Antenna tests planned from Mount Aeneas

More tests of potential sites for an antenna to boost emergency communications radio signals in southern Flathead County are planned soon as mountain snowpack lessens and avalanche danger drops.

Flathead County Fire Service Area Manager Lincoln Chute said avalanche concerns have prevented emergency service personnel from getting to the top of Mount Aeneas.

They want to test the signal from that site, their preferred location for a 4-foot antenna to provide a signal in and around Bigfork, Lakeside, Somers, Flathead Lake and in the Jewel Basin.

For about a year, county emergency service employees have been seeking a permit from the U.S. Forest Service to put a 4-foot antennae on Mount Aeneas, in a building where Optimum has communications equipment located.

Optimum officials have agreed to let the county use space in its building, which sits on forest land, but forest officials have declined so far to issue the county a permit. Last year, forest officials said they wanted to evaluate other possible sites and last month cited the need for signal testing at other sites so data can be compared.

Chute said one test has been conducted off Swan Hill in recent weeks.

“We found it covers less area than an antenna on Mount Aeneas would,” Chute said.

Chute and Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry both have said the Forest Service should be able to use proven communication results from an early February avalanche response effort in the Jewel Basin. County workers put a temporary repeater part-way up Mount Aeneas during that effort and reported superb radio communication in areas that now are dead spots.

“We know we had fantastic coverage in the Jewel Basin and our temporary antenna was 1,500 feet from the top of the mountain,” Chute said.

Nonetheless, Chute said as soon as it’s possible, a test from the top of Mount Aeneas will be conducted and results given to the Forest Service as the county pursues that permit option.

“Aeneas is the real missing link for that southern end of the district,” Chute said. “The rolling hills are a problem, the signal can’t see in those from Big Mountain or Swan Hill, but it can from Aeneas.”

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.