County says avalanche emergency shows value of antenna on Aeneas

Flathead County officials are citing radio communication during a recent avalanche search in Jewel Basin as one more reason the Forest Service should issue the county a permit to put an antenna on Mount Aeneas.

County Fire Service Area Manager Lincoln Chute said the Office of Emergency Services set up a mobile repeater about one and a half miles past Camp Misery during their search effort for a backcountry skier caught in an avalanche.

The repeater was placed about two-thirds of the way up Mount Aeneas from Camp Misery because snow conditions prevented Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry and Chute from getting to the top of the mountain where they wanted to put the repeater.

The temporary repeater was used “to make sure we had communication in the basin during the search,” Chute said.

He and other law enforcement officials have complained many times that the area around Jewel Basin and along Flathead Lake, including in and around Bigfork, Somers and Lakeside, is nearly a dead spot for emergency radio communication.

The temporary unit provided for “full communication” among the various emergency and law enforcement agencies involved in the Feb. 1 and 2 effort, Chute said.

“I could talk to the guys from my mobile radio when I was in town,” Chute said.

Personnel from the sheriff’s office and Office of Emergency Services, along with the county commissioners, have spoken with Forest Service personnel about putting a 4-foot antenna on forest land leased by Optimum.

The telecommunications company has radio towers and equipment on the Mount Aeneas ridge and has agreed to let the county place an antenna there. The county shares other sites with Optimum, Curry said.

So far, the Forest Service hasn’t issued a permit or made any decision about the county’s request.

On Wednesday, Flathead National Forest Public Affairs Specialist Wade Muehlhof said forest officials are waiting for county officials to provide them data from equipment testing at various sites in the area where the radio signals are weak.

Muehlhof said the county had intended to “do some testing” with mobile repeaters and share that information with the Forest Service.

Curry said Wednesday he’d “apply pressure to his guys” to get that testing completed and data compiled. That work has been slowed by snow, he said, but it’s time to return focus to the issue.

“I’ve been trying to get this done since last spring,” Curry said. “I don’t want to it go past this summer.”

County Commissioner Jim Dupont said having such good results from a temporary repeater in the area “gives us a good indication it will work great when we can get an antenna on Aeneas. It worked well and we weren’t all the way on top.”