City wide antenna system

[BinaryMode]

In my city there are numerous cameras on street lights and at parks and whatnot. I'm struggling to know what frequency they are using? I'm thinking in the 900 MHz band because this sure isn't Wi-Fi. I have seen the city own a FCC license for the 900 MHz band, but not sure what it's used for. The antennas mostly look like this, but not sure if that's the manufacture or not. Usually you'll see more than one antenna in a cluster. Like three in a line. Don't even know why that would be other than maybe diversity or multi frequency usage.

When I get time I'll take some pics. Any idea what the city may be using? Is the city's purchase records available for public viewing perhaps? What office would I contact? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[mmckenna]

Not really enough information to give you an accurate answer. Having a link to the FCC license, or at least give us the city name would be helpful.

Some of these may be using the cellular network.
The "three" antenna cluster thing sounds like a mesh network.

As for who to talk to at the city, start with the City Manager. They should be able to direct you to the correct department.

 

[BinaryMode]

Yeah, I thought it was a mesh system. It seems that's what it is. I still have yet to grab some photos. Would cellular be on an antenna that looks like that? I mean that long?

 

[mmckenna]

Could be, hard to tell without knowing exactly what it is.

 

[vagrant]

A couple of decades ago I once drove around with 2.4 GHz and 900MHz A/V receivers. I had a monitor and recorded it as well. From private, to business, to city, State and Fed transmitters. Some of the transmitters were city cameras at intersections.

I think I will do it again as I now have improved antennas.

 

[BinaryMode]

Aren't they encrypted?

Never mind.. "private." Yeah, that's old school now-a-days. But! Would work great actually because a little hacker dork can't deauth that, only conventional jamming will do.

BTW- Shodan knows all...

 

[mmckenna]

Aren't they encrypted?

Never mind.. "private." Yeah, that's old school now-a-days. But! Would work great actually because a little hacker dork can't deauth that, only conventional jamming will do.

BTW- Shodan knows all...

Back then, it was analog NTSC video. There was one of the big companies (Icom?) that made a portable receiver that had a video screen on it. I ~think~ it was intended for "testing", but pretty sure everyone used them for snooping on cameras.

Baby monitors used to be 49MHz analog FM. A neighbor had one and I could hear it on a scanner. It was really easy to hear everything going on in the house, 24x7.

Many cordless phones were 49MHz also, again, easy to pick up your neighbors phone conversations all over the neighborhood.

Of course people learned their lessons, and technology advanced, everything is digital, frequency hopping, encrypted, etc….

 

[BinaryMode]

I know all about it. And the Icom was the IC-R3. I used it with a half dollar sized small camera that ran on a 9 volt battery.


The IC-R3 was pretty deaf. When I called Icom about the IC-R3 all those years ago the guy did tell me that. Never the less, I bought one anyway. LOL I remember seeing it advertised for the first time in circa 2000 on the back of a Monitoring Times Mag and said to myself, "I have got to have that!"

I was able to pick up that Cuban numbers station on that thing with the stock antenna!

 

[mmckenna]

Yup, IC-R3 was it.

 

[wtp]

most of the cameras here that i see do not have an antenna and are just there to 'see' if someone wants to turn left.
there are no ground loops anymore.

 

[BinaryMode]

Here's some pictures of what I'm talking about.

 

[BinaryMode]

there are no ground loops anymore.

That's factually incorrect. At least in this town.

 

[wtp]

OK, then, at least in my part of this state.

 

[mmckenna]

Here's some pictures of what I'm talking about.

Mesh network.

Your city may use it for their public safety/public works folks. It may be a third party system using the city infrastructure. The power is pulled off an adapter that goes between the street light sensor socket and the light sensor. It feeds power to the device.

 

[GlobalNorth]

The city I used to live in uses that kind of setup for traffic control cameras that feed back to the traffic engineering section to spot accidents, backups, congestion, and support traffic studies.

Arizona has them around the state to monitor traffic flows 24/7/365.

 

[BinaryMode]

So any guess as to what band?

What manufacture would they use?

 

[buddrousa]

If it is used for your City Utilities it would have been voted on in a Public Meeting look at the news releases.

 

[mmckenna]

So any guess as to what band?

Maybe 5GHz

What manufacture would they use?

Can't tell from the fuzzy photo.