Modem/UNIX system. Table 3 gives estimates of costs of hardware and 

 labor, exclusive of labor for procurement, testing, and initial deployment. 



Table 3 



Estimated Cost of Stand-Alone (per gauge) Voice-Reporting Systems 



System 



Base Cost 



Phone 



Labor 



Total 



Remarks 



Sutron Board 



$1,200 



$250 (Land) 



$1,000 



$2,450 



Monthly charges 



Sutron Board 



$1,200 



$2,000 (CMT) 1 



$1,000 



$3,200 



Per minute fee 



Sphere 



$1 ,200 



$ 250 (Land) 



$1 ,000 



$2,450 



Monthly charges 



Sphere 



$1,200 



$2,000 (CMT) 1 



$1,000 



$3,200 



Per minute fee 



Radio 2 



$1,000 2 











Includes phone, batteries, solar panels, enclosure, antenna, landline simulator, etc. 



Does not include overhead, handling, and other indirect costs. 



'Includes radio, antenna, batteries, solar panel, enclosure, antenna. Range is 5-10 miles per FCC rules. 



2 Radio may be added to a Sphere with either Land or CMT phone, or installed without either type of phone. 



Centralized PC System: 



Because of a wide variety of possible configurations, costs will vary 

 widely. A rough estimate of costs is as follows, not including indirect 

 costs: 



Basic PC, speech hardware $4,000 



Operating system FREE (LINUX) 



Speech software $2,000 



Basic installation $1,000 



Phone company installation (3 lines) $ 750 



Data radio system (to retrieve gauge data) $1 ,500 



Total 

 (approximate) 



$9,250 



Table 4 gives a listing of tide gauges possessing voice-reporting 

 capability as of 30 December 1996. 



30 



Chapter 4 Communications Alternatives 



