Tower 4YJ34 – Leighton Buzzard

First one of the day, in the middle of a supermarket carpark, on route 4YJ where the towers stride through Leighton Buzzard. A couple more circuit colours to add to the collection. Lots of buzzing under this one !

Tower Circuit Colours

Started a thing collecting circuit colours. On every tower there is a coloured plate that identifies the circuit(s) carried above. On a dual CCT (circuit) tower there would be two plates, one for each circuit.

Tower PAA10 – Bedford

This originally caught my interest because it all looked wonky. After posting on Twitter it was highlighted as a phase transposition by @DiverTomJG

“The majority of double CCT lines are transposed by having different phasing on each CCT. Line transpositions are only really seen on the original 1930’s 132kV grid lines which were predominantly long distance single CCT.” @DiverTomJG

“This DC tower was built at a later date and is an addition to the original line. I would guess its addition was to increase the ground clearance to allow them to build the housing estate below.” @DiverTomJG

Tower POA143 – Great Denholm

This tower caught my eye because of the attachments. After posting on Twitter the attachments were identified as Optical Attached Cables (OPAC) by @Neil_Hardiman

I later stopped at Cut Throat Lane Switching Station, Bedford, on way home from work where you can see the OPACs terminating.

Incorporation of Optical Attached Cable and Conductors Carrying Optical Fibres into the Existing Overhead Line Network: Design and Construction

Installation of Fibre Optic Cable(s) on Steel Tower 132kV Circuits (including Fibre Wrap Method)

Pylon & Playground !

Every time I drive by this I think Pylon & Playground ! Who’s idea was it to put a playground there ?!

New watch face – Red Dwarf

#WWWD DC30 Wardriving Contest.

The contest is over and it’s been good fun. My choice of grid was difficult as the week coincided with my summer holiday. So a leisurely approach was taken…

Looking forward to next year and maybe a more concerted effort.

Breakfast

War Driving My Local Area

Covered another square in the grid on my way home. Filling in the MK grid squares one at a time !

Our AREDN Mesh Network is growing.

Our local RAYNET group is exploring the use of the AREDN MESH software. We have deployed multiple nodes running various equipment tests. We have an Intranet Web Server, CCTV, VoIP phones and a RaspPBX. We are using VPNs to interconnect the core nodes situated at various member’s houses.

Chair repaired !!

War Driving Device – Project Write Up

I have been using the Wigle Android app for a while now but wanted to build a Kali/Raspberry/Kismet device. I have a spare Raspberry Pi3B and GPS unit so just needed a battery pack and some USB WiFi dongles.

First attempts were recorded to USB memory stick but later replaced by configuring the device as an access point and using SSL to login and retrieve files.