Vodafone St Lukes

Close-Up of Antennas. Note how Vodafone managed to use the same antenna for 3 services -- GSM 900MHz, GSM 1800MHz as well as UMTS 2100MHz. Obviously they are using a tri-band antenna, but you can't see the antennas as they are under a cover of some sort.


Equipment Cabinets. I suspect the first three are the original cabinets. They probally contain the power supply, microwave equipment as well as the GSM-900 equipment. The 2 new ones on the RHS are for GSM-1800 and UMTS 3G. However the new concrete at the bottom makes me wonder if this site was replaced when 1800MHz was added?


Standard Warning Notice. Approxmently 75% of sites in Auckland use a simalar notice -- which basically states the usual stuff and informs people to call either a local (Auckland) number or the toll-free 0800 number in case of an emergency.

Very neat and detailed description, James, it makes for a great comparison . Here in Germany, it's almost impossible to find the BTS cabinets for most of the rooftop sites since they're normally placed in basements.

I think Vodafone likes to keep the distance between the antennas and the Base Station as short as possible to prevent too much loss of signal through the coax cables leading up to the antennas. Therefore they tend to site the cabinets as close as possible to the base of the tower.

Regards,
James

They must use another type of coax than the one I'm familiar with ("leaky coax"). Leaky coax allows radio signals to penetrate the cable insulation:

http://www.mitsubishi-cable.co.jp/product/hikari/leaky.html

I guess identifying carriers over there is much easier as in other countries. I wish carriers here would put their name on the BTS shelter equipment.