Communications Study Committee
Minutes of 2004-06-08
Subject: Meeting #7 Minutes
The Lyme Communications Study Committee meeting #7 was held at the Lyme Fire Station on June 8, 2004, at 8:15 am. Chairman Dave Avery called the meeting to order. Present: Pauline Field, Michael Hinsley, Wally
Ragan, John Sanders, George Hartmann. Absent: Pete Bleyler, Mike
Prince.
1. The minutes of Meeting #6 were accepted without change.
2. A representative of the Finowen company was expected but did not appear. Discussion revealed that their acceptance of our invitation was not definite. Dave Avery will contact them again.
3. Mike Hinsley reported that the pager reprogramming effort was unsuccessful. They could change the tone but not the operating frequency. He will continue working on this.
4. In an informative email, responding to a comprehensive set of questions from Dave Avery, Doug Hackett of Hanover Dispatch estimated that the cost of a land line from Lyme to the Hanover comparator would be roughly $1100 to install the line, then $200 per month. This led to a discussion on Police/Fire/Town budgets. The Chiefs of Police and Fire made it clear that dispatch costs were not in their budgets; it is a separate line item in the Town budget, running $10 to 12 thousand per year. Therefore if our final communications solution involves that new leased line, the Dispatch item in the town budget must be adjusted to accommodate the additional cost.
5. We have been informed that licenses for radio frequencies at the Lyme location will cost $295 for the police frequency and $285 for the fire frequency. Ossipee Mountain Electronics has indicated that the police vehicle repeater is a do-able project. Pauline Field showed two quotes from Ossipee - one for $ 9537 and one for $2446. It was unclear what performance advantages were offered by the higher priced one, costing $7000 more. Other costs that must be contemplated include the transfer and installation of a base station from Hanover to Lyme.
6. Mike Hinsley led a discussion summarizing what we have learned so far. The conclusion was that a tower on Winslow would probably be the key to meeting town needs - fire, police, cellular, pager, and internet services. Dave Avery pointed out that a cell phone installation needs 100 watts per concurrent channel. That means that a cell that can handle 50 simultaneous calls, needs 50 x 100 watts, or 5 kilowatts, clearly requiring utility power. The Committee agreed that we must get an accurate estimate on the cost of a line capable of supplying 200 amperes at 110 volts to the top of Winslow.
7. In discussion of how such a 110 v. line could be run up Winslow, John Sanders reported that at Bald Mountain, Maine, the line was in a conduit lying on the surface, not buried. In response to questions again why the lift towers could not be used to support a line, Mike Hinsley volunteered to contact the NH State ski lift regulatory authority and raise the question.
8. Several members reported that cell phone reception is possible adjacent to the Lyme fire station, raising the possibility that it might be a viable interim location for an antenna tower.
9. Action Items:
a) Dave Avery will talk to the Dartmouth College electrical engineer Dave Foster to see what is needed in order to get a good estimate on running utility power up Winslow.
b) Dave will try again to get Finowen to com to a Committee meeting.
c) Mike Hinsley will check with the NH State lift authorities the possibility of using lift towers to carry 110v.
power.
d) Mike will also contact Joe Truss to further investigate reprogramming the pagers.
10. The next meeting will be at the Lyme Fire Station June 22, at 8:15am.
George Hartmann
Recorder
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