That's why we look for copological indicators right? Actually I remember we used to watch a safety video every year and there was a segment in which a firefighter in his shiny white helmet went up to a tanker derailment, wiped his finger along the side of the tanker, and then tasted it to see what exactly was leaking. Not surprisingly, this was under the lesson called "This is what NOT to do"
Unidentified object on light pole
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That's why we look for copological indicators right? Actually I remember we used to watch a safety video every year and there was a segment in which a firefighter in his shiny white helmet went up to a tanker derailment, wiped his finger along the side of the tanker, and then tasted it to see what exactly was leaking. Not surprisingly, this was under the lesson called "This is what NOT to do"
He should start searching the FCC database for any new licenses by the city or utility company in some of those bands, or if he sees crews working along the area, stop one of them and ask.
The original install was by Ricohet, which was the first wireless PC provider. The download speeds were slower because the RF transmissions needed to bounce (from pole to pole) to the home pole, which could be multiple times. The home pole has the small downword antenna plus an upword verticle helix that was about 3 feet in length for the final RF connection to the www.
Matt93
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WIFI sounds like a good guess to me. Hey, now you don't need a wireless router!
Matt93
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fineshot1
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The name of that company was "Metricomm" and the name of the network was "Ricochet". The "guarantied"
download speed(at the time they went chapter 11 in 2001) was 128K but I used to commonly get up to 300 or 400k depending on where my van was located at the time I was connecting to my ISP while mobile. I used to work for them in the Philadelphia Metro area and had many sites in the area. There was no home pole. The home site was called a WAP(Wireless Access Point) and was fed by the pole top 900Mhz/2.4g radios which is not the one in the OP's pic - not sure what that one is but most probably wifi. The WAP sites(usually a tower site or rooftop site) had 12 dual band(900mhz ISM/2.4ghz ISM) radios mounted behind panel antennas. The WAP's provided a data funnel to a regional master site called the NIU which pumped all the regional data down to the Houston, TX WWW access site. It was a good network in its time and worked well. They had much higher speed designs on the drawing board when they went bust.
Hey Matt, sorry to hear about losing your buddy.
We had a really bad week in September, lost our Border Collie/Basset on Monday, and our Golden to Cancer on Saturday. Devastating doesn't begin... It's hard to explain to anyone other than another dog owner.
We still have our 6 year old Golden, and she's getting/giving lots of extra love.
altec
Member
Cool device! What it on credit?
Maybe this device (who knows what this thing is or who cares... isn't monitorable by a scanner is it?) is actually a benefit to the people of the community. Maybe whoever thought of this brainstorm is having the latest coffee break(s) thinking of installing it in his/her community to get cool points! Wow! What great news! Lets all get a cup of coffee to sip on. Maybe during their next coffee break they will decide on who gets to pay for the bill. Whoever gets the bill might be sipping on ramen noodle soup for a while cause these things aren't cheap looking. Whatever the verdict is on who has to pay for the bill of sale for equipment purchased keep in mind that taxpayers still have to drink ramen noodles daily to keep up on ramen noodles purchased though credit. I don't think this type of equipment is monitorable by a scanner and if it even was it would be extremly boring even if you are bored of eating ramen noodles.
Maybe this device (who knows what this thing is or who cares... isn't monitorable by a scanner is it?) is actually a benefit to the people of the community. Maybe whoever thought of this brainstorm is having the latest coffee break(s) thinking of installing it in his/her community to get cool points! Wow! What great news! Lets all get a cup of coffee to sip on. Maybe during their next coffee break they will decide on who gets to pay for the bill. Whoever gets the bill might be sipping on ramen noodle soup for a while cause these things aren't cheap looking. Whatever the verdict is on who has to pay for the bill of sale for equipment purchased keep in mind that taxpayers still have to drink ramen noodles daily to keep up on ramen noodles purchased though credit. I don't think this type of equipment is monitorable by a scanner and if it even was it would be extremly boring even if you are bored of eating ramen noodles.
Another Possibility
When I was working as a Police Dispatcher in my city, we had a network of boxes installed that were mounted on the Poles like that. They were used to detect gunshots. This part of the city had a lot of shooting calls (Like drive by's, gang fights w/ guns, etc.) They were just plain simple boxes like these and they connected wirelessly to the server that sent us information on the approximate area that the gunshots came from. (They are pretty accurate on location, however, were also set off by fireworks as well.) Just a possibility.
Here is a link to National Criminal Justice Reference report that was writtenin June of 98 about this technology. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/fs000201.pdf
When I was working as a Police Dispatcher in my city, we had a network of boxes installed that were mounted on the Poles like that. They were used to detect gunshots. This part of the city had a lot of shooting calls (Like drive by's, gang fights w/ guns, etc.) They were just plain simple boxes like these and they connected wirelessly to the server that sent us information on the approximate area that the gunshots came from. (They are pretty accurate on location, however, were also set off by fireworks as well.) Just a possibility.
Here is a link to National Criminal Justice Reference report that was writtenin June of 98 about this technology. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/fs000201.pdf
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Well, if you get tired of ramen you could go to pizzahut.com on the cities wifi system, then it pays for its self... :lol: Commerce is the tone in the signal, but the signal isn't monitorable to scanners. In other words...it's good for business. Not exactly how I described it though..
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scrotumola
Member
15 years ago Ricochet became or was acquired by RIM which is now who brings us Blackberry.
My initial thought was the box in question was used as part of the metropolitan transit (bus/rail/taxi) fleet AVL system. A very early version of AVI/tracking used pole mounted reporting stations along all transportation routes. The boxes relayed veh ID, location, direction of travel, speed and also carried 2 way data via keyboard/CRT between the driver and dispatcher.
My initial thought was the box in question was used as part of the metropolitan transit (bus/rail/taxi) fleet AVL system. A very early version of AVI/tracking used pole mounted reporting stations along all transportation routes. The boxes relayed veh ID, location, direction of travel, speed and also carried 2 way data via keyboard/CRT between the driver and dispatcher.
lol i have absolutely no idea what that paragraph was talking about. I wasn't asking because I want to monitor it though. Just a few guys at my house were wondering.
altec
Member
Got pizza? Hooked on Pizza Hut!
Is this what this thing does? LOL For a pizza made for you by people who get paid minimum wage? LOL! Sure I know pizza taste good but this technology might add a extra 75 cents to the cost of the pizza plus a few extra hairs that might land on top due to this new way of getting orders for pizzas.
Is this what this thing does? LOL For a pizza made for you by people who get paid minimum wage? LOL! Sure I know pizza taste good but this technology might add a extra 75 cents to the cost of the pizza plus a few extra hairs that might land on top due to this new way of getting orders for pizzas.
altec
Member
Maybe you might figure out what this device is or someone that use to deal with these devices might tell you what they are. Anyway lets just say they don't come for free. If its used for internet enjoy your pizza. Anything else who knows what might have went up in price. Come to think of it...Seems like everything went up. So who cares lets work for free on minimum wage.
My guess is WiFi ?, the first ones I seen were around 97 when Ricochet was around. I took one down disected and guted it. I still have it laying around.
It gets its power from the street light photo cell socket, the photo cell piggy backs off its connecter. If my memory serves me, I think the one I took down said metro cell on it.
It has 2 types of Antennas, one that looks like a 800/900 that you can see from the orignal pic, then it has smaller ones that are around the whole unit. I wondered if the signal was sent over cell band and then rebroadcast as WiFi ?
It gets its power from the street light photo cell socket, the photo cell piggy backs off its connecter. If my memory serves me, I think the one I took down said metro cell on it.
It has 2 types of Antennas, one that looks like a 800/900 that you can see from the orignal pic, then it has smaller ones that are around the whole unit. I wondered if the signal was sent over cell band and then rebroadcast as WiFi ?
N
N_Jay
Guest
I love these guesses.
2.4 GHz is a band and may or may not be wifi.
900 MHz is probably ISM and not cell.
If it is Metro-com/Ricochet it is NOT WiFi.
I'm still confused. When did money come up and why are you talking about it?
Around suburban Philadelphia, I believe the old Ricochet network is now used by PECO Energy for meter reading. Back in 2000 or 2001, a company called Schlumberger worked out an agreement with Metricom to use Metricom's network to provide wireless meter reading for PECO.
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