A satellite communications engineer and an airport planner gave their expert testimony on the impact the proposed cargo airport would have on the neighboring Service Electric Cablevision station during Thursday's hearing before the Schuylkill County Zoning Hearing Board for a special exception request.
Gladstone Partners LP, Pittsburgh, intends to build the cargo airport on a property that falls within 1.6 miles of a SECV station with 12 satellites in Hazle Township, Luzerne County. The airport property also extends into Kline and East Union townships, Schuylkill County.
Rob Sensky, an attorney representing Service Electric Cablevision, presented both witnesses Thursday.
Philip A. Rubin, a licensed professional in telecommunications and satellite engineering, and president and CEO of RKF Engineering Solutions LLC, Washington, D.C., said all the satellites at the station point south and southwest, directly toward the proposed cargo airport.
Rubin said there are three things that could potentially disrupt SECV satellite reception. The first is a plane flying through the signal. The second is the radar on planes during takeoff and landing. The third is the radar from the airport.
Rubin said while there are many things that pass through satellite reception, he said the close proximity of the planes at the airport would create problems, but the disturbances from their radar and the radar coming from the airport would be more significant.
"On large, airplanes use radar altimeters which are very well known for their interference issues," Rubin said.
Radar altimeters provide the distance between the plane and the ground and are only used during takeoffs and landings.
He said since the airplanes could be passing within 1/4 of a mile of the satellites, their radar signals can overpower the equipment in the station.
Based on simulations and studies, Rubin said 4 percent of airplanes passing through the signal would cause a disturbance while radar interference would be 17 percent. As a result, Rubin said 21 percent of airplane operations at the airport would cause interference in satellite reception. He also said the radar from the airport would cause interference every time it hits the satellites, which would be about every four seconds.
Rubin said interference on television screens would look like pixilation and time delays that could last several seconds to as long as 15 seconds.
Rubin said the airport and the cable company are incompatible with each other in their locations based on his numbers.
"If I was getting that kind of disruption, I would go to another cable company," Rubin said.
Edward Nasuti, a licensed consulting engineer and registered land surveyor and president of Lee Simpson Associates Inc, Dubois, said he has worked on about 400 airport projects and said to his knowledge, this is the first time he has seen the issue of a proposed airport interfering with a cable provider come before a county zoning board.
"I believe that the work of Gladstone and their engineers have done to date is excellent work, but I think it falls significantly short of what is required to assess the impact of the new facility on the surrounding community," Nasuti said. "Not having quantified the impact, they have not supplied the zoning hearing board with enough information to make a decision."
Due to time constraint, attorney Frederick J. Fanelli, who is representing Gladstone during the hearings, will cross examine both witnesses when the hearings resume. A tentative date for the hearings to continue is at 6 p.m. April 12 in courtroom No. 1 at the county courthouse.