A Site for Sore Eyes

A zoning board may be your biggest setback when you are in a hurry to build out your network. Disguised sites are becoming more common, and some PCS carriers are discovering some pretty uncommon places to put them.

Like most PCS carriers, Powertel has placed transmission sites in various hiding places, including billboards and fake chimneys. Its most unusual site, however, is north of Atlanta at the Saint Ignatius House Jesuit retreat center, said Calvin Gray, Powertel director of network operations.

Powertel's real estate company located the property on several wooded acres during the site-acquisition phase. Its size, along with its proximity to a high-end northern Atlanta residential area, appealed to Powertel. To blend the tower with the surroundings, Powertel constructed a meditation center that resembles a cross tower from the outside. Up to six carriers can house equipment inside the structure.

Building on retreat grounds, where silence is a must, had its own unique challenges. Powertel had to work around the organization's retreat schedule, which included meditation weekends and longer 4- and 5-day sessions. During that time, Powertel did work by hand, with small machinery or not at all.

"As long as the area was quiet, we were able to work," Gray said.

AN ARTFUL EXTERIOREvery carrier has a story about blending into local architecture, but AT&T Wireless faced a bigger challenge than most when it built two sites in St. Louis: one on the Beaux Arts Building in the Grand Center arts district and the other on the St. Louis Science Center.

The Beaux building attracted AT&T because a site there could fill a hole in its network. The building's owner requested that AT&T build the tower creatively. The end result is a steel crown and spire that hide the antennas.

"We put a significant amount of planning into how it looks architecturally as well as in the lighting," said David Hale, AT&T Wireless St. Louis public relations director. "The site is actually lighted at night as part of the night landscape."

AT&T was having a difficult time finding a location in the area when Hale noticed the science center on his drive to work. The parapet's design, which looks like it has antennas on four sides, made him look twice.

"I thought, 'Why can't we just design an antenna system that would blend in? '"

The science center already had a pinnacle at the top encircled by neon lights. The difficult part was coming up with an antenna design to match. AT&T put one antenna on each side of a 3-sided triangle array, which ended up matching the pinnacle parapet exactly.

A FAIR CATCHBlending into existing structures is Airadigm's first course of action whenever it searches for sites, said Tom McGahan, director of network engineering. Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, was right in the center of Airadigm's RF-design grid. Airadigm approached the organization to see if there was a potential for a business relationship. There was. The education process was shorter than expected because the football organization uses wireless for a host of communications. The Green Bay Packers were open-minded about placing equipment on their field, McGahan said.

"What has become increasingly more important as these landlords have matured is they want to be sure we blend in," he said. "We designed our equipment so that it is hard for anyone to notice it is wireless telecom equipment."

Airadigm's antennas are hidden in the mezzanine lighting bar. Its green box of radio equipment looks like the air conditioning units that were already there.

Like Powertel, Airadigm had to schedule its construction around the activity on the site. It built the site in March 1997, during football's off-season.

"So we weren't extremely challenged, other than a Wisconsin winter," McGahan said.

GET ME TO THE CHURCHChurch steeples are common structures on which to place antennas, but do not underestimate the process of erecting these sites. GTE Wireless needed coverage in an exclusive area of Cincinnati. The only obtainable site was a church steeple, and in order to locate there, GTE had to reconstruct it to scale in white fiberglass, said Donald Fye, GTE Wireless director of network technology development.

"One weekend, we went and lifted off the old steeple and put on the new one with the antennas," he said. The transfer was a quick operation, and nobody could tell thedifference that following Sunday. The company still does not have outstanding coverage in that area, but Fye said GTE lucked out because the church was too small to share with other carriers, and it was the only site where wireless equipment was permitted.

Other carriers are stepping up their number of stealth sites. For example, Western Wireless has installed antenna equipment in several Midwest grain silos. Aerial Communications has blended a tower with the field lights at high-school football stadiums. Omnipoint has hidden antennas in church steeples, silos, high-tension lines and historic landmarks. Sprint PCS has disguised sites as pine trees and palm trees, and hidden antennas in water towers, church steeples and light houses. Whether your site looks like architecture or art, masking your equipment can take you places you have never been before.

Ever built a tower on a mountain top? How about overlooking a state prison? To round out its coverage, GTE Wireless has gone where no carrier has gone before.

A few years ago, the company constructed a site on Diablo Peak, 20 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA, on Santa Cruz Island.

"When you drove along Highway 1 in and out of the cove, you would lose coverage," said Victor McPhun, GTE Wireless equipment engineer. "By going out into the water, we cover the ins and outs of that section."

Later, when GTE was building out its Seattle network, it needed coverage along the highway near Monroe, WA. It found a favorable location on property belonging to the state prison.

"It wasn't a high-population area, but we needed coverage for competitive reasons," said Donald Fye, GTE Wireless director of network technology development.

To say installing these sites was challenging would be an understatement. GTE had to use helicopters to erect both sites, but for different reasons. In the Monroe situation, the company built the tower during the spring. The ground was too muddy to bring in a crane to put up the tower, so it had to use a helicopter to lift the sections into place. Strict no-fly zones surround prison areas, and the thought of a helicopter on the property made state officials nervous. GTE coordinated with officials to prevent any escapes. It had to supply a list of employees who would be in the area.

A helicopter also was the only way to get equipment to the top of Diablo Peak, which is accessible only via helicopter or by foot. The obstacles to this site did not end there. Diablo Peak is owned by an environmentally-sensitive nature conservancy. The conservancy flagged every part of the natural habitat it wanted to protect.

"It was marked all over the place," Fye said. "We tried to avoid tramping on it as much as possible."

The carrier also had to contend with the fact that the area had no commercial ac. GTE installed a repeater and a mini cell at the site that worked with the help of batteries, a solar-powered generator and two wind-powered generators. Another roadblock hit the following May.

"The site would work fine for 10 months out of the year," he said. "When the doldrums hit, the fog comes in, and the wind dies down. The batteries would discharge, so we finally put a small diesel generator out there to help us get through that time."