Hanover County Going With Only 15 Towers

[KC4ASF]

Per the Summer Issue of "The Hanover Review", which is published quarterly by Hanover County, the County has contracted with Motorola for a "state of the art 15-tower digital emergency communications radio system". Evidently they could not find room for the 16th tower listed before. Site work is to begin soon. This is quite a jump from the present 2 tower EDACS system! Also forth coming is a new 911 center to be located at the county courthouse, which is to be part of the new system.

Also Ashland and Farrington will be getting new Fire Stations, they are expected to begin the construction phase next spring.

It appears neither cost nor getting the money is a factor in Hanover.


Ben

 

[RagnarD]

Good news is it's going to be 800mhz according to this site

http://www.co.hanover.va.us/bonds_update.htm

73
de
chris
kq4z

 

[Stick0413]

Per the Summer Issue of "The Hanover Review", which is published quarterly by Hanover County, the County has contracted with Motorola for a "state of the art 15-tower digital emergency communications radio system". Evidently they could not find room for the 16th tower listed before. Site work is to begin soon. This is quite a jump from the present 2 tower EDACS system! Also forth coming is a new 911 center to be located at the county courthouse, which is to be part of the new system.

Also Ashland and Farrington will be getting new Fire Stations, they are expected to begin the construction phase next spring.

It appears neither cost nor getting the money is a factor in Hanover.


Ben

What the link Chris put up says is that they are building 5 new towers. So I think the current system has more than 2 towers (I would have thought so to begin with.)

 

[n4jri]

It appears neither cost nor getting the money is a factor in Hanover.

It never is. The EDACS system, and several new fire stations were turned down by the voters before. But the county has some pretty high real estate values per capita right now. 15 towers really blows my mind--and didn't a previous post say that they were only granted 48 milliion by the supervisors?

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[jehm1212]

What the link Chris put up says is that they are building 5 new towers. So I think the current system has more than 2 towers (I would have thought so to begin with.)

The present EDACS system has four towers. And about there only being five new towers, I read somewhere that most of the new sites will be on already existing commercial towers that the county will rent space from.

 

[KC4ASF]

Ref 15 towers

Stick,

According to the Hanover Review and on the Hanover website you will find this statement on the radio system;
"Radio System status:
Hanover County has entered into a Communications System agreement with Motorola, Inc. The contract price for this communications system is about $28.5 million. The 12-channel, 15-tower site, digital, 800 megahertz radio system will provide the coverage, technology and equipment needed to meet the County’s goals of 95% in-building portable radio coverage, interoperability with other systems in the Metro Richmond area and a high level of system security, reliability and redundancy. Site work is scheduled to begin this month and installation is currently expected to begin in November 2008. The County expects to the new system to be operational by December 31, 2009."

What you are referring to this 5 towers is this;

"Public Safety Projects
Communications System and Facility (Bond Referendum amount – $26 million)
Hanover County will replace the current public safety radio system and facility with a modern digital system and facility. The project will involve, but not be limited to, purchasing new fixed and non-fixed radio equipment; installing new radio transmitter equipment and antenna systems at each current tower/transmitter site; adding and equipping five additional tower and transmitter sites; replacing non-fixed mobile portable radios; purchasing land, tower equipment shelters, fencing, emergency generators and microwave equipment; and installing new dispatch consoles and control room equipment."

I would read all this to say "that somehow" they are gonna end up with 15 towers.

Ben

 

[Stick0413]

The present EDACS system has four towers. And about there only being five new towers, I read somewhere that most of the new sites will be on already existing commercial towers that the county will rent space from.

After thinking about it you are exactly right. I used to have all of the towers from Hanover to Sussex in a Goggle Earth file. Then I just stopped messing with it and forgot about it.

 

[gcgrotz]

That's a lot of tower sites. Albemarle only has 4, but then again we have bigger hills. Don't know if that is good or bad...

I remember that monopole they had at the CH on VHF, coverage was pretty sparse, especially out west. At least this is a good use for tax dollars.

 

[KC4ASF]

That's the problem, few hills and some extra LOW spaces!! And when you are wanting 95% coverage, then you need lots of towers. Which is good for the person in the mobile.

 

[n4jri]

Well, the cellular and PCS people learned a similar lesson. Perhaps Hanover will have better internal coverage, but less external. Of course, they're probably co-locating with NEXTEL, but...well, that'll be the rationale for their 700 MHz system in the NEXT bond issue. <g>

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[KC4ASF]

OH yes, we have a lot of Nextel including a converted fire tower that Nextel uses.. They have a tower both North and South of me on route 54 but the service inside the house still gets flaky at times.. But they are trying..

 

[PrineFan]

Does anyone know the status of the towers. ?. I just tried 3 antennas for my pro-2096 and the reception is pretty dismal.. I am in the atlee 301 area.. Just odd how the EDACS is so hit or miss..It works fine off 360.. thanks again..

 

[jimf]

Hanover Help

The 301/Atlee Station area is a huge dead spot. The closest tower is in pole green park, or behind Patrick Henry high school. As far as the new system, see the attached pdf file from the Hanover County web site.

 

[n4jri]

I would read all this to say "that somehow" they are gonna end up with 15 towers.

Ben

First it was dead spots. Now it'll probably be simulcast distortion. Can't wait to find out!

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[BoxAlarm187]

Does anyone know the status of the towers. ?. I just tried 3 antennas for my pro-2096 and the reception is pretty dismal.. I am in the atlee 301 area.. Just odd how the EDACS is so hit or miss..It works fine off 360.. thanks again..

When I was volunteering at Company 6 (1998-2000), we'd have to pick and choose where we'd go to choose to eat, buy meals, etc because of the horrible radio reception throughout our district, especially along the Route 301 corridor between Atlee and Atlee Station. We can only hope the new P25 system will address those issues...