Nextel in Reading, PA

True. Many new sites have gone on the air and will go on the air in the Philadelphia area as well as in Lancaster, York, Harrisburg, Lebanon etc. Lots of new sites in Eastern PA. New ones in the areas between the cities as well.

 

Not Nextel related, but I know Smartestchild will read this thread, so....I've heard T-Mobile will be adding 20-30 towers in SC PA this year.

 

Yes Reading is pretty saturated signal-wise, but the new sites coming up are for capacity.

 

Yes I know where they are putting the new ones. The existing sites are pretty full as it is, not much room for upgrade there, which explains the new cell sites.

 

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but most carriers, Nextel included, will aim the antennas in the directions that are weak in coverage.

 

It depends on how they set it up. What antennas they use, how the sectors are aligned, the power output of the site. Take some pictures.

 

Post and PM me. I'm sure others would like to see them.

 

I'll be interested to see what you find.

This week I will be out in south Reading doing the "official" performance testing for the 2 new sites that came up last week.

 

Do some research, if Nextel turned up a site it will have an FCC license.

 

Overview of all Nextel sites in Berk County:



Closeup of just Reading,PA




This was done in a couple minutes via the FCC databases.

 

I prefer to do my searches through the older version of the client which is
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/genmen/index.hts

Though both
http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/reports/index.cfm
and
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp

Will provide the same information.

 

The FCC site sounds like a good idea, but it is never right. I learned that in my pre-wireless days from cell site hunting. That map is showing MAYBE 60% of our sites, it looks like a map from 4 years ago.
Also we don't have 2 clumps of 3 sites ontop of each other on the mountain there.

One of the new sites is east of 176 along 422. The other is near the intersection of 724/222.

 

Could the three markers on the map represent the three sectors of one site?

Nextel has done a lot of building in Eastern PA, so it will probably take a while for the map to catch up to the new builds.

Also confusing things a little is that Berks County is part Nextel Communications and part Nextel Partners. The Western edge is Partners - both have been building new sites. There are also some amplifiers going in for some very local boosting in some spots as well.

 

All the sites in Berks have 3 sectors.

Berks county is 100% Nextel communications. There are no partners sites within Berks.

I don't know about partners, but we do not use any kind of outdoor amplifiers or repeaters.

Yes Nextel has done a lot of building, but I'd still say if it takes the FCC database 4 years to catch up, it is considered an unreliable source.

 

Partners has no sites within Berks, but there are Partners coverage areas in Berks.

Partners does use amplifiers - in Berks - off Partners sites.

But I don't want to turn this into a civil war

 

I declare war!! :boxingsmi

Release the locations of your secret amplifiers or I'm deleting all the partners sites off my neighbor lists

 

I say uncle!