Dropped call? Blame the ospreys

| August 4, 2010

Nesting ospreys are periodically disrupting cell phone signals in Kitty Hawk. The nest is on the upper right and you can see one of the ospreys perched at the lower left. Click on the photo for a larger view.

AT&T subscribers in Kitty Hawk village and a few points south have been experiencing sporadic disruptions in their cell phone coverage lately. Thanks to a tip, we were led to the cause.

According to Eric Kakretz, sales and IT manager of East Coast Communications, the local AT&T retailer, engineers reported to him a pair of ospreys have moved onto the platform on a communications tower that holds four omni-directional antennas for AT&T’s cellular service in Kitty Hawk.

The engineers told Kakretz the ospreys’ “dwelling” was constructed on the southern array platform, and when one or both adults are on the nest, signals are disrupted.

An osprey approaches the tower.

Federal and state laws protecting osprey nests prohibit engineers from even approaching the dwelling until nesting season is over and the birds have vacated the premises.

The tower, located on The Woods Road just behind the Happy Box storage facility, also supports several other antennas, including some for Dare County public safety communications.

Thus far, only the southern signal path of AT&T’s cellular phone service has been affected since the nest rests directly on the platform supporting that array.

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See what people are saying:

  • Bill Holt says:

    Maybe God will give it a good blow…. or maybe Verizon might be the logical solution ;-)

    • on August 7, 2010 @ 8:40 am

  • Jean Wiley says:

    So THAT’s it! Thank you for the information…just purchased a new phone a couple of weeks ago and thought that was the culprit!

    • on August 7, 2010 @ 9:25 am

  • Nancy Schafer says:

    I’m glad the nests are protected and won’t be disturbed. And I hope that they don’t lose too much business for doing the environmentally and legally correct thing by leaving the nests alone.

    • on August 7, 2010 @ 10:17 am

  • ekim says:

    The old birds are runing out of TREES!

    • on August 7, 2010 @ 11:16 am

  • Wesley says:

    That’s scary…public safety communications equipment is up there too. If it were to go out, sounds like by law it couldn’t be fixed…thus the birds would have priority over human safety… Let’s hope there is an exception somewhere!!

    • on August 9, 2010 @ 10:11 am

  • ekim says:

    The great fishing birds will be leaving any day, and we can put some kind of block up.

    • on August 10, 2010 @ 9:17 pm

  • Brian says:

    I’m continually amazed by how many different ways Apple attempts to explain away the iPhone4 poor reception…..

    I keed, I keeeeeed

    • on August 10, 2010 @ 9:20 pm

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