Sweat Mountain


Sweat Mountain is a mountain in far northeastern Cobb County, Georgia, in the suburbs north of Atlanta. The exact GNIS location of its summit is, and it has an official elevation of above mean sea level. It is the second-highest point in the county behind Kennesaw Mountain, and second in the core metro Atlanta area, behind Kennesaw Mountain, which is also in Cobb County. It is fifth if the exurban counties further north are considered.
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. At the same time, both the antenna farm and the densely packed houses detract from the view of the mountain from surrounding areas of northeast Cobb, south-southeast Cherokee, and western Roswell.
The presence of the mountain has inspired the naming of a variety of nearby establishments including: Sweat Mountain Park, Mountain View Regional Library, Mountain View Elementary School, and Mountain View United Methodist Church.
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. From Sweat Mountain, 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 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 early 1970s, 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.

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

There are also long-standing applications 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" is also listed by the Federal Communications Commission.

Television

There was also a 50 kW transmitter on former TV channel 55 for MediaFLO, a pay TV service available on mobile TV. It was part of a single-frequency network across the metro area, and all operate under callsign WPZA237 nationally. It was located above ground level of approximately, at, a separate tower from those listed for the other stations above.
A second transmitter on former channel 56 was used by Manifest Wireless. It was also an SFN, and used eight locations in metro Atlanta to transmit an ATSC signal, under callsign WQJY980. ATSC tuners showed high signal strength, however there were no standard MPEG-2 channels available, and it appeared that it would be used for ATSC-M/H, the mobile TV standard for terrestrial television stations. The signal from Sweat Mountain was active, but no service to the public was ever announced.

Amateur repeaters

Radio

  • NF4GA , sponsored by the
  • W4DOC 146.820 , sponsored by the off air as of 4/1/2018
  • W4PME 145.410, remote receiver for repeater W4PME
  • N4NQV 147.345 sponsored by the
  • W4PME 224.620, sponsored by the
  • K4RFL 224.960 Georgia International off air as of 3/18/2014
  • K4RFL 442.875 Georgia International RA off air as of 3/18/2014
  • NF4GA 444.475, sponsored by the
  • W5JR 927.0125, sponsored by the
  • N4YCI 927.5750

    Television

  • N4NEQ 427.2500 MHz AM TV sponsored by the

    Digital packet radio

  • N4NEQ 144.390
  • KD4NC/R 146.73, AX.25