Keeping Cell Tower Transfer Panels Online

Keeping Cell Tower Transfer Panels Online

Just about every American today, regardless of age, owns a cell phone and utilizes it on a daily basis. In order to keep those cell phones working, cell towers are required in a variety of places, and are located in both typical locations, such as highways to unusual locations like church steeples. To keep those cell towers online, cell tower transfer panels are required.

Understanding a Cell Site

A cell site is the term that describes a location where antennas and electrical communication equipment is located to create a cell in a cellular network. This includes power sources and transfer panels. A cell site is composed of a tower for mounting antennas or transceivers, control electronics, a GPS receiver, as well as regular and backup electrical power sources. Depending on the cell operator’s technology, a single mobile operator may provide multiple base stations. Cell sites are popping up more and more as cell phones are becoming more prevalent in the general population and a wider area of signal distribution is required.

Temporary Cell Tower Setup

While cell antennas are normally attached to a permanent location, cell phone signal carriers also maintain temporary cell sites. A generator may be included for use where network electrical power is not available and the system may have a wireless backhaul link allowing use where a wired link is not currently available. A temporary cell tower setup may also be used at a permanent cell site as a temporary replacement for damaged equipment or during outages.

Manual Transfer Panel

Manual transfer panels are load-center breaker panels that are usually installed as a sub-panel downstream of the existing main load center breaker panel. There are a variety of different manual transfer panels available on the market. When planning an electrical plan for a cell tower, it is important that the company charged with this task work with a professional company that understand the unique needs providing power to a cell tower requires. Any cell tower power plan should include how to manage the current power need, anticipate any future needs as well as have an emergency plan in place. By working with a company that can help develop a cohesive plan, chances are greatly diminished that issues will develop that can not be resolved quickly and efficiently.