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Commission OKs Carson City ham radio repeater at Verizon microwave site on Austin Ridge
Summary
The board approved allowing the Carson City Amateur Radio group to place a radio repeater at the Verizon microwave site on Austin Ridge to maintain VHF coverage for rural Highway 50 and to provide an alternate communications path during outages.
The Lander County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 23 approved a request from Carson City amateur radio operators to place a VHF repeater at the Verizon microwave site on Austin Ridge.
The board heard from commissioners and staff that the proposed repeater would link a network of repeaters serving rural corridors — including locations in Carson City, Fairview Peak near Middlegate, Austin, Eureka and Ely — to improve VHF coverage on Highway 50 and in other remote areas. Commissioners described the installation as an emergency‑communications redundancy: the repeater network would provide an alternate means to communicate across rural Nevada if digital systems failed.
The motion approved placement at the Verizon microwave site on Austin Ridge. Commissioners clarified that installing equipment at the Austin airport site would require a separate agenda item and could not be approved at this meeting because it was not on the agenda.
Ending: The county will coordinate with the airport board and with the radio group on any additional site requests for the airport property; the approved placement at the Verizon site is intended to improve rural radio connectivity and winter access resilience for remote sites.
