Message posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on June 11, 2008 at 9:16:09 PST:
Last weekend Gregos and I decided that it was time for a closer look at Mount Irish, and at the various radio sites on top. We agreed to rate the hike from the Logan Summit area at about two Tikaboos. Below are our preliminary findings. Photos and a revised Mt Irish article to follow soon. There is a site with two smaller dishes and an onmi-directional ground-air antenna similar to the site on Badger Mountain. It operates around 1.8GHz. The dishes are pointed to a central hub on Highland Peak, near Pioche. This site is used for the ACMI 3-D triangulation system for Red Flag and other air exercises, which allows controllers at Nellis and in the AWACS planes to receive exact 3-D position data on all players. The large dish is NOT used for the Rachel phone system. Instead, it is a microwave relay to Cedar Peak, connected to the various facilities within the NTTR, in particular TECR and TPECR. The microwave relay operates in the 7GHz range. The relay is likely linked to the ACMI system above. It also appears that there may be a linkup for IP-based mobile data terminals on the ground or in the air. The relay for the Rachel phone system is a passive reflector north of Mt Irish. It bounces the signal from the Rachel transmitter on the north side of Tempiute Mountain to the phone company building in Alamo. There is a site of the NV Shared Trunking system on Mt Irish. The output frequencies are 856.4625, 857.4625, 858.4625 and 859.4625 MHz, in that LCN order. There is a repeater for the Lincoln County Sheriff up there. Input: 154.070 and 155.535 MHz, Output: 154.860 and 155.205 MHz. There is a smaller directional antenna that looks like 900 MHz, pointed north. I am not sure about its use yet. There is a much smaller site of unknown use about 0.8 miles NE of Mt. Irish. We did not have time to investigate that site. Contrary to some claims, there is absolutely no connection to Bald Mountain, or to Area 51. Except for the ammo storage area on the far south end of the base, there is no view of Area 51 from Mt Irish.
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