What Are These Weird Little Yagi Antennas I See All Over Town?

[JohnnyGalaga]

The county next to me has a lot of these on 12-foot poles everywhere. The light green box says
"MANATEE COUNTY SEWAGE PUMPING STATION" on it. What are the antennas for?

 

[mancow]

They relay information about the water system. I hear ours in the 173 Mhz area.

 

[w0fg]

Telemetry to warn the operators of a pump failure so they can fix it before the crap comes back up your drains.

 

[nd5y]

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&action=fle&stid=12&en=Manatee County Utilities

 

[RolnCode3]

You'll find things like this for remote flow monitoring, water levels, etc. on more than just sewer systems.

 

[WayneH]

UHF SCADA. Do a Google search for SCADA and you'll find a wealth of info on it.

It's basically a Motorola data telemetry system used to monitor water flow, open and close valves, their state, etc. If you wonder if it can be decoded, yes, but each system is setup specific to the operator.

It's in use heavily by both power and water companies. Often for irrigation control also.

 

[JohnnyGalaga]

Outstanding. Thanks to all.

 

[RayK]

It looks like that antenna is just below the power lines ,not a good idea.

 

[motomeso]

Scada isn't limited to just UHF, the beam shown is his pictures is obviously for VHF.

UHF SCADA. Do a Google search for SCADA and you'll find a wealth of info on it.

It's basically a Motorola data telemetry system used to monitor water flow, open and close valves, their state, etc. If you wonder if it can be decoded, yes, but each system is setup specific to the operator.

It's in use heavily by both power and water companies. Often for irrigation control also.

 

[Raven95150]

If you notice, they also have red strobe lights on the top of the little green box. If there is a malfunction, the light will flash. In my area, most of them also have an alarm and a sign on them that says to call 911 if the light is flashing or the alarm is going off. They will then make sure the public works dept is notified.

 

[WayneH]

Scada isn't limited to just UHF, the beam shown is his pictures is obviously for VHF.

No, it's not limited to UHF. It's all over the place. But good catch on the yagi band, got my size refs off.

 

[Nasby]

Why would anyone want to "decode" these transmitters or monitor them in the first place?

 

[N4JNW]

Why would anyone want to "decode" these transmitters or monitor them in the first place?

The same reason some get thier jimmies off monitoring fast food drive thru's, or GMRS walkie talkies..

Because we are curious as to what they sound like. We are curious as to what we CAN hear.. Who knows, you might pick up an informative tidbit of information. What IF you had the means to decode the telemetry that these things transmit? You could essentially tell for yourself where the sewer and water trouble was at in your city. Or, you could find out when your buddy on the other side of the city is going to have his commode overflow when he flushes it. :lol:

 

[Astro25]

What Are These Weird Little Yagi Antennas I See All Over Town?

Free antennas!! :lol:

 

[N467RX]

Free antennas!! :lol:

Looooool

 

[N4JNW]

Free antennas!! :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Big_Ears]

There was a time where most Utilities telemetry data is sent via fixed point (dedicated landline). Radio telemetry was used when a landline was impossible or impractical. Nowadays with the opening of the 800-900 Mhz (and higher) bands, along with cheaper hardware costs it no longer the norm.

 

[KE7TJK]

What Are These Weird Little Yagi Antennas I See All Over Town?

Whacker Trackers.

You should be familiar with them already.

 

[ScannerDude244]

My local Utilities is testing WI-FI water meters, no more walking from meter to meter. Just drive down the block and you have read all of them!

 

[N_Jay]

UHF SCADA. Do a Google search for SCADA and you'll find a wealth of info on it.

It's basically a Motorola data telemetry system used to monitor water flow, open and close valves, their state, etc. If you wonder if it can be decoded, yes, but each system is setup specific to the operator.

It's in use heavily by both power and water companies. Often for irrigation control also.

SCADA is not Motorola specific.
It is "Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition".
Motorola's product is MOSAC, and before that INTRAC.
'There are many other SCADA systems out there.