Two weeks ago the first long awaited cell tower just located a few miles west of Baker right along Corridor H on the ridge above Luxemburg Road / Old Route 55 went live for a few hours. Signal for AT&T customers was reported all the way from the top of Branch Mountain where Moorefield's signal ends all the way to Wardensville. Even at my house here in Lost City 11+ miles away from Baker I was getting 1-2 bars in the house by windows with a full 5 bars on the Lower Cove Road.

Several friends of mine reported having signal all the way to the end of Corridor H just west of Wardensville with virtually no drops from Baker to Wardensville, except briefly when going through the heavy rock passes.

However midnight of that very same night, the cell signal disappeared and has not been seen since. This week the Moorefield Examiner declared the AT&T tower as having gone live with bugs being worked out and 'brief outages' lasting no more than a "few days".

There was even reports of a faint 1 bar signal at the KacKaPon Restraunt beside the Dollar General store in Wardensville. I suspect that when this tower goes live again sometime before the next elections that those driving across 55 from VA will have 5 bar cell access from the top all the way until reaching the bottom, with blackout area in Wardensville in the Main Street area, only to regain service when entering Corridor H.

Bradley

This is wonderful news. Sometimes I'm hesitant to travel at night because of the lack of comm in case of emergency. That helps tremendously!

All we need now is for a new coffee house in Wardensville again....

As of the moment the cell service is still gone and still hasn't been turned on again since it was on for a few hours back on April 1. So far nothing since. I swear I am going to have to run for commissioner to get stuff happening around here.

This is an update to the original thread I posted on April 1. As of April 30th, the cell tower stationed on a knoll outside of Baker right off of Corridor H has once again went live. This time permanently. After speaking with AT&T myself, the initial turn on and turn off on April 1 was a test prior to the go-live period a few days ago.

After some brief testing using my own RAZR V3xx phone here are some results. Keep in mind that these may vary by the strength of the antenna in your phone either lengthening or shortening the signal distance.

When coming across North Mountain on Rt 55 east descending into Wardensville, expect to have cell service to about the "North Mountain" county road on your left which is opposite of a little baptist church. At that point you will descend in behind ridges and loose signal. While I have not had signal in Wardensville myself, some have reported to get a faint 1 bar at the Dollar General / Kakapon Restaurant.

When getting on Corridor H and passing Squirrel Gap road, some have reported signal there, however due to the elevation being lower than Pine Ridge, I have not got signal there. I didn't pickup signal until getting 1 bar when passing Pine Ridge Road.

Once going across the McCauley Bridges and as soon as I went through the big pass with rock walls on both sides it went from 1 bar to immediately 5 bars! The signal remains 5 bars from there all the way to Moorefield. I haven't tested out towards the Petersburg way just yet (will this afternoon) but when going north on 220 towards Keyser I had signal all the way through Purgitsville about halfway towards Rt 50.

I haven't yet tested Rt 29 north towards the Rio area but I have tested Rt 259 South from Baker to Lost City. I get 0-5 bars in spotty areas on Rt 259 but once reaching Lost City where I live which is on a knoll, there is upto 5 bars in my grandma's yard. However the house I'm in sits behind the knoll but I can still get 1-2 bars by the windows here in the house.

No word yet on whether any more towers are in the works, but I'd bet it'll be years before we see another tower in Hardy County.