I probably shouldn't admit this but I think I discovered a novel way to find a tower from a distance without using balloons or kites.
We put one of those small two bulb rotating 12V emergency lights atop our 180' Rohn 9N this weekend. I had some spare CAT5 already up the tower so split it into two sets of 4 wires and wired it up. Voltage drop calculations showed about 12V drop over 200 feet so I connected it to a 24V 18A supply and to an IP switch. The results exceeded my expectations. You can see the tower when the light is toggled on from over 10 miles. The twirling amber light is unmistakable compared to other tower lights. I should add my calculations were a bit off and it appears to be only running at about 70% or so compared to how fast they spin connected to 12V with a short wire. However, the intensity is good enough for my distances. The light was around 100 bucks, the power supply a hundred, and the CAT5 was already up there. I mounted the light to a sheet of aluminum and mounted that with an articulating mount from an ARC panel to the top of the tower. Fairly small and will no doubt be useful many times before the halogen bulbs need replaced. I am doing a critical install and needed to know where exactly on a property I needed to plant a pole. I had a fellow put me up in a bucket truck at the terminal end, had the light toggled on and found the sweet spot. Just thought I'd pass this on since it was a subject of conversation a while back. Mike -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
