to resonate at a particular frequency (or frequency band), thus amplifying sine waves at that radio frequency, while ignoring other sine waves. Usually, either the inductor or the capacitor of the resonator is adjustable, allowing the user to change the frequency at which it resonates.
For the Aiken-Augusta area, there are five antenna masts (aka towers) in the Beech Island area. Four of which broadcast TV signals, the remaining broadcasts a radio station.
Some people may think just because a stations headquarters is in a certain location, such as downtown Augusta, that is where the signal broadcasts from. While the programming signal can originate from that particular location, what the public receives on the radio or TV set does not come from that location. It comes from the antenna location.
A small signal is sent from the originating location to the broadcast tower. The tower then transmits the radio waves out into the area for everyone to receive.
The five towers in the area are for WJBF-TV, WRDW-TV, WFXG-TV, WAGT-TV, and WEKL-FM. In addition to the antenna in the area, WRDW-TV also has a doppler radar in the area. While this doppler radar isn't always clearly visible in close proximity to the antenna mast, it can been seen when farther away, such as when heading toward Jackson on SC-Hwy 125.
The tower heights are as follows - according the the information found on the FCC website:
* WFXG-TV - 344 Meters
* WEKL-FM - 348 Meters
* WRDW-TV - 446.2 Meters
* WAGT-TV - 447 Meters
* WJBF-TV - 469 Meters
From the cache and parking area, several of the towers are visible. The cache itself is a regular size container and should be easy enough to spot. However, the log and log holder are micros. That means BYOP! If you park on the opposite side of the street, please use caution when crossing. This is extremely important if you are in the area during the "SRS 500" as I've heard it called!
While I have provided the tower coordinates as reference points, please do not visit these locations. No tresspassing is allowed at the tower sites.
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