{"id":7731,"date":"2014-03-20T08:28:07","date_gmt":"2014-03-20T12:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=7731"},"modified":"2023-03-26T10:09:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-26T14:09:20","slug":"decomissioning-a-nextel-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2014\/03\/decomissioning-a-nextel-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Decomissioning a NEXTEL site"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Remember when “NEXTEL (b-b-b-beep), how business gets done…” Well, not anymore. NEXTEL<\/a> was purchased by Sprint in 2005 and their product lines were combined.  Thus, all of these old NEXTEL sites have become redundant and switched off.  This particular site was co-located with one of our FM radio clients, which required a power reduction while the old equipment was removed from the tower.  I took the time to grab a few pictures of the process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Former<\/a>
Former NEXTEL communications equipment room<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All of the equipment was removed from the equipment shelter. This site has been switched off since June 2013 and everything in it is destined for the scrap yard.\u00a0 This equipment worked on the 800 MHz bands, which have been re-purposed for Public Safety and Critical Infrastructure, e.g. government users.\u00a0 These racks and radios look like they were expensive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"NEXTEL<\/a>
NEXTEL equipment racks and radios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of expensive, this site had over 4,500 feet (1,370 meters) of 1 5\/8 inch foam coax, which was cut up and scrapped.  At today’s prices, that cost $13.25 per foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scrapped<\/a>
Scrapped transmission line<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The tower was rigged:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rigging<\/a>
Rigging tower to remove antennas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Each of the three panel sector mounts were removed and lowered to the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dropping<\/a>
Dropping cellular panel antennas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The NEXTEL antennas were mounted at the 260-foot (80 meter) level of a 395-foot (120 meter) tower. It took some time to remove all of the antennas and equipment from the tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cellular<\/a>
Cellular panel antenna array being removed from a tower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I looked on the Sprint website and could not determine if they still offer a push to talk service option (direct talk).  With all of the communications options available today, I do not expect there would be much call for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For old times sake, here is an old NEXTEL commercial from many years ago:<\/p>\n\n\n\n