Harman Patil (Editor)

Globecom Tower

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Status
  
Demolished

Completed
  
1954

Height
  
378 m

Main contractor
  
United States Air Force

Elevation
  
180.45 m (592.03 ft)

Destroyed
  
1992

Opened
  
1954

Type
  
Mast radiator insulated against ground

Location
  
Thule Air Force Base, Greenland

Globecom Tower was a 378.25 m (1,240.98 ft) tall guyed mast for military longwave transmission at Northmountain on Thule Air Base on Greenland. Globecom Tower, whose design is similar to that of Forestport Tower, is a guyed lattice steel tower with a triangular cross section (sidelength: 4.75 metres), which is anchored in three levels. It is designed as a mast radiator insulated against the ground and equipped with an elevator running up to a height of 360 m (1,181.10 ft).

Globecom Tower was completed in 1954. It was, at completion, the tallest man-made structure outside of the United States and the third tallest in the world after KWTV Mast in Oklahoma City and Empire State Building. A great difficulty at its construction was that the ground on which it was built is permanently frozen.

Globecom Tower was used for transmitting military telex messages to Goose Bay, Canada, on the longwave frequency 68.9 kHz with a power of 50 kW under the callsign XPH.

The tower, unused for years, was brought down with explosive charges set and detonated by US Army combat engineers in the spring of 1992.

Literature

  • Turmbauwerke, Bauverlag GmbH, Wiesbaden (Deutschland), Germany, 1966 (there mentioned as "Funkmast in der Arktis")
  • References

    Globecom Tower Wikipedia