Antelope Valley Case Study 1

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Antelope Valley, CA, Planning Guide

By: Mark Spencer, Northern Mono Communication Committee
Is your town thinking of implementing public information/emergency communication system? Are you asking, "where do we begin?" Just ask Mark Spencer who found himself in that same predicament. Mark heads up the Northern Mono Communication Committee in California. He has written a very informative, step-by-step synopsis which details their story.
About the Area: Northern Mono County is a remote area and truly a frontier area that requires the citizens to be self-reliant. Because of the locale, communication in the Valley is a challenge. The area is serviced by two TV stations located in Reno, though reception is spotty and rarely are both stations received. There is one Reno, Nevada, clear channel AM radio station that has marginal coverage of the area during daylight hours, poor coverage at night. There are no telephone lines that run between the valley and the rest of California. All telephone calls outside of the immediate Antelope Valley are long distance calls. Cellular telephone service is not available in the valley. Until recently (June 1999) local dial-up Internet access was not available. The Catalyst: In January 1997, there was major flooding in the Eastern Sierra region, including the Antelope valley. Many of the residents of the valley who live along the Walker River were forced to evacuate their homes and they experienced severe property damage. Families were literally stranded, cut off from any escape routes, with no phone service and no power. This flooding event highlighted the need for improved emergency communication for the Antelope Valley. Interested community members were stunned by the inability to communicate with citizens during a crisis situation.
The Solution: An emergency communications system was envisioned by a group of interested citizens to solve the communication problem. The following requirements were drawn up:
1. Community Owned and Operated. We believed that systems that are controlled by government agencies would be restricted in use and difficult to access without strings attached. 2. Easy to Use and Responsive. The system should be simple enough to use in difficult situations. 3. Independent of Commercial Power, Both the Transmitting and Receiving Sides. Power outages in the valley, though not extensive, are frequent. In critical situations in this area, power and telephone service is usually affected.	4. Survivable. The system location needed to be relatively immune to the areas of the valley most likely to be effected by the emergency. 5. Low Maintenance and Reliable. Budgets for extensive maintenance and upkeep would not be available. 6. Affordable. Without government intervention, capital would have to be raised through private donations.
The Quest: Finding the right supplier that offered a product to meet our needs was our next challenge. My first contact with ISS was in September 1997. ISS provided a detailed description of the TIS capabilities and the services they provided to help obtain requisite licensing. The other challenge I considered was the power source. I considered generator, solar, wind and a combination of wind and solar. This is the windiest place I have ever lived, with average wind speeds of 7.5 mph. Therefore, my first consideration was wind power. A number of wind generator vendors were contacted and their product evaluated. After running the numbers, the math indicated that the wind generator would serve our needs. We now had a system that met the transmitter criteria, a company who would communicate and assist us in the effort, calculations and test data that indicated that the system would meet our needs, and calculations that supported the use of wind power as a power source.
The License: When it became apparent that the Antelope Valley Information System (AVIS) would be an eventual reality, we applied for the FCC license. The application was prepared for us by ISS for a fee. This was well worth the price. The FCC application process took over five months. The license was finally granted on May 4, 1999. We received notification of the granting of the license by the Internet, the actual license was received a few weeks later. With license in hand, we ordered the equipment.	The Installation: The installation of the antenna and the equipment was relatively straightforward. A technician at ISS talked me through the final installation wiring. Once the wiring was complete and the system powered up, it performed as specified. The antenna installation has a SWR of 1.1 to 1 using the pre-marked antenna adjustment. No further adjustment of the antenna was necessary.
The Performance: The AVIS is providing coverage that far exceeds the coverage guaranteed by ISS and beyond my expectations. We have virtually solid coverage from 15 miles to the north and 5 miles to the south (the limits of the valley). Hints of the signal can be heard as far south as 20 miles into the Walker River Canyon and 20 miles north on a high pass where the next station on 1610 kHz can first be detected. The wind generator has been functioning as predicted. There have been no technical problems to date.	The Response: Overall, the community response has been exceptional and beyond expectations. AVIS is becoming a thread that is connecting the community together. It was important to gain buy-in from local emergency responders. There was a formal dedication ceremony held that dedicated AVIS to community service.
The Future: I have a personal vision that an AVIS type system will be set up in the 4 other communities of Mono County that have similar communication challenges. The opening ceremony and MOU will serve as a conduit to work toward that vision.