Better 911, new radio station on the wayBy REN...E JEAN\Daily Journal Assistant Managing Editor
A new radio tower is coming soon to St. Francois County, and it will bring with it a new radio station and better 911 capabilities.
The 195-foot tower - that's about 16 stories tall - will be built on Simms Mountain, seven miles south of Park Hills.
The middle part of the tower will be a repeater for KRCU 90.9 FM, which is Southeast Public Radio. The new station will be called KSEF 88.9 FM, or SouthEast in Farmington. It will feature many of the more popular National Public Radio programs, but will have a heavy emphasis on classical music, according to General Manager Dan Woods.
The repeater station will allow KRCU and KSEF to cover the entire I-55 corridor from the southern part of St. Louis County to New Madrid in the Bootheel.
The 911 communications center will be using the lower portions of the tower and its top.
Alan Wells, director of 911 and emergency communications for St. Francois County, said the new tower will strengthen the agency's signal for emergency communication and it will allow installation of more up-to-date equipment.
The technology in use by the county is 20 years old, Wells explained, and St. Francois County has had it for 13 years. It cannot be upgraded any more because it is too old. Some structural problems are developing at the old site as well.
Wells said the new equipment is fully upgradeable and he believes the new tower's height will help smooth out the signal reception in the north and south ends of the county, where there are hills and valleys that can interfere with reception.
A $60,000 to $70,000 Homeland Security grant is paying for new repeaters and transmitters which will make the 911 Communications Center interoperable with state and federal agencies. That is a new federal guideline that came about because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wells said.
St. Francois County 911 has been able to communicate directly with the Missouri Highway Patrol only if that agency switches to high-band frequencies. That will no longer be an issue.
The new tower will cost about $380,000 by itself, but the county is not paying for its construction. They have only provided the land on which the tower will be built. The county purchased a 40-acre tract to get the proper elevation for the tower, at a cost of about $40,000.
Southeast Missouri State University is paying to construct the tower. The university has a $220,000 grant to assist them. The remaining $160,000 are matching funds from the university - required by the grant.
Officials are expected to be on site next week for an inspection and the tower will be finished in November, according to current projections. That will put KSEF on the air waves sometime in December.
Southeast is leasing the land for the tower from the county. The agreement between the county and the university calls for sharing a generator in a new transmitter building.
"We are pleased that this project will provide a Southeast Public Radio presence in the northern part of our service region and allow riders on I-55 to listen to KRCU programming from St. Louis to well south of Cape Girardeau," said Dr. Martin Jones, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Southeast. "We are hopeful that the presence of KSEF's signal in the greater St. Louis region will help with the University's student recruitment potential in that area."
A new radio tower is coming soon to St. Francois County, and it will bring with it a new radio station and better 911 capabilities.
The 195-foot tower - that's about 16 stories tall - will be built on Simms Mountain, seven miles south of Park Hills.
The middle part of the tower will be a repeater for KRCU 90.9 FM, which is Southeast Public Radio. The new station will be called KSEF 88.9 FM, or SouthEast in Farmington. It will feature many of the more popular National Public Radio programs, but will have a heavy emphasis on classical music, according to General Manager Dan Woods.
The repeater station will allow KRCU and KSEF to cover the entire I-55 corridor from the southern part of St. Louis County to New Madrid in the Bootheel.
The 911 communications center will be using the lower portions of the tower and its top.
Alan Wells, director of 911 and emergency communications for St. Francois County, said the new tower will strengthen the agency's signal for emergency communication and it will allow installation of more up-to-date equipment.
The technology in use by the county is 20 years old, Wells explained, and St. Francois County has had it for 13 years. It cannot be upgraded any more because it is too old. Some structural problems are developing at the old site as well.
Wells said the new equipment is fully upgradeable and he believes the new tower's height will help smooth out the signal reception in the north and south ends of the county, where there are hills and valleys that can interfere with reception.
A $60,000 to $70,000 Homeland Security grant is paying for new repeaters and transmitters which will make the 911 Communications Center interoperable with state and federal agencies. That is a new federal guideline that came about because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wells said.
St. Francois County 911 has been able to communicate directly with the Missouri Highway Patrol only if that agency switches to high-band frequencies. That will no longer be an issue.
The new tower will cost about $380,000 by itself, but the county is not paying for its construction. They have only provided the land on which the tower will be built. The county purchased a 40-acre tract to get the proper elevation for the tower, at a cost of about $40,000.
Southeast Missouri State University is paying to construct the tower. The university has a $220,000 grant to assist them. The remaining $160,000 are matching funds from the university - required by the grant.
Officials are expected to be on site next week for an inspection and the tower will be finished in November, according to current projections. That will put KSEF on the air waves sometime in December.
Southeast is leasing the land for the tower from the county. The agreement between the county and the university calls for sharing a generator in a new transmitter building.
"We are pleased that this project will provide a Southeast Public Radio presence in the northern part of our service region and allow riders on I-55 to listen to KRCU programming from St. Louis to well south of Cape Girardeau," said Dr. Martin Jones, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Southeast. "We are hopeful that the presence of KSEF's signal in the greater St. Louis region will help with the University's student recruitment potential in that area."
