Any suggestions how to measure mobile mast output on the village hall?

I zoomed in on the roof device and there is a black cable going to it in the bottom right corner.

I have emailed the Parish Chairperson to see if Vodafone contributed when it was installed or still do towards the electricity bill.
:thumbsup:
If I get no reply I will open the other box
 
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GruB said:
My other option is turn off that switch and see whom complains?
We do have a defibrillator on the wall outside the hall, but not sure that is in anyway connected.
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Turn it off, wait a minute and turn it back on. Won’t do it any harm and the alert to the NOC (VF’s Network Oprations Centre) will be ignored anyway as it is super low priority and these devices have to accommodate a power outage! This “hard” reboot will force the re-association of network connections if any exist.

The defrib won’t be connected to that power outlet.

Track that black cable inside the hall and see what, if anything, it is connected to. This looks like an old solution that was used to improve coverage in a thick-walled building.
 
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Did that before I posted this thread and conducted all the extra coverage checks. Rule 1 of computing - turn it off and on again.
 
GruB said:
Did that before I posted this thread and conducted all the extra coverage checks. Rule 1 of computing - turn it off and on again.
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They now call that cycling the power. Sounds so much more technical.
 
The beauty that is rural connectivity !
In deepest darkest North Northumberland, we have just been connected to FFTH by Openreach overhead cables, so going to have superfast Internet speeds. We also have line of sight to the Chatton TV mast 5 Mile's away so have perfect TV signal.
Can we connect to the DOC for a smart meter and EV tariffs??? Computer says no, and can only get very patchy 4g mobile signal.
 
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This is a rural connectivity issue but also a generation issue. The older generation that try and use their smart phones or connected devices and know that something is attached to the Village Hall but are not sure how it helps yet expect it to help, because why is it there if not to help. I asked the Secretary if she had WiFi calling enabled and I may have been talking Swahili, based upon the look she gave me.
 
GruB said:
This is a rural connectivity issue but also a generation issue. The older generation that try and use their smart phones or connected devices and know that something is attached to the Village Hall but are not sure how it helps yet expect it to help, because why is it there if not to help. I asked the Secretary if she had WiFi calling enabled and I may have been talking Swahili, based upon the look she gave me.
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Hopefully you have a Swahili speaking village hall committee member, if not you are probably failing the Parish Council guidance on inclusivity.
 
JOG said:
A bit like how the new “digital” landline goes dead during a power cut….!
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Actually quite a lot of the analogue ones do very shortly afterwards, noone has been heavily maintaining the exchange batteries for a while and the state of some of them in the street cabinets...

There are good 12v UPS systems available (as they are commonly used in CCTV) it's a mystery why the industry isn't just providing these as default.
 
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Update whilst I can - in case a silent alarm was tripped and I am imminently about to be detained......

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So that's not coax up to the roof that's Cat5/6 network cable.

The small unit bottom left is a lightning arrestor to ground any high voltage induced in the network cable.

The big black block to the left is a POE injector, so that will be powering whatever is on the roof.

The big black box is the network equipment - looks awfully like a Cisco type box. There's probably model numbers and displays on the front or rear panels.

The thing top right is the PSU for the big box, and the extension cable is... an extension cable.
 
It must be using the existing radio network as no other network connections apparent, theoretically that black network cable could be going to a router but unlikely.

So it's either a picocell using the local mast as backhaul or just a plain booster.

How old is it? It's entirely possible it's only 2G/3G capable so may not be effective now 3G is being dropped to give space to 4G/5G data.

If you fancy an experiment if you have a phone you can set to 2G only I wonder if that would show a strong local signal?

If I was to place a bet now if it's been there for a while probably a picocell that used the 3G from a local mast as backhaul that may very well have dropped off the network during the withdrawal of 3G and no one's noticed. Usually if a cell looses its backhaul the access radio side will shut down.

I'd be ringing Vodafone and quoting some of those serial numbers to them - I'd start with the business side not retail.
 
Don’t expect a decent response from VF (consumer or enterprise) - this is technology they ditched years ago. (Your PC chairman could instruct them to remove it!)
 
We walked around the village green that is opposite the hall. Using the OpenSignal app suggested by BikerPa I was able to set the band to 2G/3G and all providers and there was absolutely nothing. The last time the box was tested for electrical safety as per the sticker on the front is dated 2015.
I will recommend that the PC Chairperson does instruct accordingly.
 
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