Birch
Hill VZW Tower |
Description |
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What a massive tower! One of the tallest (at least above sea level) in the area. I can imagine the elevation downward tilt on each antenna array face! Even though the simulated fire watchtower (looks like a wooden box with vinyl siding) has four sides, I'm sure the antenna array is three sided, like most arrays. This picture is looking at the tower from the south. You can see the monster coax bundles proceeding up the left most leg. |
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The undercarriage of the "house" has an opening large enough for service technicians to climb into. Also present is a winch and rope for raising and lowering gear. One of the legs of the tower has a lattice type legs protruding from it allowing technicians to climb the tower. |
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Taken from down the dirt access road a little bit (from the east), you can see the power lines and the data line (looks like fiber, or a bundle of T1 copper). From this angle you really get an appreciation for the size layout of this baby! |
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Closer shot of the underbody of the
housing. |
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The shack containing the radio gear, looking from the South to the North. Parris Wood states: The BAM base station building is designed that way
because (I'm almost certain) the door on the extreme right of the
building is for an onsite generator. The building is almost identical
to the ones BAM uses in Northern Va/DC/MD. The only real
difference is that the NoVa/DC/MD sites are painted light blue/grey
or Thanks Parris for your input!
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Ah, good old Bell Atlantic. Funny though that this was constructed right around the time that Bell Atlantic got merged into Verizon, but obviously the bids and work were done on purchase orders from BAM ! Extra power meters available for additional carriers/services. |
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#include <std_disclaimer.h> for all you programmers out there! Parris Wood writes: This group of signs denotes the
facility Note: The Crown Castle site locator does not yet list this tower as one of it's sites (yet). |
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The GPS receiver antenna for the gear. Everything must be timed, and what's a better timing source than a GPS clock? Located about half way up the left most leg (looking to the north from the south). Most cell sites these days have some sort of clocking GPS antenna present. Paris Wood writes: The GPS antenna is for clocking
but really because |
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The view from the base of the tower's access road looking down into Hollis and beyond. The horizon shows both the Prudential and John Hancock buildings as well as some of the smaller Boston buildings in the financial district. Pretty impressive view from here on a clear day! Photo taken with a Sony Digital Mavica, 1.3 Megapixels and it's built in zoom capability. |
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Access road looking south east at
the base of the tower. |
Approximate Coverage Map of this Cell Site
This cell site is considered a MACRO Cell. Verizon refers
to it as a "boomer" site. It's AMSL is 953.2 feet, and it has a huge broad
swath coverage area. The map shows a diameter of 5 miles, but in reality
this cell does not offer that much coverage. This
cell
site data is subject to error and omission. As
with all RF (Radio Frequency) propagation, signals are subject to fade
and attenuation based on topology, weather, solar wind, etc. etc.
Updates from July 1, 2004
On June 5, 2004, I took our now annual picnic hike up this hill with my kids and I was pleased to see that (AT&T) Cingular Wireless is now co-located on the tower and their GSM BTS is installed. They were not live "on the air" that day, but they did go live by August 2004 after they completed the generator shed installation (photos do not include this shed). This location is great for them and will provide much badly needed coverage in Hollis, Milford, and Brookline. There's also plenty of space left for others to co-locate here as well.
Update from March 8, 2005:
The crew at Beltronics,
Inc. have installed additional two-way radio service antennas in late
summer 2004. See the bottom of this page for those photo updates.
Cingular
Wireless Now Co-Located Here |
Description |
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The wide-angle view of the whole tower with Cingular's antenna panels added just below the top enclosure. If you look carefully you can see the three panel antenna mounted on 3 of the 4 legs of the tower. Also, in the bottom right of the photo, if you squint, you can make out the BTS cabinet. |
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A close up of one of the antenna
panels on the south east leg of the tower. |
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A closer view of all three panels. |
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Another angle of the panels. |
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A close up shot of some of the grounding
straps used for the new antenna installation. |
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Another view of one of the antenna
panels. |
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The Cingular WS platform and BTS Cabinet. The power panel is located to the right. One thing to note is no battery cabinet is here yet, though a cement platform near this BTS cabinet has been poured and is probably going to be the home to the battery rack (see next photo). |
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An empty cement platform, close to
the BTS. This is where they installed the backup power shed, which appears
to be a wooden structure. Updated photos forthcoming. |
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The power panels for both Verizon
Wireless and Cingular Wireless. The usage numbers being displayed on
the new Cingular (AT&T) meter were very low, proving that they were
not yet fully online. |
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Update from December 2004: I have been successfully using this AT&T (Cingular) on a regular basis. It does in fact provide fair to good GSM coverage for the area due to it's altitude. You can now hold a call even in Hollis center and along Rt. 130 towards Amherst on Rt 101A before coverage switches to the Amherst Rt 101A water tower AT&T (Cingular GSM) site (near Wal-Mart).
Update from November 26, 2005:
The crew at Beltronics,
Inc. have installed additional two-way radio service for the Hollis Fire
Department.
If your interested in seeing or using these photos without the NECS splash signature, contact me.
Hollis
Birch Hill Fire Tower / Cell Site |
Description |
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The tower as it looks like in November 2005, with the new onmi-directional emergency services antennas, and the mini-yagi antennas pointing back to the Hollis Fire Station. |
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Another slightly closer look. |
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A quick look at the new Hollis Fire
Station Emergency Services antennas. |
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A quick look at the new Hollis Fire
Station Emergency Services antennas. Note the airplane in the background! I didn't even know there was a plane there until I saw the photo after I took it. Nice touch! |
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A closer view of one of the onmi
antennas, and it's lower directional loop antenna. |
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A closer view of the right most emergency
services antennas. |
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A look at the enclosed fencing area.
The shack to the right of the tower legs is the new Emergency Services
tower. It's made with a concrete base, and cinder block walls. Pained
light brown, matching the same color as the Verizon shelter building
(to the left but not in view of the camera here). |
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A more sweeping view of the base enclosure. |
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Another base enclosure view, with
the VZW shelter building to the left, and the emergency services building
to the right. |
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And finally, another large view on
a beautiful blue sky day. Yes, once again, we saw Boston with the naked
eye from up here. It looked allot better through the binoculars. |
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Update from July 7, 2007:
This site is now offering EV-DO Rev A service on the PCS "C" Band.
Voice 1X-RTT service is [always been] active here on the Cellular B band.
www.necellularsites.net
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