Odd looking antenna in Alamo

[gariac]

http://www.lazygranch.com/temp/pax/pole_ant.jpg

I spotted this antenna in Alamo Nevada. If you know the town, it is on the south side on a hill on the opposite side of the Sinclair gas station.

I checked the FCC database and found nothing.

It may actually be 4 antennas, two per pole, one on top and one on the bottom.

Barely radio related, but Alamo now has a FM radio station on 91.3. Pretty soon they will have a Starbucks. (just joking).

It was a quick trip and I didn't get to do much trunk radio sniffing thanks to my Cardbus soundcard deciding not to work. Well it worked once, then refused to work again. Usually I get to rant about unitrunker, but this time the soundcard screwed me.

 

[n7jei]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.3; en-us; Sprint APA9292KT Build/GRI40) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Wireless internet maybe? Canopy or similar?

 

[kayn1n32008]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.600 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

900Mhz ISM SCADA system?

 

[gariac]

The Canopy setups I've seen use small dish antennas. However, using the google on the internets, I see there are omni and panel Canopy systems. Some around 5GHZ and some in the 900Mhz band. I think both replies are onto something, i.e. it has to be in a license free band since nothing showed up in the FCC database.

I was thinking the multiple antennas might be part of a "diversity" scheme.

There is a NDOT facility nearby the antenna.
Glad to see I'm not the only person stumped.

 

[radact]

I showed the picture to a friend of mine that works for the County in communications, deals with this sort of equipment on a daily basis and this is what his reply was.

"It's Cellular.... LTE.... With a 5.8Ghz Backhall Antenna "

 

[bikinjohn]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.3; en-us; DROIDX Build/4.5.1_57_DX5-35) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Verizon's in Alamo with 4g? Or Sprint/Clear? Or public safety LTE?

 

[gariac]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.666 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

Alamo has Verizon. I doubt they have LTE but who knows. Cellular and the FCC database have a strange relationship. Sometimes the tower is listed, and sometimes not.

 

[gariac]

http://www.lazygranch.com/temp/alamo_ant.jpg

This is a better photograph of the antennas done with a telephoto lens. The units on the bottom have dimples in the plastic, which should make it easy to recognize for someone familiar with whatever this is. Motorola Canopy doesn't have the dimples based on the photos I've seen on the internet.

 

[OCO]

Looking at that good closeup, I don't think that any of the majors would claim that job... (I hope that's the good 3M tape).. Almost looks like some Amazon sourced equipment. Somebody's lowbucks WiFi setup?:wink:

 

[Squad10]

What's the lat/long of the pole?

 

[lep]

I am told by my experts it is a Wimax wireless acess point, 2 of the antennas are the bridge to the Internet and 2 are the WAP. I am also told it is not possible to tell from the photo whether it is on 2.4 or 5.8 GHz could be either. It would not be in the FCC database.

 

[gariac]

The location (based on memory and the acme mapper) looks like
N 37.36388 W 115.15863
For the FCC search , it would be
N37 21 50.0 W115 09 31.1

I thought wimax was only done in the licensed wireless bands.

There are odd ball wireless internet companies in the area, but the town has had moderate speed DSL for years now. Even Rachel, truly in the sticks, has DSL. It is the 750kbps flavor.

I found this in a google search:
BroadbandBLUE How It Works | Rural Wireless Internet Service