Sorry to be completely off-topic, but there's quite a few of you who are savvy in rare areas; plus, you're local!
Scenario: At times during the last few days I've seen a low-slung white car/van driving around. It has "Anglian WILLHIRE" on the sides. On the roof is mounted a blackish flat plate, about 15in x 9in in size and angled so that it is elevated about 45deg above the horizontal and facing forward. Perpendicular to this plate (therefore pointing upwards at about 45deg to the vertical) is an array of rods, which seem to be about 3in long and about 1/2in (or a bit smaller) in diameter. I couldn't count exactly, but I'd say it looks like a 4x6 array. (All quantities in this description are approximate!)
I first saw this vehicle driving over the farmer's field opposite my house last week, some yards in from the edge and driving parallel to the edge. It was actually driving on the earth of the field, not on any track.
I've subsequently seen it 3 times, driving along the road (a) between my house and the fields, (b) coming back over the bridge to the NorthEast over the Little Ouse river. See at postcode CB7 4TG on google maps for topographical reference (The "A" pointer you will get is close to the point from which I first observed it).
Clearly this is monitoring something, but I cannot imagine what. What would the little rods on the plate be for? Any ideas?
With thanks, and apologies once again for going OT! Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 19-May-10 Time: 11:09:34 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
On 19/05/10 11:09, (Ted Harding) wrote:
Sorry to be completely off-topic, but there's quite a few of you who are savvy in rare areas; plus, you're local!
Scenario: At times during the last few days I've seen a low-slung white car/van driving around. It has "Anglian WILLHIRE" on the sides. On the roof is mounted a blackish flat plate, about 15in x 9in in size and angled so that it is elevated about 45deg above the horizontal and facing forward. Perpendicular to this plate (therefore pointing upwards at about 45deg to the vertical) is an array of rods, which seem to be about 3in long and about 1/2in (or a bit smaller) in diameter. I couldn't count exactly, but I'd say it looks like a 4x6 array. (All quantities in this description are approximate!)
The only thing I can think is it is some sort of radio survey vehicle and the plate you saw is some kind of bizarre spatial diversity antenna array.
Maybe it is testing mobile network signal strength (3 inch antennas wouldn't be a million miles out from a 1/2 Wave antenna at around 1800mhz) or maybe it is trying to isolate a source of interference/illegal broadcast.
That said I don't understand the 45° inclination this being the case and the plate sounds too small to be truly useful for path finding as I'd expect spatial diversity to require the "rods" to be at least a wavelength apart. So then we are looking at the rods being full wave antennas and therefore it puts us in to the realms of WiMAX and some emergency services.
Any chance of snapping a picture if you see it again ?
(Ted Harding) wrote:
Sorry to be completely off-topic, but there's quite a few of you who are savvy in rare areas; plus, you're local!
Scenario: At times during the last few days I've seen a low-slung white car/van driving around. It has "Anglian WILLHIRE" on the sides. On the roof is mounted a blackish flat plate, about 15in x 9in in size and angled so that it is elevated about 45deg above the horizontal and facing forward. Perpendicular to this plate (therefore pointing upwards at about 45deg to the vertical) is an array of rods, which seem to be about 3in long and about 1/2in (or a bit smaller) in diameter. I couldn't count exactly, but I'd say it looks like a 4x6 array. (All quantities in this description are approximate!)
I first saw this vehicle driving over the farmer's field opposite my house last week, some yards in from the edge and driving parallel to the edge. It was actually driving on the earth of the field, not on any track.
I've subsequently seen it 3 times, driving along the road (a) between my house and the fields, (b) coming back over the bridge to the NorthEast over the Little Ouse river. See at postcode CB7 4TG on google maps for topographical reference (The "A" pointer you will get is close to the point from which I first observed it).
Clearly this is monitoring something, but I cannot imagine what. What would the little rods on the plate be for? Any ideas?
With thanks, and apologies once again for going OT!
May I reproduce this in The Shed? (uk.rec.sheds)
We have an array of eclectic-ron-ic injun ears, ex BBC engineers, physicists, etc there.
On 19/05/10 17:39, Anthony Anson wrote:
May I reproduce this in The Shed? (uk.rec.sheds)
We have an array of eclectic-ron-ic injun ears, ex BBC engineers, physicists, etc there.
As far as I am concerned once I post to a list with public archives (or even otherwise) I am putting my message in the public domain so..yes
Hopefully they might come up with a better answer than my guesswork :)
On 19-May-10 18:15:35, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On 19/05/10 17:39, Anthony Anson wrote:
May I reproduce this in The Shed? (uk.rec.sheds)
We have an array of eclectic-ron-ic injun ears, ex BBC engineers, physicists, etc there.
As far as I am concerned once I post to a list with public archives (or even otherwise) I am putting my message in the public domain so..yes
Hopefully they might come up with a better answer than my guesswork :)
No problem at all as far as I'm concerned! I take exactly the same view of such things as Wayne does. Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 19-May-10 Time: 20:01:42 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
(Ted Harding) wrote:
On 19-May-10 18:15:35, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On 19/05/10 17:39, Anthony Anson wrote:
May I reproduce this in The Shed? (uk.rec.sheds)
We have an array of eclectic-ron-ic injun ears, ex BBC engineers, physicists, etc there.
As far as I am concerned once I post to a list with public archives (or even otherwise) I am putting my message in the public domain so..yes
Hopefully they might come up with a better answer than my guesswork :)
No problem at all as far as I'm concerned! I take exactly the same view of such things as Wayne does. Ted.
A digest of (on-topic) posts from The Shed:
Anyone here any idea?
Checking where to put the next cellphone mast? Or checking reception from existing masts?
The quoted aerial size matches the external cellphone aerials I've seen, more or less.
It *could* be a check for the best place to install a differential GPS station to help the GPS located agricultural machinery they've been using recently.
An outside chance is that one of the houses in the road is suspected of hosting a pirate radio or TV station.
A decent picture of the car would help, of course.... (JW) Tciao for Now! ________________________________________________
On 19/05/2010 21:52, Rusty Hinge wrote:
Clearly this is monitoring something, but I cannot imagine what. What would the little rods on the plate be for? Any ideas?
Possibly doing a site survey and recording so that the farmer can buy himself one of those swanky GPS controlled tractors, set that running about, so to spend more time shooting rabbits while drinking Guinness.
Adrian C ______________________________________________________________
Adrian C email@here.invalid wrote:
Clearly this is monitoring something, but I cannot imagine what. What would the little rods on the plate be for? Any ideas?
Possibly doing a site survey and recording so that the farmer can buy himself one of those swanky GPS controlled tractors, set that running about, so to spend more time shooting rabbits while drinking Guinness.
Since when have rabbits been swigging Guinness?
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Anthony Anson -
Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk -
Wayne Stallwood