No, not the town west of Fargo…the cluster of broadcast towers south of Mandan, just north of Huff Hills. Chasing the meteor shower and a few deer took me out there last night.

These towers include the local Cumulus FMs, KNDX (Fox), KBMY (ABC), KBME (PBS), KXMB (CBS), KFYR (NBC), and KYYY (Y-93). Most of them are on Tokach land, except for the KBMY tower. They can be clearly seen from Bismarck and much of Mandan, unless you live below some sort of hill.

Local viewers who don’t have cable are actually quite fortunate to have the tower situation set up in such a way. Guys like me who have satellite TV and use an off-air antenna to pick up the local stations can aim that antenna once and forget about it. You see, TV antennas are quite directional in nature…and if the towers for different stations were located all over the place, you’d have to rotate your antenna to optimize your signal from one station to the next. As it stands, I just bought a rooftop antenna for $20 at Menards and mounted it inside the attic of my house, facing towards “tower city,” and forgot about it.

Those flashing lights that cast such a nice glow up the tower sections are very specifically regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration. There are obstruction lights in groups of three and flashing beacons in regular intervals. In addition to transmitter operation telemetry and other things such as building security alarms, the tower lights are monitored remotely from the control point. Should the beacons of a tower go out, the FAA must be notified; flying into a tower without lights on it would really ruin someone’s day. But if you fly into a tower or guy-wire out here, you’re asking to; they’re all grouped together.

While out here, I saw something I don’t recall ever seeing before: a meteor streaking down out of the sky so slowly, so close to the ground, that I could actually see the wisps of flame coming off it before it disintegrated in a flash. It was amazing! There were lots of shooting stars last night, so I’ll probably be out chasing more tonight.