Please tell me what just happened...

[FlipperBizkut]

First, let me say that I live in the sticks. There is DSL around, but not close enough to me. I live on a lake, and it is on the other side, but will not reach the other half of us. They installed 2 new DSLAMS last year, both within about 10 miles of me. Then they just seemed to stop. It makes no sense to me because the half of the lake that doesn't have access is more populated than the half that does.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago. The utility company brought out a new power pole. Why the were doing this, I had no idea. It took them a couple of days to get started on it, but yesterday, they replaced the old with the new. I noticed that it was quite a bit taller than the old one, but still saw no good reason why they replaced a perfectly good pole. Until today. On my way home from work, I decided that I would stop and take a look at their work. To my amazement, there are two nice little antennae sticking out off the top of the new pole. Now I have no idea what they are for, but I am hopeful that it is going to be some sort of wi-fi internet access for us residing on the other half of the lake. Threre is also a new steel box of some sort attached to the bottom of the pole (bigger than a power meter).

Can someone who knows please look at the following pics and let me know what the two antennae are, and what they will be used for. I sure would appreciate it.

Let me also say that I called the telco and asked if DSL was available to me yet or if they had an ETA. No was the answer to both questions (of course I wouldn't expect them to know much). I then called the power company to ask about the new pole, but they didn't know what we were talking about and couldn't find any information about it either. So... I took pictures and brought it to you guys who I know are smarter than all the people I talked to today combined.

 

[Taradino]

Google 'Security Auditor CD' from Remote Exploit. org or com or something.
And sniff...

If you ask me, it looks like a WIFI access/repeater portable unit, hooked up to the power line.

 

[CodeX]

Sorry buddy, they are lightning rods
.
.
.

 

[Nybbles]

The answer is simple....

at night, grab ur bolt cutters and crack open that box. Then post more pics,



(Yet another not-helpful post in this thread.)



EDIT:

If you ask me, it looks like a WIFI access/repeater portable unit, hooked up to the power line.

Those are very directional antenna's. I wonder why they'd put those up without putting up something less directional (Omni or Sectorial) to service the surrounding houses, if those are in fact doing wi-fi even, which has not been positively established.

On a similar note, I've seen directionals used on top of some weird places too. Like on top of a light pole in my gf's old neighborhood. Also, on top of these little buildings you see around town that I'm not quite sure what they are, prob utilities or public works.

 

[Vette5885]

Those look like open tube yagi antennas. Anybody else see that?

Yagis are good for getting wifi to go a decent distance cheaply, as they can amplify standard signals quite a bit. Maybe they're using some form of wifi distribution system, or maybe a proprietary pre-wimax device?

I vote to see whats in the box (try out a wifi device first, that may answer your question the easy - and legal - way)

 

[FlipperBizkut]

I talked to my neighbor to see if he got a chance to talk to the electric co as they were putting the pole up. He said that basically the way he understood it is that the antennae are there to communicate with two other poles in the area. If/when one pole goes offline (power is out), the other poles will know and automatically reroute power as needed so that there will be no downtime.

I thought that was interesting, but failed to see the reasoning behind the money spent. I mean since when does a company spend extra money to make sure that you are well taken care of?

So I got out my trusty old compas and figured out the direction they were pointed. Then I hit the roads. Sure enough, I found one of the other poles about 5-6 miles away with a single antennae pointing back towards the pole in the pictures. Pretty wild. I guess I now know the reason why my utility bills went up this winter as my useage went down.

I guess I will be stuck with this satellite internet for a while longer.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I mean since when does a company spend extra money to make sure that you are well taken care of?

When I was a kid growing up...power went out often. It would sometimes stay out for quite a while

These days...hardly ever goes out..even with brutal storms. And when it does go out..wow..it's back up rather quickly.

Quality and service seem to have gone up substantially. At least in my area. (shoreline of New England)

//shrug

 

[moetop]

Considering the spacing, it looks like 800 or 900 MHZ stuff, and it is directional. It's probably a propritatory monitoring system, or some other company/ Government agency has a deal worked out with the power company to use their poles for communication.

 

[DarkOne_BW]

I guess I now know the reason why my utility bills went up this winter as my useage went down.

It wouldn't suprise me if this is in part funded by the dept. of homeland security. There are a ton of grants and other federal money available for this type of monitoring equipment. Keep in mind you're talking about power, and the power grid was one of the bigger concerns from a "protect America" standpoint. I'm betting the funding was available and your power company decided to upgrade their distribution system.

BTW, the big thing that stuck out to me was the fact that it looks to be running on RG6. For wireless access points, most providers won't run anything less than LMR400 up that distance. Of course, that's speculation since you didn't exactly give us any measurements on the cable going into the box.

 

[Schro]

On the DSLAM issue, due to the telecommunications act of 1996, if an ILEC (incumbant local exchange carrier aka Ma Bell or derivations thereof) puts in a DSLAM that is not used, CLECs (competitive local exchange carriers, i.e. the small fries) can purchase the DSLAM for pennies on the dollar of the cost to construct it. I beleive the threshold is around 70% usage, meaning if the ILEC can't show that it has enough people to show they expressed interest in DSL service at that location, the CLECs can purchase it. This is why all of the phone companies ask you to sign up to be notified when its in your area - they're trying to get enough interest to prevent the DSLAM from getting bought out from under them. The issue isn't actually setting it up, time, etc, its all about this wonderful clause.

 

[0ldman]

Considering the spacing, it looks like 800 or 900 MHZ stuff, and it is directional. It's probably a propritatory monitoring system, or some other company/ Government agency has a deal worked out with the power company to use their poles for communication.

Check the FCC site, I bet the power company has licenses around 900MHz. The locals do, its to monitor their stations.

 

[Dzero]

Those are 6 element 12dbi directional yagi's. The box below is a SCADA repeater. Mostly used by municipalities for monitoring pumping stations, treatment plants, water towers ect. from a single point. Since it is on a power pole it may be monitoring telemetry from a sub-station. You can identify a field station by antenna height, they're limited to 10' above the ground.

No wireless internet but you can be thankfull that it's a newer model SCADA radio, the older radios usually destroyed the 900mhz spectrum.

The only thing in the box is a radio and a battery backup.
You can expect them to be back within 2 years to weatherproof those connectors.

 

[moetop]

When I was a kid growing up...power went out often. It would sometimes stay out for quite a while

These days...hardly ever goes out..even with brutal storms. And when it does go out..wow..it's back up rather quickly.

Quality and service seem to have gone up substantially. At least in my area. (shoreline of New England)

//shrug

The odd thing is in southeast Michigan it's goten worse. It's so bad I put a UPS on everything with the exception of clocks. TV, receiver/amp, all 12 of the PC's, Water softener...