Sweat Mountain

Sweat Mountain is a low mountain located in far northeastern Cobb County, Georgia, in the northern suburbs of Atlanta. The exact USGS GNIS location of its summit is coor dms|34|4|1|N|84|27|20|W|, and it has an elevation of 1688 feet or 514.5 meters above mean sea level, making it the second-highest in the Atlanta metro area (behind Kennesaw Mountain, and just slightly taller than Stone Mountain).

This height has made the mountain very attractive for radio, having several transmitters, radio towers, and antennas, for pagers, cellphones, broadcasting, and amateur radio. The fact that Stone Mountain and Kennesaw Mountain are both protected as parks has led to a proliferation of technology at the top, much to the annoyance of neighboring residents on the mountain. At the same time, both the towers and the houses detract from the formerly-forested mountain for everyone within the mountain's view.

The Atlanta skyline as well as the north Georgia mountains (the foothills of the Appalachians) were once easily visible from the mountain, but smog has eliminated the view on many summer days.

Sweat Mountain is also a part of the ridge that divides the Chattahoochee River basin to the south and southeast, from the Lake Allatoona basin to the north and northwest. This runs west-southwest through Cobb to Kennesaw Mountain and Lost Mountain.

History

At one time the entire mountain was owned by the Wigley family. Henry Clay Wigley continued to live at the base of the mountain for decades. Right across from his house was a gravel road that led to the summit. Years ago, before satellites took over, a U.S. Forest Service ranger would scale a giant fire tower to provide smoke coordinates for fire control every day. With suburbanization, this tower has been removed, but there is a benchmark set in concrete where one of the tower feet once rested. On the most northern side of the summit are natural rock formations, including a natural rock shelter that could house one or two campers.

Wigley Road at one time went from Sandy Plains Road all the way through to Georgia 92, but it was closed in the 1970s due to poor maintenance. The main road now turns off from itself (makes a 90-degree turn) and continues generally west as Jamerson Road. Following the remaining Wigley Road to the dead end, there is a barrow pit just past the barricades. There was a place where natural springs created a huge swampy mudbog in the middle of the Wigley Road which led to its closing.

In the late 1960s, a lake off Mountain Road at the base of the mountain served as the site for a huge music festival.

In early April 2006, the south side of the mountain was grazed by an F1 tornado, causing relatively minor damage to some homes. The storm moved due east from Noonday to Alpharetta, doing much more serious damage in several other places.

Mountain View area

The Mountain View area is named for the view of this mountain, including the CCPLS Mountain View library, the Chattahoochee Tech Mountain View campus, and the much older CCPS Mountain View Elementary School and the fire station next to it.

This community is centered around the intersection of Sandy Plains Road (northeast and southwest) and Shallowford Road (east and west), an area that quickly went from forest to parking lots and strip malls in the 1990s. Both roads, which were two lanes each and met at a four-way stop with a flashing red light overhead until then, became four-lane divided arterial roads, and are now several lanes wide each at the intersection.

Gordy Parkway was built from Sandy Plains Road (opposite Holly Springs Road) on the southwest side, clockwise to Shallowford Road on the west, back to Sandy Plains on the northeast side, and just a few more yards or meters back to Shallowford on the east across from Target (which moved from the former Richway a few miles southwest on Sandy Plains Road at Canton Highway after one was built near Town Center at Cobb). This near-circle allowed hundreds of homes to be built west of Sandy Plains Road, most of the existing forest being clear-cut.

Despite being only a decade old, several of the major anchor stores have changed, with Drug Emporium becoming an Office Depot, Kmart becoming Home Depot, and Harris Teeter sold to Kroger. There is also a multi-screen movie theatre. A similar explosion in development has occurred in Hickory Flat in the 2000s.

Broadcasters

The following broadcast stations are all within 300 meters or 1000 feet of the summit, and are listed with callsign, frequency or channel, community of license, and licensee/owner.

Radio

*WWVA-FM 105.7, Canton, Clear Channel Communications
*W265BD 100.9, Woodstock, Immanuel Broadcasting Network
*W229AG 93.7, Sandy Plains, Calvary Chapel of Twin FallsThere are also long-standing applications (potentially moot) for broadcast translators by Calvary Chapel on 94.5 and 103.7 to serve Woodstock. Another application for a translator on 102.1 by Community Public Radio to serve "Sweat Mountain" (which is not a recognized community) is also listed by the FCC.

Television

*WATC TV 57 (DTV 41 permit on-air), Atlanta, Community Television, Inc.
*WSKC-CA 22, Atlanta, KM Communications (currently simulcasting WATC)
*W49DE (originally W55BM), Marietta, Trinity Broadcasting Network (broadcasting JCTV )
*WDWW-LD 7 (DTV permit for WDWW-LP analog 28 in Cleveland, Georgia), Atlanta, Richard C. & Lisa A. Goetz of Hendersonville, North Carolina

Amateur repeaters

Radio

* N4CLA 145.470 (-0.6 MHz, 100 Hz), sponsored by the [http://www.nfarl.org North Fulton Amateur Radio League]
* N4NEQ 146.655 (-0.6 MHz, 151.4 Hz), sponsoed by [http://www.bsrg.org Big Shanty Repeater Group]
* W4DOC 146.820 (-0.6 MHz, 146.2 Hz), sponsored by the [http://www.w4doc.org Atlanta Radio Club] (Remote receiver for repeater at Bank of America Plaza (Atlanta))
* W4BTI 146.880 (-0.6 MHz, 100 Hz), sponsored by the [http://www.w4bti.org Kennehoochee Amateur Radio Club]
* N4NQV 147.345 (+0.6 MHz, 151.4 Hz) [http://www.bsrg.org Big Shanty Repeater Group]

* W4PME 224.620 (-, 100 Hz), sponsored by the [http://www.nfarl.org North Fulton Amateur Radio League]
* K4RFL 224.960 (-, 100 Hz) Georgia International RA

* K4RFL 442.875 (+5.0 MHz, 100 Hz) Georgia International RA
* N4YCI 444.050 (+5.0 MHz, 151.4 Hz) [http://www.bsrg.org Big Shanty Repeater Group]
* N4CLA 444.475 (+5.0 MHz, 100 Hz), sponsored by the [http://www.nfarl.org North Fulton Amateur Radio League]

* N4YCI 927.575 (-25 MHz, 151.4 Hz) [http://www.bsrg.org Big Shanty Repeater Group]

Television

* N4NEQ 427.250 MHz VSB video out, 1.253 GHz FM video in, NTSC amateur television [http://www.bsrg.org Big Shanty Repeater Group] Note that the ATV output is equivalent to cable TV channel 58, thus it can be received on a cable-ready tuner with an attached antenna. Audio output is standard FM on 431.75. Both N4NEQ repeaters carry NASA TV (audio normally simulcast on 147.345 and/or 146.655) live during Space Shuttle missions.

Digital packet radio

* N4NEQ 144.390 (N4NEQ-2 APRS digipeater) [http://www.bsrg.org Big Shanty Repeater Group]
* KD4NC/R 146.73 (-0.6 MHz), AX.25 repeater, NOT a digipeater) [http://www.bsrg.org Big Shanty Repeater Group]

External links

* [http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=1&dist=1&dlat2=34&mlat2=4&slat2=1&NS=N&dlon2=84&mlon2=27&slon2=20&EW=W&size=10 FCC query for FM stations at this location]
* [http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=1&dist=1&dlat2=34&mlat2=4&slat2=1&NS=N&dlon2=84&mlon2=27&slon2=20&EW=W&size=10 FCC query for TV stations at this location]