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There's rough air ahead with radio towers plan for Point

For the last few months, I've been hearing about the radio towers proposed for Point Roberts. I've watched as meetings were held, fundraisers organized and politicians spoke to what they have done. And to be honest, I'm more than a little worried.

For the last few months, I've been hearing about the radio towers proposed for Point Roberts. I've watched as meetings were held, fundraisers organized and politicians spoke to what they have done. And to be honest, I'm more than a little worried. And it's because of flight attendants.

My dad was a pilot, so I got to fly a lot. I've also done more than my share of business travel. Despite being on planes for most of my life, I've never really enjoyed turbulence. Yes, I know, no plane has ever come down because of turbulence, but that doesn't make it any better for me. So when things got a little bumpy on the flight, I looked to see if the flight attendants were nervous. If they weren't panicking, I should try and relax a bit.

So when it comes to the radio towers, I turned to people who would know a lot about it.

I needed some work done to my cable, so I asked the cable guy. He's dealing with all sorts of stuff related to signals, electronics and broadcasts on a daily basis. If he's worried, I need to buckle my seatbelt.

What he told me was he deals with complaints in areas where there are other towers. We live in a damp environment, and over time our communications equipment degrades. When there is a weakness in any system, broadcast signals find their way in. Yes, it can be fixed, but there are probably a lot of weaknesses we don't know about.

I also talked with a couple of guys from the Amateur Radio Society. A few years ago, I took their course for my amateur radio licence. These are smart people -I'm surprised I passed their test. They know more about communications, wavelengths and frequencies that I ever thought existed. They know how to bounce signals off the atmosphere to reach Australia with a radio. If anyone will know what's going on, it's them.

While I didn't get a "sky is falling" feeling, they have big concerns. The signal will be strong - 50,000 watts, day and night. The baby monitor will pick it up. You might have extra voices and music on your phone calls. It will affect anything that operates wirelessly, but how much it will affect it no one can say.

To me, it sounds like buying an empty bucket. You'll never know how many or how big the holes are in it until you fill it with water. You may be able to plug them up and get on with life, or you may have a useless bucket sitting in your garage. I have enough crap in my garage.

I believe if this project were being proposed 300 metres to the north, it would have been soundly rejected already. That's why it's being proposed for the Point.

There will be a hearing in Whatcom County on this. To stop it, we, collectively have to make a noise. We're good at that.

Call the Hearing Examiner's office at 360-676-6794 and have your name added to their list of interested parties. They will send you a notification of when the hearing will be held. If you need more information, go to NoTowers. webs.com.

Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts. There's rough air ahead.