Our rural volunteer fire dept. recently purchased a radio tower on 1.3 acres of land. It is 190’ tall and had been used by an oil & gas company for their communication needs. Other than hanging our equipment on it, is there any commercial value we could take advantage of. It is in a rural area but there is a 400 unit subdivision being built within sight of the tower. With wireless internet service being touted as the cat’s meow, is there a way to profit with our tower, I mean, how does wireless computing work? If anyone knows the answer, it’ll be you guys here! Thanks!!
Dude, you have 190’ of pure potential.
Don’t think about your tower as being just a single point on a plot of land. You have a single point with 190 linear feet of vertical altitude to lease out!
I don’t know particular user’s requirements, but you could ask if cellular phone companies wanted to lease space on your tower for a cellular array, while asking local ISPs if they wanted to mount their equipment on it at a different height, all the while getting ahold of a local ham radio club to mount their antenna higher on the tower, even while leasing space to a local retransmitter/rebroadcaster. . .
You, my friend, have an asset. Use it. Find a local telecommunications company that has contacts and would be willing to help you lease out space.
Trust me.
Tripler
Oh mais oui, do you have an asset.
Cell phone tower. Especially if it’s an exsisting tower; if you had to build something it’d probably be a huge hassle, but with a tower there, and you guys being an FD, the community should look upon you favorably.
Or you could build a really kick-ass tree house.
Look into which ISPs in your area want to do wireless access, and offer to host their access points.
Even small towns in Ontario are getting this, and it rocks because the cost of running DSL, fibre, or even a decent phone line that’ll support a 56-k connection, can be high in rural areas (there aren’t a lot of subscribers to spread it among). In urban areas the economics could be better, but then you have to deal with congestion.
Wireless internet, cell phones, internal radio communications…there might want to be a lot of people wanting to use your tower. There are places you can advertise tower space, but that probably won’t be neccesary. Just make sure that your tower registration is correct on the FCC’s Antenna Registration Database, and engineers who are looking for towers in your area will be able to find it.
Thank you all for replying and for the advice. Being an all-volunteer department, we need all the extra funding we can get. Thanks again and support your local VFD!
Also check with area AM/FM/ radio and TV stations. Some are looking for “repeater” locations. They put up an antenna to pick up their own signal from a distant transmitter, and run it through a local transmitter to boost the signal in your area, which increases their audience.
Also look for local groups trying to start a public radio or TV station. I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if you found one.