Depends on the band and location. Sometimes yes, it can be a challenge.
That's an awful lot of expense if the coverage concern is just a building.
Typically it isn't just 1 building, unless it's very rural. Then in 5 years, it's 2 buildings, or 3, or an expansion of the existing building. BDA's can get pretty expensive that otherwise could be solved with a localized site.
When's the last time you built an entire site?
Oh, within the last week or so. My "retirement" job is working for a turnkey comm company. We do everything but the geotech, in house. We have a construction/tower division and the communications/IT division. We use Trylon and Sabre towers&poles, and sometimes Rohn, depending on the requirements. You'd be amazed how much money you can shave, and how many bids you can win when you cut out all the middle men
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In the case of the jail/sheriff's office building that I was referring to earlier, the "site" was pre planned into the building when it was built. It's a roof mounted Rohn 80 series with torque bars and torque arm at the top guy level to accommodate 2 6 foot dishes and the star antenna array, about 80 feet I believe plus the building height. The beauty of this is, it covers the future of the complex. Something a BDA can't do. they want to add another vehicle maint. garage? No problem. They recently added 2 drug rehab buildings on site (masonry), those are covered. Even if the site cost a bit more initially, it has saved more long term because of good planning, then going the BDA route for non-jail admin users.
There's land acquisition costs, environmental impact studies, soil core studies for the tower foundation, engineering and architecture fees, materials, labor, generators and battery plants, microwave - I budget about $250K per hop for licensed microwave, the tower, grounding, utilities. It adds up. I haven't even talked to Motorola yet.
Throwing numbers around for tower sites for a generalization is like trying to piss upwind. What are the requirements? What kind of square footage of antenna loading? Whats the climate? Ice loading? Wind? Is it easily accessed? Access to utilities? What kind of dishes, 2 ft, 4 ft, 6 ft, do they require ice shields? Free standing or guyed? Concrete or non-concrete shelter? Security? And on and on. Some can be done fairly cheap, others cost more.
With that said, I have seen many instances where city or county owned towers have cellular and the like co-located on the same site and actually generate money, if planned right with the site being overbuilt for the city or county needs.
Money spent on sites and infrastructure is of the best interest for future growth and money well spent, that's for sure. Far better than money spent on large amounts of potentially repetitive BDA's.
Yes. Yes, I have. $100K is probably reasonable for a county jail sized facility, at least of the size I've encountered. A state prison sized facility would be a lot more.
Try to avoid coring through 24" walls. It'll save a bundle.
Must be a small facility.
It's not the 24" walls, it's what's in the middle that will destroy your core drill.
Try getting into a fight with a prisoner and your radio as your only weapon. The APX will survive the fight and get you your call for help. The Harris, well, it's not such a sure thing.
Those radios take a beating. I've seen 25 year old Motorolas still on the job, retired only because they won't reband, or do encryption, or P25. I haven't ever seen a 25 year old Harris/Ericson/MACom/EFJ or whatever radio still on the job. You find those in the junk pile behind the radio shop.
I'm not Mother /\/\'s biggest fan, but the stuff they build seems to last long, and work better.
You drink too much Kool-Aid. Yes, they make good stuff.. but so don't others. This isn't 1980 anymore. They actually have competition.
Good. They are a useful tool, but like anything that radiates, it needs to be done properly.
Correct, and they are useful. I find the most use in underground parking, tunnels, bunkers, etc.
But... Who's saying it's an end-all solution? I've never heard that. And I've most certainly never said it.
Well, for one, the NFPA, or at least that is what they imply, because on paper it works! Maybe not in your area, but in many areas they are required for occupancy permit. So to put this into perspective, the building owner is required to install a BDA in the local dollar store that is brick and mortar (new construction) fire marshal inspects, tests radio, yep, good to go! These are privately owned, nothing to do with the city or town. If you think for one minute these things are "maintained", even with annual inspections, you're sorely mistaken.
You know where the rest is headed. 2 years later, the interior is re-done, walls are added, walls are taken away, someone moves critical components around, and the next thing you know, you have a oscillating BDA. With this potentially at a large scale over time.
Unless they are strictly controlled and maintained, and that includes all of them, they are a disaster waiting to happen.
I wouldn't have heartburn if they simply either worked, or didn't. But that is not the case.
