Air waves

The irrigation control system has now been installed 9 years and is still in excellent operating order.  However, there has always been intermittent communication problems between the base station located at the maintenance shed and the 25 controller locations throughout the courses.  The worst of these locations have always been the farthest away and those secluded by trees, of which we have many.  Over recent times lack of signal strength has worsened and it has become increasingly frustrating to try to send out irrigation programs.  Testing has established that the increase in the leaf canopy height and density is the main culprit and to overcome this a new type of antenna has been installed as a trial at the 18th River green.  Called a Yagi - Uda (commonly known as just "Yagi") the antenna is more directional than the whip antennas used on some of our locations at the moment which better suits the type of signal we are transmitting from the base station.  Unfortunately at the 18th River green the antenna needed to be mounted just above the controller enclosure and looks a bit out of place and certainly more visible than I would like.  The main thing for me is that it hasn't missed communicating since being installed which is very promising and will be trialled over the coming weeks.

Old whip antenna on box dwarfed by Yagi overhead.