Yes, Arizona gets cold!

Share this post

view from Harquahala Mountain

As much of the country battled cold temperatures, Arizona experienced its own form of winter. CAP Communications Engineer Daniel Pauly captured winter’s beauty last week when he headed up Harquahala Mountain, one of many mountaintops that house communication equipment for the CAP system. The site uses solar power, backed up by a generator. The generator kicks on if the solar power isn’t up to par, which can be due to a cloudy day or ice-covered panels not creating enough power. When monitors showed that solar power levels dipped low and the generator didn’t kick in, Pauly headed up to investigate, which is no quick task. The base of the mountain is about a two-hour drive from CAP Headquarters … followed by a one-hour off-road drive to navigate to the top of the hill that sits at more than 5600 feet in elevation. The terrain is steep, requiring low gear four-wheel drive and excellent driving skills! Fortunately, Pauly found the issue and with one quick fix to a generator battery, everything was back in working order!