Cell Tower

[Trev]

<font color=blue>But now the power companies are more competitive and quicker, so maybe there is an alternative, i.e. get the cell antennas located on an existing (power line tower) structure.</font color=blue>

My wife is from Canada, and she tells me that up there they will often put the cell equipment in the top of church steeples and that sort of thing. Does your town have a tall steeple with maybe a little extra room in it?

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The antennas you're seeing appear on the top of distribution towers are the rollout of a new carrier entering the market.
They are also at a different frequency of operation, 1.9ghz.
The main reason 900mhz systems didn't locate on distribution towers was interference from microarcing on the power lines, as well as isolation costs relative to the antenna system.

In a few years, you'll see the rollout of a generation of equipment that will mount atop roadside power poles, and look like a 5 gallon bucket; Unless, the market really is saturated, and another 100,000 subscribers cn't be developed, who will be unable to breathe without a phone to their ear inside Walmart.

 

[riptides]

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

who will be unable to breathe without a phone to their ear inside Walmart

<hr></blockquote>



You must have missed the toothphone. I'll see if I can find the link. Serious. A cellphone in place of a tooth.

-Mike Z.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The tooth phone must be so you can carry one of these in your hand and still have a cellphone.
www.cellzap.com

 

[BigDave]

Bob,

Our tallest public/commercial building is only one story. That's why 180' <font color=blue>(not inches)</font color=blue> seems so shocking to me...80' would be huge compared to the surrounding buildings. I have realized that there would be one benefit, I'll be able to see where our house is from five miles away. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

 

[PitbullMidwest]

<font color=blue>That's why 180" seems so shocking to me</font color=blue>

A 180 inch tall tower doesn't sound so bad to me, what's all the griping about?

You didn't design props for Spinal Tap did you?

(sorry Dave, just bustin your chops a little /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif)

 

[BigDave]

<font color=blue> Dave, just bustin your chops a little </font color=blue>

I guess 180 inches would be shocking to me too. Maybe I should fix that. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Cacinok]

Dave,

I would venture a guess that the purpose of the city council meeting has to do with complying with bylaws that require the meeting. It is likely that the city council wants the tower close to the city. It seems that cell access encourages businesses to move in and many people I know who have recently purchased homes did so with a small factor being cell reception (a very small factor mind you).

I agree with what Pitbull Midwest had to say the property rights of the owner are paramount. Unless of course the owner does something that rises to the level of a legal nuisance.

That being said I would attempt to mitigate any potential devaluing of your property. As has been suggested some type of camoflauging of the tower. At a minimum, I would try to get the location of the tower placed so as to reduce its visibility.

I understand your feelings, as we have a massive tower about 100' east of our property line. It was there when we bought our five acres, I wasn't too concerned because even though you can't miss it at least it is not obnoxiously placed. I would lobby for inconspicuous placement, assuming that is possible.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

If it was not for mobile homes...a lot of people would not have decent homes.I have seen some nice trailer parks and some real dives,on the same token there is nice houses and there are so real dives,junk housing additions etc.I started out in a mobile home after my wife and I were married,then along came the children and we finally outgrew the mobile home and built a house right behind the mobile home and sold the mobile home to some newlyweds. My little boy was about 3 years old and when they hooked the truck onto it and started pulling it down the road,did he ever get concerned...he did not know it had wheels like a car.../w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[BigDave]

Just an update. I attended the meeting with several home owners from the surrounding area, the farmer, his family, and a couple of AT&T reps. This was only a technical planning meeting, but AT&T didn't bring anyone technical, so they couldn't answer a single question. So we looked over the plans, and asked some questions and voiced some concerns. The family spoke last, and yes I now do feel sorry for the poor farmer, since it is his family sticking it to him, not his neighbors. The farmer has two adult daughters, and as he grew older he parcelled out his land (hundreds of acres) to his daughters, until finally about ten years ago he signed over his last 11 acres to his daughters who own that parcel jointly. This parcel is where the farmer currently lives, and where the tower is planned to go up. Unfortunately, he signed over the last parcel when he couldn't farm anymore. Well, his money ran out and his daughters started to support him, but they are tired of supporting the old guy. So they said the cell tower with its $1500 month income or they sell the last parcel and the old guy is out on the street. The daughters acted as if we were the ones responsible for putting the old man on the street. I feel bad for the old guy, but why is it my fault? I didn't raise his inconsiderate kids. The land his one daughter owns, is about 60' higher in elevation, so the tower would only need to be 120' on her land, but she doesn't want the tower any closer to her. In a side discussion, she said she won't be able to see the tower from her house, and that's the way it's going to stay. So after the meeting, I now have more mixed feelings than ever. There is a zoning meeting in a month that is supposed to rule on this, but my impression from talking to a county official, is that all of this is a formality and the tower will go up. So the guess the county is just stringing us along.

 

[Knight9]

Dave,

We just finished "fighting the good fight" against a local radio company in our area. They wanted to erect a digital radio tower about 2 miles from our place. It was going to be over 1400 feet tall (yup...both zeros are correct!) making it the tallest structure for many provinces. They were hoping to put up the tower for their radio stations and then once it was up co-locate a bunch of television stations onto the tower.

The only way we ended up defeating it...and it is defeated....was by having a small local airport come out against it as a safety hazard to the small planes. A portion of it would actually penetrate into their airspace. The county and the company were not interested in hearing about country living, star gazing, birds, aesthetics or common sense. I think all they heard was $$$$ talking to them.

Stick to your guns and keep up the fight. You never know!!!

Kevin

 

[DUMBDOG]

It is really to bad that this farmer did not do some better planning considering how his daughters turned out. You would think that they would be more considerate to their parents. He is probably sorry that he gave the land to the kids and wish he would have just sold it off and lived off the proceeds.

 

[Hydraman]

Exactly why I am going to spend my Kids' inheritance!!!!!

 

[mwechtal]

Just a suggestion, at the very least, try to get them to put on a red flashing beacon. We had a tower (not cell) go up about 1/2 a mile from us, and the white strobe would keep us up at night. We had to get blackout shades, and keep them closed in the summer. One evening when it was foggy, someone stopped me when I went out for the mail, and asked what that was. It was obvious that the guy was scared senseless, and he thought it was aliens landing! They finally replaced it with a normal incandescant flashing red beacon, and it's not a problem. (Someone was shooting it out every few weeks) The reason that they like to use the strobe lights is that they don't have to paint the tower red and white. That seems like a small thing, but try to hire someone to paint a tower, and see how much it costs!
Mike

 

[Robert_in_NY]

What the tower companies do around here is have both lights on the tower. When it starts to get dark it goes the the red lights. During the day it is the white strobe lights. No one complains anymore.

 

[BigDave]

I really hope it will be red at night, but I didn't ask that question...yet. We had a white strobe on a tower about a half mile away from us when we were in Texas. I hated that thing. I suspect it was white strobe because we were near an airport...and YES, the light was far more annoying than the airplanes!!! They only flew near our home in the middle of the night when we were sleeping, so we would only notice the sound if we were having a very late night.

 

[mwechtal]

Robert,
That's probably a white strobe with a red filter that moves to cover the light at night.

In our case, they put up a plain flashing red light. Supposedly they now have to paint the tower, but since it's the county they haven't bothered yet.

Mike

 

[GaryM]

It's my understanding that if they don't want to paint the tower in red and white sections, they need a daylight strobe. A red beacon is satisfactory at night. I've seen some towers running the strobs day and night. There are some TALL towers just North of Nashville TN along side I-24. Most have red lights at night, but at least one has night strobes.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

No, there are two seperate lights along the tower. The strobes flash while the red lights glow slowly on and off.

 

[tdenny]

I'd like some too.