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Bonneville Power Administration Microwave Network

The BPA's historic microwave communications network is well documented in a historical inventory, and was covered in Computers Are Bad.

Map

This map combines all of the information available from the historic inventory with data from other sources like NEPA documentation (especially categorical exclusion memos on changes made at many of these sites). Because the network was reconfigured over time to meet changing needs and take advantage of improving technology, it's hard to provide a single, succinct view of the network. Some of the routes and sites shown on this map were not active at the same time. In general, this map should reflect most of the network up to the 1970s, but given the lack of good sources is more likely to be missing things that were built after 1960.

Most notably, this map shows most routes converging on the Portland headquarters building. This reflects the 1957 map in the historical inventory, which was the major source of route info. During the 1960s, the control center was moved to the Ross Complex, and it appears that the microwave network was reconfigured at that time so that many of the routes landing in Portland went directly to the new Dittmer building.

Some site locations are speculative, especially for sites that have been demolished. Some paths have segments not described in the historical documentation that have been filled in based on inferences. See the original KML file for descriptions that, for sites that are not confirmed, explain if the location is speculative, scaled from maps, or some combination thereof.

This map (mostly) only covers the components of the network that were owned and operated by BPA. The microwave network extended into Canada (ownership not definitely known but probably BC Hydro) and to southern California (ownership varies but mostly PG&E), but since these segments were operated by other organizations I have excluded them, at least for now. That said, a few sites did make it to this map that are owned by others, often electric coops or rural utilities where the BPA opted to lease space in an existing utility-owned site rather than building a new one. As you would expect, these are usually later sites in the history.

operating instructions

Various functions are available as part of the map.

mouse/touch operation
  • moving by grabbing the map with a mouse-click you can move the map around
  • overview map using the < button in the bottom right of the map you can expand an overview map
  • zooming in and out using the + and - buttons in the top left of the map you can obtain more or less detail in the map
  • switching themes or maps clicking on the ≡ icon on the right-hand side of the map you can view and select available maps and themes
  • retrieving information the map may contain elements that contain more information, by clicking these a popup will show this information
  • fullscreen display using the ⛶ button the map can be maximized to fullscreen display, use the ▢ button to return to page display.
keyboard operation

Keyboard operation becomes available after activating the map using the tab key (the map will show a focus indicator ring).

  • moving using the arrow keys you can move the map
  • overview map using the + button in the bottom right of the map you can expand an overview map
  • zooming in and out using the + and - buttons in the top left of the map or by using the + and - keys you can obtain more or less detail in the map
  • switching themes or maps clicking on the ≡ icon on the right-hand side of the map you can view and select available maps and themes
  • retrieving information the map may contain elements that contain more information, using the i key you can activate a cursor that may be moved using the arrow keys, pressing the enter will execute an information retrieval. press the i or the escape key to return to navigation mode
  • fullscreen display using the ⛶ button the map can be maximized to fullscreen display, use the ▢ button to return to page display.

It's possible that some of the functions or buttons describe above have been disabled by the page author or the administrator

 

Points of Interest
id symbol latitude longitude description
KML file KML track KML track: bpa map

(you can download this KML file)