A series of six 6m steel poles have been installed in the lagoon of Heron Island as part of the sensor network deployment at Heron Island. The poles serve two purposes; their primary purpose is to form the backbone of a wireless network that covers the entire lagoon system and secondly they themselves support a range of sensors mounted onto the pole or leading away from the pole. One pole (RP5) also supports a Vaisala WXT520 weather station.
This record is for Sensor Relay Pole 1. The pole is solar powered and routes data from the Sensor Floats and other Sensor Relay Poles back to the Base Station located on Heron Island. The system uses the Campbell Scientific CR1000 loggers and RF411 Spread-Spectrum radios to process and route the data. The poles also can support a range of sensors, this pole also has a simple bottom mounted thermistor using the MEA thermistors.
The unit will be serviced every six months and will be used in the future for attaching new sets of sensors.