New Glass Butte radio site ensures reliable transmission communications

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New Glass Butte radio site ensures reliable transmission communications

October 28, 2024

Completed earlier this summer, the Glass Butte radio site ensures reliable communications to BPA's Harney Substation.

Completed earlier this year, the remote radio site at Glass Butte ensures reliable connections to Harney Substation near Burns, Oregon.

This summer, the Bonneville Power Administration completed construction of its Glass Butte radio site near Burns, Oregon - marking the end of a nearly 13-year project and ensuring reliable communications within the agency's service territory.

The new radio site connects two pre-existing sites serving communications into Harney Substation, also near Burns, Oregon. Costing roughly $11 million, the completed radio site is equipped with a 100-foot radio tower and a 65-kilowatt generator.

Beginning in 2011, the process of developing and constructing a new radio site on the extremely remote Glass Butte was fraught with challenges. According to the project manager Charley Majors, the original radio path to Harney Substation ran through three radio sites in Pine Mountain, Hampton Butte and Burns, Oregon, all using ultra-high frequency radio signals. When the radio sites' equipment underwent an upgrade from an older UHF radio connection to a microwave connection, terrain between the Hampton Butte and Burns radio sites introduced complications.

"UHF radio can bend and can go around a mountain with no real issue," Majors explained. "The microwave radio cannot. It's like putting your hand in front of a laser."

To rectify the issue, BPA planned to construct a new radio site on Glass Butte - providing proper lines-of-sight for the obstructed sites.

Prior to construction, BPA worked extensively with the Bureau of Land Management and three tribes who consider Glass Butte sacred: the Confederated Tribes of Warms Springs, the Paiute Tribe and the Klamath Tribes. Additionally, the project included three tribal monitors who were individually selected by the Tribes to oversee construction, fencing and road improvement activities.

Over six years, the project team conducted a thorough environmental analysis and ethnographic study of the butte.

"We surveyed 455 acres of Glass Butte for traditional and cultural property items and found thousands of them," Majors said. "Nearly all of these artifacts were significant to the tribes."

Items included depressions in the ground, rock stacks, storage areas and lithic scatterings - places used to chip and shape obsidian into specific items. Parallel to their work with the Tribes, BPA coordinated with the BLM to follow time restrictions concerning sage grouse and mule deer. The BLM also enforced requirements for 45 acres of juniper removal and 6.5 miles of road work. Additionally, the team worked with the Oregon Department of Transportation, which shares the site as a tenant, to incorporate design input for its needs.

Upon completion of the analysis and additional prerequisites, construction on Glass Butte began in early 2020. During the construction period, COVID-19 working restrictions and wildfire precautions forced work to come to a halt several times. Upon finishing construction, BPA aligned the radio site dishes at Pine Mountain to Glass Butte.

Among the many challenges the project faced, Majors said one of the toughest was brought on by the passage of time and change in personnel. Along with changes to staff within BPA, Majors said staff changes within BLM and ODOT halted progress substantially.

After its final acceptance walkthrough in July, BPA's Glass Butte radio site is completely operational, ensuring secure and reliable communications throughout BPA's transmission system network.

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