Mind control? Alien probe? Scot Colburn, a network engineer in SCD's Network and Engineering Technologies (NETS) Section, eyes a mysterious antenna that recently appeared in the first basement of NCAR's Mesa Laboratory.

Can you hear me now? This antenna and others around the building make it possible for Del, Scot, and other staff to talk to each other via Nextel cellphones, even in the lower levels of the Mesa Lab.

Photos: Lynda Lester, NCAR/SCD

Clear communications for SCD

Just a little further ... Del Harris, a NETS network engineer, adjusts a Nextel signal antenna. Del worked with NETS network technician Bryan Anderson to install the new system.

The poured concrete and iron rebar construction of NCAR's Mesa Laboratory has always interfered with cellphone reception, especially in offices and halls on the lower two levels. To solve this problem for SCD staff, NETS has installed a Nextel antenna on the roof that picks up the external wireless signal, strengthens it, and repeats it to antennas inside the building. As a result, staff working in different locations can now form efficient work teams via radio cellphones.

"We work on a lot of multipoint projects," says Marla Meehl, NETS manager. Often we'll have one person in the basement and one on the roof working together on networking equipment, calling back and forth: 'Test it now—does it work?' It's much handier to radio the other person with the press of a button than to have to repeatedly dial a ten-digit number."

Marla notes that Nextel phones have become the de facto standard at UCAR for facilities groups because of their radio capabilities. SCD's Operations and Infrastructure Support Section and High-Performance Systems Section have made the move to Nextel phones, as has NCAR Physical Plant Services.

NCAR/UCAR facilities at the Foothills and Center Green campuses, built more recently using modern construction techniques, do not interfere with wireless signals and do not need the repeater antennas.