I’ve heard of NIMBYs, but Parrots?
When I was in the mall this afternoon, I saw a flyer from Cingular at an indirect dealer detailing the various improvements Cingular has made around the area. It included the expanded coverage in Port Orchard that I blogged recently. I was googling to find this flyer, but instead I found a couple of articles that detailed how the bar was raised–quite literally.
According to the minutes of a Port Orchard City Council meeting (original PDF of the minutes), Cingular would be allowed to “raise the bar” of their 60-foot tower to 113 feet, but only if they find a new home for the parrots that made a nest in the old tower. Here’s one report when the ruling came out and another from last month describing the fact the birds haven’t been caught yet.
I was surprised at the amount of technical detail in the Port Orchard City Council Meeting minutes regarding this particular cell tower. If you don’t feel like reading the meeting minutes (and I don’t blame you if you don’t want to), here is a summary of the details:
- T-Mobile used to own this tower. Not sure when Cingular bought it, but they apparently own it now.
- Cingular, T-Mobile, and Sprint currently use this tower. Presumably, that means they will get similar coverage in this area. (Can you hear me now, Verizon?)
- This particular cell site puts out 44db of noise, which is below the state’s 45db guideline. I didn’t think a cell site put out much noise, except when it’s on generators.
- This site lacks generators, but has battery backup. Generators can be plugged in if needed, though.
- This site puts out “.039 of the federally allowed (RF) emissions” with all three carriers operating at maximum power. Not quite sure what that means, but it “sounds” good.
- This site will operate both in the 850 and 1900 band, specifically at 815Mhz and 1950Mhz. The 815mhz portion is referred to as “the merged AT&T and Cingular system.”
- The site will radiate up to 345 watts of power. Sounds like a lot, but what do I know.
- If anyone reports problems with the tower interferring with radios, TVs, CB radios, and so on, Cingular has an obligation under FCC rules to immediately fix the problem, though Cingular (and the former AT&T Wireless) have “very good records of not interfering with other frequencies.”
I should really be keeping an eye on City Council meetings in the future… 
