Has anybody within 30 miles of RAF Flyingdales had a SMETS 2 meter installed? EON are telling me that despite the lifting of the prohibition they do not have the capability to do so. Strange as Octopus can.
RAF Fylingdales
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Best Answer
Level 9211-12-23Best Answer@LeeDQ_EONNext
Just for information, and please pass this on to the smart metering team...
If you live within 30 miles of RAF Fylingdales, there IS a special SMETS2 communications hub which is specifically intended for this particular scenario.
The hub is manufactured by EDMI and is known as a EDMI Fyl DBCH. The difference between this and an ordinary comms hub is that the WAN uses 454MHz rather than the usual 423MHz band. This prevents swamping issues from the radar systems. The only other application for the 450-455MHz band in Europe is for communication with non-geostationary satellites, and that won't affect terrestrial smart meter comms. 458 MHz legacy remote control equipment is safely out of band.
So maybe our tentacled friends know this and specify those particular hubs for this area? It should be common knowledge across the whole industry and the information is in the public domain from DCC.Last edited by retrotecchie; 11-12-23 at 01:49.
Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player. I DON'T work for or on behalf of EON.Next, but am willing to try and help if I can. Not on mains gas, mobile network or mains drainage. House heated almost entirely by baby dragons. -
Level 9104-12-23@Nops
This is the first I’ve heard that there was a prohibition in the first place. Did Eon Next give a reason why they couldn’t fit one? You could always switch to Octopus but maybe you would have to pay exit fees.I'm an Eon Next dual fuel customer with no particular expertise but have some time on my hands that I am using to try and help out a bit. -
Level 9204-12-23@JoeSoap @Nops
Nothing prohibits installation of smart meters near RAF Fylingdales, and never has. It's just the PAVE PAWS missile detection systems using phased array antennas just swamp the lower level signals to and from smart meters. They also swamp car remote fobs, and interfere with Wifi, but those devices aren't prohibited either. The point is, smart meters don't work too well there as the Arquiva LRR signal covering that part of the country is borderline at best and easily swamped by other RF sources such as EW radar, so most companies are reluctant to install them as the chances of a reliable connection are rather slim.Last edited by retrotecchie; 04-12-23 at 19:46.
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Level 9204-12-23@JoeSoap
When I lived in Hampshire as a lad, we used to experience bouts of interference on our video recordings. Live TV was fine but recordings would suffer from hash on the picture and blips on the audio every six seconds or so. Pre-recorded tapes from the video shop were fine, but home recordings would often have random interference. It turned out to be the sweep from the Air Sea Weapons Establishment radars on the top of Portsdown Hill, some six miles away. The radar was operating in the Gigahertz bands, but the pulse modulation used the same frequency as the scan speed of a Betamax recording head. My later VHS machine was not as bad, but still had the occasional blip.
ASWE is long gone now, but the site is still operated by Qinetiq. -
Level 2805-12-23
👍 - I've experienced a "jammed" key-fob, parking up on Dundry (S. of Brizzle) where there are several communication masts.
A bit of Googling suggested (in this case) this was down to the police & emergency services radio net swamping the low powered key / garage-door etc fobs
Before they switched off the analogue TV, the digital TV signal was being transmitted at lower power, and I used to get signal breakup/pixelation every time some blimmin pizza delivery youth on a noisy 2-stroke scooter with un-suppressed spark plug leads went past 😜 All good now...👍Last edited by geoffers; 05-12-23 at 00:13.
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Level 9205-12-23@geoffers
The Merseyside Police firing range at their HQ in Liverpool has two small indoor firing ranges underneath the staff car park. The 418MHz radio control on their old target systems used to randomly set off car alarms in the car park above! -
Level 9105-12-23
I spent many years working on radars a long time ago and experienced similar but on live TV. I’m reminded of it when my wall thermostat switches off over a period of a couple of seconds and I get a sweep of interference across the nearby telly. -
Level 9205-12-23
We've had a few instances of folk having issues with smart meters and in several cases we have managed to ascertain that they are within a very close proximity to an emergency services TETRA mast which uses the same frequency band as cellular meter communications. One chap in Scotland lived very close to police masts at Glenrothes and I seem to recall a couple of others which turned out to be line of sight from a TETRA mast. OFCOM changed the 418 MHz and 458 MHz bands a few years ago and the ISM allocation was taken away in 2013 as I recall. Which is why all VHF remote controls now use the Hermanised 433MHz band...but the comms hub manufacturers clearly didn't read the memo.
I still use some 418MHz kit under a legacy MPT1340 exemption (well, a loophole really) but nothing using the frequency between 418MHz and 422MHz has been allowed to be sold or used in the UK since 2014. But guess what frequencies some comms hubs use....yes, the same band, only TETRA uses that band at much higher powers.
Which I why I have always maintained that the smart metering networks should be based on PLC completely under control of the energy industry and not held hostage to telcos, OFCOM and the constantly changing radio spectrum.
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