Optoelectronics, Inc. - Towers and the Scout

Towers and The Scout By Jeff Matheson

With a Scout in hand it is pretty hard to resist the urge to check out that big orange (red if you will) and white metal shrine of communications just down the road from you. Isn't it?

Bill Owen discussed tower space and we really need to touch on a few key areas regarding towers, so here we go... a non-technical, simple and hopefully informative set of tid-bits! Over the last decade we have seen a trend getting away from the towers being service oriented. A tower at a police station which once held a stick or two for police and fire department communications NOW could have 5,10,15 sticks on it for Public Safety, Cellular, Business, Paging etc! Cellular and cable TV towers are host to Public Safety as well, now more than ever.

Tower space is sold, leased and swapped on a regular basis. As Bill also mentioned, with various users sharing a common tower, simultaneous transmissions from two or more transmitters can generate some very odd frequency readings on your Scout or frequency counter. It is important to note that visiting your favorite tower site during peak hours might not always be the best idea. Sure you will get alot of readings but a good portion of them may be useless. A better tip would be that of packing a picnic lunch and heading out mid-day on a week day (if time permits). Sunday afternoons are good, but remember that many businesses are closed on Sundays and you could miss those captures.

5 minutes is not long enough! You really need to approach this project with dedication and gather enough data to arrive at some degree of solid and useful information. Anything less and you will find yourself disappointed!

Radio transmitters sites are not always located at radio towers. You might want to take a closer look at some of those water towers in town. Multiple story buildings are also prime locations for antennas. It doesn't have to be a sky scraper. A two story building with good ground elevation can also be a piece to your puzzle. And since we are on the subject.. I'll bet you thought that antenna high atop that bridge belonged to the "Port Authority" or "Joint Bridge Commission" eh? Pay attention to the antennas in use at the site of your choice! NOT ALL antennas are used. It's cheaper to leave the antenna and cable there for future use than it is to remove it.