Helicopters flying over Dillingham have residents wondering what all the noise is about.
There was a lot of whirring and buzzing over Dillingham this morning.
"We definitely have some helicopter action going on," said Trung Vo, the telecom operations manager at Nushagak Cooperative.
The co-op is outfitting two main projects.
“We got the microwave project that we’re building over at Levelock," Vo said. "There's going to be three towers. That's going to bring us our better data and stuff to provide a better internet service to the community here.”
Those towers will be conducting point-to-point microwave energy – a way to pass data that interconnects with GCI’s fiber, which runs to Anchorage. The co-op is also flying equipment up to their site by the Muklung Mountain.
"The helicopters are cruising back and forth today, 'cause the weather's working out, to get as much gear and heavy material that we need up to the site to build a foundation to put a building and a new tower and some tanks and stuff up there," Vo said.
That site is near the GCI tower, but Vo said because the co-op is using a different frequency band than GCI, they don’t expect any interference.
The larger helicopter should finish transporting heavier equipment this afternoon. Vo expects the smaller aircraft to continue transporting supplies to Levelock until mid-October.
Contact the author at isabelle@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.
