Stephen,
Thanks for the notes. Kenny, Tom, and I worked on the initial connection up there this last summer. In your first photo, it’s on the middle tower. At the moment it’s only a client dish and the original intent was/is to connect that site and a neighboring site down the hill about 100 yards away. The 2nd site is on the list for projects when the weather clears. This is the first I’ve heard of putting a full cell site up there, which certainly would change things a bit. Can you tell me where the full site discussions originated from? I’m curious to find out if it’s expected to go into/onto the tower we are currently on or a different location, who the contact would be, etc. I’m trying to get projects mapped out and prioritized for the coming year and the more info we have sooner, the better.
FWIW, here is a LOS map looking north from our current tower position:
And here is a rough look to the south and west:
Keep in touch as we get into the new year. I would be good to coordinate any new work with the project already going on there if possible.
Cheers,
Rob
From: PSDR [mailto:psdr-bounces@hamwan.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Kangas
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2020 12:23 PM
To: psdr@hamwan.org
Subject: Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Rattlesnake Mtn HamWan cell site
Oops, attachment challenged today. Now attached photos.
From: Stephen Kangas <stephen@kangas.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2020 12:22 PM
To: 'psdr@hamwan.org' <psdr@hamwan.org>
Subject: Rattlesnake Mtn HamWan cell site
In follow up to the Kiwi chat conversation with @EO_...
Attached are a couple photos related to two of the 7 communications site towers adjacent to each other on Rattlesnake. Four of those are clustered together in a small spot: PSE, King County, USFS, and possibly DNR. These photos were taken in July 2019, and the USFS site appears abandoned in that cluster. One of these photos shows the towers for King County and what is possibly DNR, but I don’t recall exactly which one is which, perhaps you can ID (my impression is that KC is the taller of the two). The taller of these two happened to have a sign on its shack with lat/lon coordinates on it, which is shown in the second photo. Interestingly, those coords places a Google maps marker at the edge of the forest clearing a couple hundred feet away from the entire cluster, perhaps because the coords are not precise enough. Both of these towers have a clear view of North Bend and Snoqualmie Ridge IMO, although as EO_ pointed out the HamWan link from Haystack or wherever may need to be at the very top.
I will be exploring the possibility of getting volunteer certified tower climbing help for a workparty proposal to you this coming spring/summer when the road there is passable.
On a separate note, King County supposedly also owns the tower site at I-90 exit 38 Tinkham Road that should be LOS to their Rattlesnake site, and may be a possible hop towards getting over Snoqualmie Pass and eventually eastern WA in the future? Given their involvement in WA EMD and Cascadia prep, perhaps they would be amenable. There is a tower on top of nearby Grouse Ridge (next to the Fire Training Academy, and an old now unused site on Mount Washington that could be investigated as hop sites, both accessible by roads in summer. Just a thought.
Stephen (eeeehaw)
Stephen Kangas W9SK
Public Information Officer
North Bend Amateur Radio Emergency Services Team (NBAT) NB7AT
North Bend, WA (CN97)
425-503-9876
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