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Old Fire Lookout Gets New Life as a Radio Tower
By Jane Jerrard
A Maine mountaintop is slated to be the site of a unique communications tower that combines a 1944-style structure with modern-day microwave technology.
The planned Mt. Blue tower is part of Maine’s statewide communications consolidation project, which will incorporate the FCC’s narrowbanding mandate requiring public service agencies to upgrade radio communications by 2013.
The problem with building a tower atop Mt. Blue is that the site is inside Mount Blue State Park—and the park dictates that there can be no structures there. However, there used to be a lookout fire tower on the site—so the Maine Office of Information Technology (OIT) is planning to camouflage the new communications technology in a replica of that tower, with the microwave dishes inside the cab and stick antennas attached outside.
Old Look, New Challenges
Shawn Romanoski, OIT’s director of radio operations, worked with a team from Harris Corporation, the company that Maine contracted with for overhauling its communications, to design a structure that would look like a traditional lookout tower. “We came up with significant challenges during planning,” he admits. “We were hiding the equipment in the cab, so we had to change some materials to allow signals to propagate through. And wind became an issue” with designing a tower for a 3,000' elevation: “We had to anchor it at eight points instead of four. We also had to engineer and design hinged door panels to accommodate the microwave dishes, which are 6 feet in diameter.” Romanoski adds, “But it only took a week or 10 days for us to overcome obstacles like this.”
Maine discontinued the old fire towers around 1990, including the original Mt. Blue tower. A skeleton of that tower remains, and hikers “expect to climb it. So the new tower will include an observation deck,” says Tom Driscoll, OIT Radio Project Office, MSCommNet Outreach Coordinator. “You can’t get inside the cab, but you’ll be allowed to climb to the deck where you can get a 360-degree view.”
Once the plans were complete, there was some back-and-forth with the Department of Conservation before approval. “Everyone sat down and worked through problems,” Romanoski says.
Local Buy-in
Part of the approval process was to present the tower plan at a public hearing. Approximately 45 people showed up, and gave the plan overwhelmingly positive feedback. Part of residents’ approval was an interest in increased safety. Bruce Farnham, manager of the Mount Blue State Park and a volunteer firefighter in the town of Weld, explains, “There has always been a communications problem in this area. My fire department hopes that this new tower will improve things for us and for others in the county.” And indeed, Franklin County services will co-locate on the OIT communications structure.
Minimal Impact
Because the tower is being built in a state park, the impact of construction will be held to a strict minimum. “We’ll remove the least vegetation possible to create the footprint of the buildings,” Driscoll says. The site is a helicopter access point, and has an existing landing spot. All materials and equipment will be helicoptered in.
“The solar array—the primary power source—is 32' x 26'. To limit visibility to hikers, we left a line of trees at the top of the trail to screen the solar panels,” Driscoll explains. “And when you’re on the observation deck, you can see them but they’re close to the tower so they don’t affect the view.” The secondary power system is a propane-powered generator, which is programmed to only run at night, at 15-minute intervals. “We timed it so it won’t even interfere with sunrise or sunset hikers,” Romanoski says.
The plan was to break ground for the tower in November, but “the weather is not cooperating,” says Romanoski. “We still hope to start soon.” Regardless, the state office is confident that they’ll meet the 2013 narrowbanding deadline. “Mt. Blue is one of 43 sites, and equipment is scheduled to be delivered to all sites in October 2012,” Romanoski says.
Asked if he would recommend this method of camouflaging new equipment in an “old” fire tower to other agencies, Romanoski replies, “Absolutely. In many instances, you wouldn’t be successful in requesting a conventional self-supporting tower. This is a very good trade-off—though there are extra costs involved. Engineering for load analysis, hooking to rock—these area all challenges that directly relate to cost.”
In Closing
Everyone involved in planning this unique communications tower is happy with the final outcome. “These projects obviously get driven from the top, but this one was different. It succeeded because we listened to the local authorities and citizens,” says Driscoll.
Jane Jerrard lives in Chicago and writes regularly for FireRescue magazine.
Copyright © Elsevier Inc., a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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A Maine mountaintop is slated to be the site of a unique communications tower that combines a 1944-style structure with modern-day microwave technology.
The problem with building a tower atop Mt. Blue is that the site is inside Mount Blue State Park—and the park dictates that there can be no structures there. However, there used to be a lookout fire tower on the site—so the Maine Office of Information Technology (OIT) is planning to camouflage the new communications technology in a replica of that tower, with the microwave dishes inside the cab and stick antennas attached outside.
Old Look, New Challenges
Shawn Romanoski, OIT’s director of radio operations, worked with a team from Harris Corporation, the company that Maine contracted with for overhauling its communications, to design a structure that would look like a traditional lookout tower. “We came up with significant challenges during planning,” he admits. “We were hiding the equipment in the cab, so we had to change some materials to allow signals to propagate through. And wind became an issue” with designing a tower for a 3,000' elevation: “We had to anchor it at eight points instead of four. We also had to engineer and design hinged door panels to accommodate the microwave dishes, which are 6 feet in diameter.” Romanoski adds, “But it only took a week or 10 days for us to overcome obstacles like this.”
Maine discontinued the old fire towers around 1990, including the original Mt. Blue tower. A skeleton of that tower remains, and hikers “expect to climb it. So the new tower will include an observation deck,” says Tom Driscoll, OIT Radio Project Office, MSCommNet Outreach Coordinator. “You can’t get inside the cab, but you’ll be allowed to climb to the deck where you can get a 360-degree view.”
Once the plans were complete, there was some back-and-forth with the Department of Conservation before approval. “Everyone sat down and worked through problems,” Romanoski says.
Local Buy-in
Part of the approval process was to present the tower plan at a public hearing. Approximately 45 people showed up, and gave the plan overwhelmingly positive feedback. Part of residents’ approval was an interest in increased safety. Bruce Farnham, manager of the Mount Blue State Park and a volunteer firefighter in the town of Weld, explains, “There has always been a communications problem in this area. My fire department hopes that this new tower will improve things for us and for others in the county.” And indeed, Franklin County services will co-locate on the OIT communications structure.
Minimal Impact
Because the tower is being built in a state park, the impact of construction will be held to a strict minimum. “We’ll remove the least vegetation possible to create the footprint of the buildings,” Driscoll says. The site is a helicopter access point, and has an existing landing spot. All materials and equipment will be helicoptered in.
“The solar array—the primary power source—is 32' x 26'. To limit visibility to hikers, we left a line of trees at the top of the trail to screen the solar panels,” Driscoll explains. “And when you’re on the observation deck, you can see them but they’re close to the tower so they don’t affect the view.” The secondary power system is a propane-powered generator, which is programmed to only run at night, at 15-minute intervals. “We timed it so it won’t even interfere with sunrise or sunset hikers,” Romanoski says.
The plan was to break ground for the tower in November, but “the weather is not cooperating,” says Romanoski. “We still hope to start soon.” Regardless, the state office is confident that they’ll meet the 2013 narrowbanding deadline. “Mt. Blue is one of 43 sites, and equipment is scheduled to be delivered to all sites in October 2012,” Romanoski says.
Asked if he would recommend this method of camouflaging new equipment in an “old” fire tower to other agencies, Romanoski replies, “Absolutely. In many instances, you wouldn’t be successful in requesting a conventional self-supporting tower. This is a very good trade-off—though there are extra costs involved. Engineering for load analysis, hooking to rock—these area all challenges that directly relate to cost.”
In Closing
Everyone involved in planning this unique communications tower is happy with the final outcome. “These projects obviously get driven from the top, but this one was different. It succeeded because we listened to the local authorities and citizens,” says Driscoll.
Jane Jerrard lives in Chicago and writes regularly for FireRescue magazine.
Copyright © Elsevier Inc., a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
SUBSCRIBE to FIRERESCUE
Add a Comment
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Comment by Mark Klaene on January 11, 2011 at 8:48pm
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nearly 1/2 of our radio sites for the county fire/sheriff repeaters are on active or abandoned USFS lookout towers. USFS also uses these towers for their sites. Currently we have 2 at active lookout towers and 2 at abandoned towers. One use to be solar and batter powered but we got electric to it a couple years ago.
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