PC - Raising the Bar

       A recent project at the Players Club has been to raise the bar, so to speak. Well, not exactly the bar, but we did raise our front nine irrigation controller antennas.
       The FCC mandated that all of our irrigation radio signals be narrowbanded on or before January 13, 2013. We made the conversion in 2012 to ensure that we met this deadline. Narrowbanding was implemented to improve efficient use of radio frequencies across the country. Here is a link to the FCC question and answer page on narrowbanding.
        What did narrowbanding mean for us? The narrowbanding reduces the bandwidth in which our communication signals travel. I have seen comparisons to a stream of water and the amount of boats you can fit side by side. The wide band can handle more signals over the same frequency. Where as the narrow band, or narrow stream, can not handle the multiple signals. The estimated loss from switching to narrow band radio is approximately 3 decibels.
       In an effort to offset the reduced communications, we implemented a project to raise and/or install antennas at all of our front nine controller boxes. Here are some pictures detailing the project.

Old antenna location and height, approximately 5 feet high.

The antenna attaches to a cable and we run it up through the controller box.

Raised antenna to new height of 12 feet.

Our toughest project. Replacing the antenna  on #6  with a more powerful one. This antenna was 30 feet high.

Old antenna from #6.

New antenna recently installed. You can clearly see the increased  size.