In 2013, the PPRCN Board selected a software/hardware upgrade plan based on recommendations from an in depth life-cycle analysis conducted by an external consultant, Televate. Part of that plan is to upgrade the radio sites serving the Colorado Springs area to a simulcast system. This work is almost complete, and beginning the week of March 19th we will cut over to this new simulcast “cell”.
This new cell will consist of 5 existing sites; Stanley Canyon, Austin Bluffs, Templeton Gap, Cedar Heights, and Ski Summit, as well as a newly constructed site at the Airport to replace the old one at the main terminal.
The cut-over plan at a high level looks like this:
- Monday, March 19th from 0900 – 1900 – Stanley Canyon will taken down and converted to simulcast. At the end of the day, the new cell (Site 28, “PPRCNS1”) will be up and running on 3 sites, Stanley Canyon, T-Gap, and Airport, and will be enabled to carry radio traffic.
- Tuesday, March 20th from 0900 – 1900 – Austin Bluffs will taken down and converted to simulcast. At the end of the day, we will have a 4 site simulcast cell.
- Wednesday, March 21st from 900 – 1900 – Cedar Heights will taken down and converted to simulcast. At the end of the day, we will have a 5 site simulcast cell
- Thursday, March 22nd from 900 – 1900 – Ski Summit will taken down and converted to simulcast. At the end of the day, we will have a 6 site simulcast cell
These 6 sites will become one – radios will no longer affiliate to an individual site, but will see this new simulcast cell as a single site. This has several advantages, including better use of spectrum resources, better coverage inside the cell’s coverage area, and better building penetration (to name a few) as radios will see all these towers simultaneously, rather than having to switch between them. The new cell will consist of 18 channels, and is designed to allow more channels to be added if needed.
This change represents a major milestone for PPRCN, and is the culmination of several years hard work by many – thank you!