‘Antenna farms’

sprout in the bush

Along with an increased US awareness of the islands comes high-tech com munications gear.

“Antenna farms” will soon be sprout ing in American Samoa as part of a SUSS million relay station that is the key link in a satellite communications network that will provide a diplomatic channel be tween the US and the Pacific islands, officials say.

The Pago Pago centre will provide “rapid, reliable and secure” communica tions between Washington and facilities that are or will be established on the strategically placed islands, they say.

“The development of these posts ... is a significant indication of US policy to increase diplomatic, economic and cultural relations with Pacific island na tions,” said Frank Matthews, a State Department spokesman.

The system will also provide com munications for US weather and aviation services of the Federal Aviation Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmos pheric Administration, and emergency communications in the event of a natural disaster such as an earthquake, he said.

The islands include Fiji, Western Samoa, Solomon Islands, New Caledo nia, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Marianas, FSM and Palau, he said.

The $5 million price tag covers the cost of equipment and construction of buil dings at the transmitter and receiver sites in Pago Pago as well as the “antenna farms” in the region said a State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“If our government is going to go to

the expense of providing official US representation any place in the world, there has to be some form of rapid, reliable and secure means of com municating policy issues, economic re ports, political reports (and) dealing with emergency-type situations,” the source said.

“You have to have a link to whoever is the US representative out there, a rapid link with the headquarters here in Washington, so they can receive instruc tions for dealing with the daily work of diplomacy,” he said.

The cost of installing and improving posts on the other islands will depend on the extent of service required which “can’t be determined until the level of representation is determined for the post,” he said.

The Pago Pago facility, called the Pacific Service Centre, has been com pleted, said Eric Hauser, a spokesman for Fofo I. F. Sunia, the American Sa moan non-voting delegate in Congress.

It was not clear when the other island facilities would be built.

The planned Fiji facility would improve the US government’s existing com munication system in the Suva embassy, Matthews said.

The Pago Pago centre will use medium-powered high frequency trans mitters, Matthews said, and “radio emis sions will be strictly controlled and contained within standards for health and welfare.”

He said, “There are no plans to fence off the antenna sites.’’ Deborah Mesce, AP.