Communication Towers Research Articles

Behavior of Hawaiian Petrels and Newell's Shearwaters (Aves: Procellariiformes) Around Electrical-Transmission Lines on Kaua‘i Island, Hawaiian Islands1

Understanding the behavior of birds around tall structures such as electrical-transmission lines, communication towers, and wind turbines is important in assessing the potential effects of those structures on bird populations; it is especially important for threatened or endangered species. We studied responses of the mostly crepuscular/nocturnal Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) and the mostly nocturnal Newell's (Townsend's) Shearwater (Puffinus newelli; Aves: Procellariiformes) to coastal and near-coastal transmission lines on Kaua‘i Island, Hawai‘i, USA, in 1992–2002. Hawaiian Petrels responded to transmission lines significantly more often (19.1% of the time; N = 209) than Newell’s Shearwaters did (7.4%; N = 392), responded significantly more often with decreasing distance from a line, and responded significantly less often if a study-site was dark (i.e., unlit by ambient lights from nearby towns) than if it was light (i.e., lit by ambient lights from nearby towns), regardless of whether the sky was light (i.e., daylight or crepuscular light conditions) or dark (nocturnal light conditions). In contrast, Newell’s Shearwaters showed little variation in response rates by distance or by whether the study-site or sky was light or dark. Hawaiian Petrels mostly responded to transmission lines by changing flight velocity and flight altitude, whereas Newell’s Shearwaters mostly responded by changing flight direction and flight altitude. The higher response rates and more-buoyant flight characteristics of Hawaiian Petrels than Newell’s Shearwaters may contribute to lower rates of fatality of Hawaiian Petrels than Newell’s Shearwaters at coastal and near-coastal transmission lines on Kaua‘i.

Attributes of non-ionizing radiation of 1800 MHz frequency on plant health and antioxidant content of Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum) plants

The Globe is marching towards the development of the telecommunication field which leads to increment of non-ionizing radiation in the environment which affects all living beings including plants grown nearby to communication base stations. The present research was focused on physiological and biochemical alterations of tomato plants exposed to high-frequency radiation. The overall plant health was analyzed by physiological changes viz., plant height, size of leaves, length to the root system, and rate of germination upon exposure of radiation and shown significant reduction (p < 0.05) compared to control. Consecutively, radiation also negatively affects the photosynthetic pigment content of leaves which has shown significant reduction. Yet another confirmation of stress on exposed plant tissue was reported by obtaining higher H2O2 content within exposed plant leaf than the control. The morphological alterations viz. curling of leaves, discoloration, and size reduction became more prominent with an increase in the exposure time. The significant outcomes denoted according to 95% confidence limit. There was a significant decline in total phenolic content (37.06%), flavonoid content (71.38%), Vitamin C content (72.45%), and DPPH (59.32%) as well as total antioxidant assays (71.89%) which revealed significant deteriorative effects on such waves on secondary metabolites and the antioxidant potential of tomato plants. The lycopene content was continuously increasing up to 73.13% upon radiation of 120 h and such raise was the direct indication of harmful effect on fruit skin and release of lycopene due to softening of the fruit tissue. Thus, the presented findings illustrated the negative effects of such waves on the quality of tomato plants. The limited insight of metabolic pathways involved in plant responses to such non-ionizing radiation makes such investigation worth in agricultural application. Additionally, mobile communication agencies should be informed and installation of base stations for mobile communication towers should be prohibited at agricultural lands.

Determining the Optimal Scalar Intensity Measure of Floor Communication Towers

Various structural types and ground motion characteristics lead to distinct intensity measures of structural seismic performance. For the lattice high-rise steel structure of communication towers, determining the intensity measures to adjust ground motion is critical. Additionally, a crucial problem is whether the ground motion intensity parameters of pulse-like ground motion and ordinary ground motion are consistent. In this study, a standard floor four-leg angle steeled communication tower was considered the study object, and 50 pulse-like ground motions and 50 ordinary ground motions were identified to form a pulse-like ground motion set and ordinary ground motion set, respectively. For comparative analyses, 15 ground motion parameters, including amplitude, spectrum, duration, and energy parameters, were selected. The results revealed that for the lattice towers, such as communication tower, under the action of pulse-like ground motion or ordinary ground motion, efficiency, practicability, and sufficiency should be considered. Furthermore, the most suitable intensity measure was the spectral acceleration corresponding to the natural period of the tower. This study provides a basis for selecting the ground motion for dynamic time history analysis of the lattice steel tower.

Fractal-based lightning model for investigation of lightning direct strokes to the communication towers

Fractal-based lightning model for investigation of lightning direct strokes to the communication towers

Influence of local weather on collision risk for nocturnal migrants near an electric power transmission line crossing Kittatinny Ridge, New Jersey

Collisions with tall anthropogenic structures (power lines, wind turbines, communication towers, and buildings) are a regular cause of mortality for nocturnal avian migrants. To better understand relationships between weather and migrant collision risk, we compared nocturnal hourly mean barometric pressure, temperature, relative humidity, wind direction, and wind speed to avian passage rates (targets/km/h) and flight heights during 1 year of spring and fall migrations near a recently reconstructed transmission line crossing Kittatinny Ridge, New Jersey, using 2 marine radars. We found lower spring flight heights associated with decreasing barometric pressures, temperatures, and relative humidity across all wind directions. Spring flight heights showed the strongest decreases with increasing wind speeds for headwinds and crosswinds while flight heights slightly increased with stronger tailwinds. Spring passage rates increased with lower relative humidity and higher temperatures. With increasing wind speeds, spring passage rates declined faster with headwinds and crosswinds, and only slightly with tailwinds. We found lower fall flight heights with decreasing temperatures and relative humidity, but the relationships varied by wind direction. The lowest flight heights occurred under tailwind and crosswind conditions. Increasing fall passage rates were associated with increasing barometric pressures and when wind speeds were lowest. Fall passages rates declined with higher wind speeds but were more gradual under tailwinds and crosswinds when compared to headwinds. Overall, 2–4% of birds migrated under conditions that would have placed them at risk of collision with the transmission lines. Similar studies conducted along migratory pathways could be used to predict nights where birds exhibit low flight heights around other obstacles along their migration path. These predictions could improve detection rates for carcass searches documenting relatively rare collision events. For sites with topographic features likely to concentrate nocturnal migrants, radar studies could be conducted before siting towers so that impacts to migratory birds could be avoided at these sites.

Development of solar photovoltaic model for wide range of operating conditions

Assorted climatic conditions such as irradiation, temperature and shading due to clouds, trees, buildings, communication towers etc. has an unavoidable impact on the output of solar photovoltaic (PV) system. This creates a need for the analytical performance study of solar PV system in changing atmospheric condition in order to design and install an optimized solar PV system for both, stand alone and grid connected. The present work shows the developed PV model in MATLAB codes and simulation is done under varying climate conditions showing change in irradiation and temperature using different arrangements of PV system. PV parameters are obtained in different setup and I-V and P-V characteristics of the developed model of the PV modules are analyzed. A comparative study of the parameters obtained is quite beneficial for an optimized design of the PV system under different atmospheric conditions.

Study on inductive method of vibration normalized spectrum of equipment on the communication tower

In today’s society, communication is becoming more and more important. However, communication equipment is subjected to the vibration caused by wind in communication tower for a long time. In this paper, the inductive methods of vibration normalized spectrum for the equipment on the tower are introduced. Combined with the characteristics of communication tower, based on the current national military standards and some related papers, the random vibration environment data from communication tower can be inductive and processed. The energy distribution of the spectrum is compared with that of the European standard. The measured spectrum by induction is used in engineering tests, it also has laid a foundation for improving the reliability of the relevant equipment on the communication tower.

Energy Harvesting of Ambient E.M Waves by Employing Different Types of R.F. Antenna

Used to operate small electronic devices, such as the cell phones. This work will deal with the electromagnetic signals as a renewable energy sources. An analog circuit will prepare using diodes and a charged capacitance and antenna to convert the energy of ambient E.M. waves (Radio Frequencies RF) to a D.C. voltage. The measurements will be demonstrated using different kinds of antenna. In addition, the ambient RF frequency according to Iraq/Babylon/Hilla city will be collected from the communications tower and measured using a receiver circuit.in this paper used three kinds of antenna, wire antenna, air antenna, dish antenna, Measuring the DC Power. the amount of the DC Power that obtained using a dish antenna is approximate the energy that collected using an air antenna. The amount of the DC. Power could be controlled by the charging time (RC) of the capacities.

The role of green accounting environmental on reducing pollution resulting from the telecommunications sector in Sudan (Sudani company case study): دور المحاسبة الخضراء في الحد من التلوث البيئي الناتج عن قطاع الاتصالات في السودان (دراسة حالة شركة سوداني)

The study aimed to know the role of green accounting in the telecommunications sector in Sudan and to show its impact in reducing the environmental harms resulting from its activity by applying to a Sudanese company in testing two hypotheses. The first is that there is a positive relationship between the application of green accounting and the radioactive pollution of communication towers. And the second hypothesis is a positive relationship between the application of accounting. Green and increasing environmental awareness, the study used the inductive approach and the descriptive analytical approach, where the inductive approach was used through the role of green accounting in environmental pollution in communications in Sudan from a Sudanese company as a case study with the use of the descriptive analytical approach through metadata collected from a questionnaire distributed on a random sample of 40 employees of the company and their results analyzed. The most important results concluded that green accounting leads to a reduction in environmental pollution by inference to the percentage of those who agree to that 79% of the respondents and that the companies ’commitment to applying green accounting leads to an increase in environmental awareness by inference that the percentage of those who agree to that is 73% of the respondents, and the study recommended many The recommendations, most notably the necessity to oblige companies to apply green accounting, raise the level of environmental awareness and disclose this in their reports.

Desain Sistem Akuisisi Kecepatan Angin pada Menara SST Berbasis IoT

Wind energy is one of the new renewable energy sources that can be used to generate electricity. The application of microgrids is expected to reduce the use of fossil fuels. PT PLN UP3B West Kalimantan has a greenfield type SST (Self Support Tower) communication tower with a height of 52 meters. This study aims to test the wind speed acquisition system in real-time on the SST tower. This research was conducted because there is no research on the design of the wind speed acquisition system on the SST Tower. Wind speed measurement data is obtained from the anemometer sensor mounted on the top of the SST Tower. The wind speed measurement data is sent to the MQTT broker and database using the MQTT protocol with the help of a microcontroller and communication media so that the measurement data can be monitored in real-time using the Grafana application either through local or public networks. The study was conducted from February 6 to 27, 2021. As a result, the wind speed data acquisition system managed to collect 5,501,689 wind speed measurement data stored in the database with an average wind speed of 3.03 m/s.&#x0D;

An integrated observation dataset of the hydrological and thermal deformation in permafrost slopes and engineering infrastructure in the Qinghai–Tibet Engineering Corridor

Abstract. Across the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) there is a narrow engineering corridor with widely distributed slopes called the Qinghai–Tibet Engineering Corridor (QTEC), where a variety of important infrastructures are concentrated. These facilities are transportation routes for people, materials, energy, etc. from inland China to the Tibet Autonomous Region. From Golmud to Lhasa, the engineering corridor covers 632 km of permafrost containing the densely developed Qinghai–Tibet Railway and Qinghai–Tibet Highway, as well as power and communication towers. Slope failure in permafrost regions, caused by permafrost degradation, ground ice melting, etc., affects the engineering construction and permafrost environments in the QTEC. We implement a variety of sensors to monitor the hydrological and thermal deformation between permafrost slopes and permafrost engineering projects in the corridor. In addition to soil temperature and moisture sensors, the global navigation satellite system (GNSS), terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were adopted to monitor the spatial distribution and changes in thermal deformation. An integrated dataset of hydrological and thermal deformation in permafrost engineering and slopes in the QTEC from the 1950s to 2020, including meteorological and ground observations, TLS point cloud data, and RGB and thermal infrared (TIR) images, can be of great value for estimating the hydrological and thermal impact and stability between engineering and slopes under the influence of climate change and engineering disturbance. The dataset and code were uploaded to the Zenodo repository and can be accessed through https://zenodo.org/communities/qtec (last access: 23 June 2021), including meteorological and ground observations at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5009871 (Luo et al., 2020d), TLS measurements at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5009558 (Luo et al., 2020a), UAV RGB and TIR images at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5016192 (Luo et al., 2020b), and R code for permafrost indices and visualisation at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5002981 (Luo et al., 2020c).

Kajian Landing Station Alat Deteksi Dini Tsunami Berbasis Kabel Serat Optik Bawah Laut di Kabupaten Pasangkayu, Sulawesi Barat

The construction of an underwater fiber-optic cable-based tsunami early detection system is planned to be installed in the Makassar Strait with a landing point in West Sulawesi. Land infrastructure such as a Power House (PH), a communication tower, and a Beach Manhole (BMH) is needed to sustain the system's power in order to survive. Therefore, the aim of this scientific paper is to study several alternative landing station locations in Pasangkayu, West Sulawesi and then determine the priority locations. The methods used to achieve these objectives are field observation methods and secondary data analysis based on parameters of land area conditions, environmental conditions, supporting infrastructure, social conditions and licensing systems, and marine activities. These aspects are then assessed to determine the priority of the selected location. The location selected based on the assessment carried out is ALT-02B. In succession, the three priority locations selected from the order of most priority to least priority are ALT-02B, ALT-02A, and ALT-06. This selected priority location is not necessarily the final choice location to be used in the construction of a tsunami early detection system land infrastructure because in the process there are still things to be considered and aspects that are made the main priority for consideration in making decisions.

Drivers of fatal bird collisions in an urban center

Millions of nocturnally migrating birds die each year from collisions with built structures, especially brightly illuminated buildings and communication towers. Reducing this source of mortality requires knowledge of important behavioral, meteorological, and anthropogenic factors, yet we lack an understanding of the interacting roles of migration, artificial lighting, and weather conditions in causing fatal bird collisions. Using two decades of collision surveys and concurrent weather and migration measures, we model numbers of collisions occurring at a large urban building in Chicago. We find that the magnitude of nocturnal bird migration, building light output, and wind conditions are the most important predictors of fatal collisions. The greatest mortality occurred when the building was brightly lit during large nocturnal migration events and when winds concentrated birds along the Chicago lakeshore. We estimate that halving lighted window area decreases collision counts by 11× in spring and 6× in fall. Bird mortality could be reduced by ∼60% at this site by decreasing lighted window area to minimum levels historically recorded. Our study provides strong support for a relationship between nocturnal migration magnitude and urban bird mortality, mediated by light pollution and local atmospheric conditions. Although our research focuses on a single site, our findings have global implications for reducing or eliminating a critically important cause of bird mortality.

Field testing an "acoustic lighthouse": Combined acoustic and visual cues provide a multimodal solution that reduces avian collision risk with tall human-made structures.

Billions of birds fatally collide with human-made structures each year. These mortalities have consequences for population viability and conservation of endangered species. This source of human-wildlife conflict also places constraints on various industries. Furthermore, with continued increases in urbanization, the incidence of collisions continues to increase. Efforts to reduce collisions have largely focused on making structures more visible to birds through visual stimuli but have shown limited success. We investigated the efficacy of a multimodal combination of acoustic signals with visual cues to reduce avian collisions with tall structures in open airspace. Previous work has demonstrated that a combination of acoustic and visual cues can decrease collision risk of birds in captive flight trials. Extending to field tests, we predicted that novel acoustic signals would combine with the visual cues of tall communication towers to reduce collision risk for birds. We broadcast two audible frequency ranges (4 to 6 and 6 to 8 kHz) in front of tall communication towers at locations in the Atlantic migratory flyway of Virginia during annual migration and observed birds' flight trajectories around the towers. We recorded an overall 12-16% lower rate of general bird activity surrounding towers during sound treatment conditions, compared with control (no broadcast sound) conditions. Furthermore, in 145 tracked "at-risk" flights, birds reduced flight velocity and deflected flight trajectories to a greater extent when exposed to the acoustic stimuli near the towers. In particular, the 4 to 6 kHz stimulus produced the greater effect sizes, with birds altering flight direction earlier in their trajectories and at larger distances from the towers, perhaps indicating that frequency range is more clearly audible to flying birds. This "acoustic lighthouse" concept reduces the risk of collision for birds in the field and could be applied to reduce collision risk associated with many human-made structures, such as wind turbines and tall buildings.

A multi-layer perceptron neural network to mitigate the interference of time synchronization attacks in stationary GPS receivers

Accurate timing is one of the key features of the Global Positioning System (GPS), which is employed in many critical infrastructures. Any imprecise time measurement in GPS-based structures, such as smart power grids, economic activities, and communication towers, can lead to disastrous results. The vulnerability of the stationary GPS receivers to the time synchronization attacks (TSAs) jeopardizes the GPS timing precision and trust level. In the past few years, studies suggested the adoption of estimators to follow the authentic trend of the clock offset information under attack conditions. However, the estimators would lose track of the authentic signal without proper knowledge of the signal characteristics. Therefore, a multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLP NN) is proposed to follow the trend of the data. The main difference between the proposed method and typical estimators is the reliance of the network on the training information consisting of signal features. The proposed MLP NN performance has been evaluated through two real-world datasets and two well-known types of TSA. The root mean square error results exhibit an improvement of at least six times compared to other conventional and state-of-art methods.

Compressive Capacity of Conventional and Under Reamed Piles in Soft Clay

Under reamed pile is a well-known solution for carrying roads, light structures, walk sides, communication and electrical tower and rail. In this laboratory study, the compression conduct of conventional pile and undreamed pile with single and double bulbs models with shaft diameter of 10 mm embedded in soft clay soil layer overlaying sand soil was investigated. The sand layer with a depth of 300mm was compacted into six sub layers to relative density 70% in a steel container of a diameter 300mm in size. The depth of soft clay was 250mm and undrained shear strength (Cu) 35 kPa which compacted into five sub layers on sandy soil layer. A series of tests of model are performed on conventional and underreamed pile. Different lengths of piles are manufactured like 250mm, 290mm, 330mm, 370mm and 410mm and with bulb of a diameter 20mm. Moreover, single bulb and dual bulbs were utilized for these piles, a comparison in behaviour between underreamed pile and conventional pile (without bulb) is fulfilled. This study appeared finalize the ultimate compressive capacity of underreamed pile of single bulb is (1.9, 2.6, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.2) times greater than conventional pile while the underreamed of double bulbs is (4.1, 3.7, 4.3, 4.1 and 3.7) times greater than conventional pile for ratios of L/ D (25, 29, 33, 37 and 41) respectively. A proposed relationship used to estimate ultimate compressive capacity for conventional pile and underreamed pile with single and double bulbs when dimensions of pile are known or used to estimate dimensions of pile for specified load capacity.

Retrofitted built-up steel angle members for enhancing bearing capacity of latticed towers: Experiment

Many existing transmission or communication towers designed several decades ago have undergone nonreversible performance degradation, making it hardly meet the additional requirements from upgrades in wind load design codes and extra services of electricity and communication. Therefore, a new-type non-destructive reinforcement method was proposed to reduce the on-site operation of drilling and welding for improving the quality and efficiency of reinforcement. Six built-up steel angle members were tested under compression to examine the reinforcement performance. Subsequently, the cyclic loading test was conducted on a pair of steel angle tower sub-structures to investigate the reinforcement effect, and a simplified prediction method was finally established for calculating the buckling bearing capacity of those new-type retrofitted built-up steel angles. The results indicates that: no apparent difference exists in the initial stiffness for the built-up specimens compared to the unreinforced steel angles; retrofitting the steel angles by single-bolt clamps can guarantee a relatively reasonable reinforcement effect and is suggested for the reduced additional weight and higher construction efficiency; for the substructure test, the latticed substructure retrofitted by the proposed reinforcement method significantly improves the lateral stiffness, the non-deformability and energy dissipation capacity; moreover, an apparent pinching behavior exists in the hysteretic loops, and there is no obvious yield plateau in the skeleton curves; finally, the accuracy validation result indicates that the proposed theoretical model achieves a reasonable agreement with the test results. Accordingly, this study can provide valuable references for the design and application of the non-destructive upgrading project of steel angle towers.

Local Wind Flow Modifications Within the Vicinity of a Communication Tower

Local Wind Flow Modifications Within the Vicinity of a Communication Tower

A Case Study: Broadband Over Powerline for Rural Area Deployment in Sarawak

Broadband over powerline (BPL) is a technology that allows connectivity to internet connection riding via the low tension (LT) power line communication (PLC). A hybrid BPL technology was proposed to the rural area of Sarawak as an alternative option to expand the internet connection without the need to reform a new pathway for internet connectivity. The data signal is transmitted via a communication tower to the access point(s) that is mounted on an electricity pole that provides a low voltage (LV) line. There are three types of custom-designed equipment that has been integrated into the hybrid BPL: the Head End (HE), the Time Division Repeater (TDR) and the Customer Premise Equipment (CPE). Two longhouses at the Bawang Assan, Sarawak settlement has been chosen to initiate the pilot project that required the cooperation of the technology provider, power producer, and the internet service provider. This paper presents a proof of concept (POC) on the deployment, advantages, and limitations for the BPL in a rural setting.

A Comparative Study on the Calculation of Wind Load and Analysis of Communication Tower as per TIA-222-G and TIA-222-H Standards

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is responsible to provide recognized literature for the analysis & design of communication towers. TIA in 2005 released a standard “TIA-222-G” which has gained a widespread reference and most of the existing tower structures around the world have been constructed as per guidelines of this standard. However, in 2018, TIA released the latest standard TIA-222-H. To date, not much studies are available describing how much change in member axial forces occurs while using latest standard for analysis of tower structures. The main objective of this study is to provide guidelines for wind load calculation on tower body, appurtenances and other structures and to compare the member axial forces induced by the wind loads as per TIA-222-G & TIA-222-H standards. The analysis results show that member axial forces are not much affected when the tower was analyzed in accordance with both the standards. However, forces might increase when the basic wind speed increased more than 200 kph as per TIA-222-H standard.