The Waskaganish Construction Story

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Other Projects: Tower at Wemindji Quebec:

Atop Wemindji, on a 250 ft hill, a 200 ft tower prodivides FM up to 95 miles around the community. With expansion for microwave dishes, it has 2-way radio, STL and Wi-Fi installations

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Links to RTS Canada

 

 

CJRH-Waskaganish Covers Southern James Bay Region:

Waskaganish Community Radio New 300' Tower Brings Powerful Regional Reach for 92.5 FM

In September 2012, Walter Hester Jr., station manager at CJRH-FM, threw the switch and made the Waskaganish Community Radio Station a regional force. Now with two FM services, one local broadcasting form a 40 foot tower in the community and one regional signal emitted from a new tower 3 Km outside the community, CJRH-FM reaches the previously unserved southern James Bay highway with programming, news and music.

The new Waskaganish construction is a 300 foot tower, engineered by Trylon TSF and Yves R. Hamel Associates. Built on the shores of the Rupert River, its 92.5 FM and two-way masts are actually over 400 feet above sea level and over 30 kilowatts strong. RTS Canada oversaw the project and managed its construction and installation with the groundbreaking in 2011; it took over three years to complete.

Built on sand and clay muskeg soil, the tower required an excavation of over 100 feet to secure the foundations. The project was on budget at nearly $700,000. The facility is 3 km outside the community and now provides full 2-way and FM services, as well as telemetric controls to the community.

At the radio station studio, located in the community, Waskaganish FM has a separate smaller tower and transmitter site for the low-power 99.7 FM operations. This second facility currntly provides the same programming and will be available for diversity and alternate services.

Construction services were provided to the project by Trylon TSF of Elmira, Ontario; Waskaganish Capital Works department; and Proulx Construction of Amos, Quebec. equipment supppliers for antennas and and transmisster equipment included Incospec Inc, of Montreal, who furnished the OmniLynx transmitters and monitoring equipment and Power Antenna of Edmonton, who built the multi-panel FM array antennas to specifications set by Brian Sawyer, lead consultant to the project at Yves R. Hamel, broadcast engineers. The tower will deliver regional FM radio, two-way radio with GPS tracking, microwave links and Wi-Fi service.All suppliers to the project are Canadian and all construction and maintenance operations will be done by Canadian firms. For Waskaganish, this venture was a unique experiment in telecommunications technology.

Project management was provided by Hyman Glustein of RTS Canada with on site management by Paul Charron of Service Techniques Audiocom. Sam Shecapio, manager of Capital Works for Waskaganish, and senior management at the First Nation of Waskaganish Band Office supervised the day-to-day activities.

Telecommunications towers are the enablers of the wireless industry. They are critical infrastructures for all forms of wide-range telecommunications and their location, signal strength and height above ground level determine the footprint of the coverage area.

Across North America, there is a growing requirement for communities to integrate existing services with wireless technological advancement. Multiple services provide dependability. Just as broadcast services need network services to provide the public with information, news and entertainment, mobility requires inter-carrier operability to deliver communications services. From emergency services to communications for regional business, interconnected two-way services are indispensable.

Currently, the following services use community-wide wireless services:
- CJRH-FM, Waskaganish Community Radio
- Waskaganish Fire department, public works and roads department (two-way radio-phone, paging, emergency service)
- Health services and the EEPF, Eenoo Eeyou Police Force, the regional police department

Telebec, a Bell-owned telephone company, has cellular services and local microwave facilities. It currently uses its own facility, a 20-metre tower that provides a limited reach and virtually no potential for expansion. CBC similarly provides radio services from a small tower nearby the Bell facility.

For Waskaganish, this new tower offers the capability tf reach the widest area and increases its ability to serve. For businesses, community services, health and emergency providers, broadcasters and governance, it means added value, serving all the people, all the time. It has an expansion platform for future users.

Recently, Industry Canada ordered all new communications and telecommunications wireless applicants to use existing towers, thus reducing the growing number of new towers. Existing licensed structures that have expansion capabilities were now provided with an economic potential not previously available. Issued June 2007, the directive told new applicants: "Proponents are not normally expected to build new antenna-supporting structures where it is feasible to locate their antenna on an existing structure, unless a new structure is preferred by land-use authorities." " (Industry Canada, CPC-2-0-03)

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