Radio Antenna on street lights

[mogga]

We're getting some new street lights and have noticed they have little antennas on the top.

What is it for? They look like they have a light detetctor same as the old ones too.

[Davey]

Where I lived in the States, they were so that a speeding Police Cruiser or Fire Engine could signal them on approach to turn green in its favour. Or it could be some remote control, allowing individual shut-off, instead of block by block. Or, if you see black helicopters marked 'GCHQ' hanging around, they could be something else entirely.......

There was also a local experiment in the US to provide WiFi for residents, and they used street light poles to hold the antennae, but the whole scheme foundered and died. The equipment is probably still there, if anybody wants it.

[The Other John]

They are remote controlled and dim-able, we've got them too.

TOJ.

[Chris Hogg]

We have them here also (West Cornwall). Many years ago, say in the early 1960's, the street lights here were switched on from a control centre in Redruth. A pulsing audio-frequency signal was sent through the mains supply (about 1 pulse per second IIRC), which set a sort of balance-wheel arrangement oscillating in the control box in the lamp-post, until the amplitude got large enough to close a contact, switching on an individual light or short sections of lights. The slight variation in characteristics of the oscillating switch meant that the lights didn't all come on together, but over a period of a few seconds, so reducing the sudden drain on the mains supply, AIUI. I used to have a Cossor CR100 communications receiver*, and obviously something in the power supply wasn't very well screened, as I could always hear when the street lights were being switched on. There was a greatly enlarged model of this oscillating switch on display in the Science Museum, which worked when you pressed one of the buttons that were on every display case.

[Nightjar]

Mind control - time for the tin foil hat.

Colin Bignell

[Adrian C]

Westminster council offer free wireless access in Central London using wireless access points mounted on lamp post. This is with BT, they use an SSID of BTWiFi and the service is not that fast (well, it's free).

Now some hospitality buildings I visit also have their guest wireless provided by BT, and it's the same BTWifi SSID name that's advertised to use. That one is faster (sometimes upto 20Mbps), but occasionaly I come across a guest that's unwittedly connected to the lamp post outside the window, and they are complaining that it's slow. Such fun :-|

[Roger Mills]

Er . . the OP was asking about street lights, not traffic lights.

[Sam Plusnet]

Sensors.

When a micro-chipped dog gets too close, the base of the lamp post generates a static charge.

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 12 December 2013 19:47 The Other John wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Let the hacking being!

I want to see a whole street be a Cylon!

[Cursitor Doom]

There's a new system coming out for early detection of failing lamps for seamless replacement by use of the 'distress signals' they emit in the RF spectrum shortly before failure. These signals are visible on handheld spectrum analyers which can be driven around in vans checking the 'health' of such lamps; the antennas enable the distress signals to be detected from further away, thereby shortening the route taken.

[mogga]

That'd be interesting to see!

[mogga]

Yes I suspected that'd be an answer from someone!

They've done them over in New Moston already - and there is some radio interference on our street on the bit near there. Having read today what frequency these radio things work at then it might be them causing problems with people's car alarm fob things. Although worrying as there aren't lights desperately close to the affected part of the road. Someone has been in touch with Ofcom already about this interference and we're waiting to see what they find.

[mogga]

So how much does that bit of the system cost? Does it balance out the savings in energy at some point over the life of the PFI? (25 years)

[mogga]

Is that possible?

[Matty F]

Here in NZ we need a lot of light houses, some on small offshore islands. E ven when they became automated, they still needed their lights changed and fuel supplies. So an ingenious person designed solar powered lighthouses, and that have fi ve lights on a rotating mechanism. When a light fails, it automatically cha nges to a new bulb. So every few years somebody puts some new bulbs in plac e. But there's no urgency to do that. Why don't they have street lights that change their own bulbs? OK, someone will steal them.

[mogga]

And that costs more than waiting for people to complain a light is out? (Which in itself saves energy whilst lamps aren't coming on)

Are they the equivalent of picocells or microcells? do they require separate planning?

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , mogga escribió:

It's so they can be switched on and off remotely.

There's also an area here undergoing testing where the lights are dimmed to half brightness after midnight. Unfortunately, the control gear doesn't seem to be too reliable - about half of them have died altogether. Suppose it still achieves the objective of saving money...

[Tim Streater]

What, a static charge in the dog? Extra! Several MegaVolts I hope.

[alan]

New generation of miniature speed/number plate cameras mounted in the lamp post that transmit the pictures directly back to base. They will also be used to enforce parking restrictions 24/365.

[dennis]

I thought they were RFI tag readers so they can track the compulsory ID cards coming soon.