I always wonder how telecommunication masts operate. Some have very huge dishes that look like drums. What’s the function of these drums?

Question

I always wonder how telecommunication masts operate. Some have very huge dishes that look like drums. What’s the function of these drums?

In: 9

Answer 1

Those drums are microwave dishes for point to point microwave links. They typically go from tower to tower, sometimes many tens of miles away. You may see thick cables going from the dishes down to the building at the base of the tower. That building houses all the radios, batteries and sometimes the backup generator for the site.

The dish looks like a soup bowl and the flat “drum” part is a cover to protect the feedhorn from the weather, bird nests. Also provides places for bees to make nests and squirrels to store nuts.