Data Transmission the Old-Fashioned Way

Forget for a minute about high-speed, whiz-bang, multimedia data. In some parts of the United States, wireless-data transmission via analog phones is the real ticket to getting the job done.

Steve Crane's job, for example, is growing potatoes for Lay's potato chips, something his family has done for 35 years. The Exeter, ME, farmer has two center-pivot irrigation systems, and he monitors them thanks to his Motorola phone from Unicel Cellular, a division of Rural Cellular Corporation (RCC).

When Crane gets a call in the middle of the night, it's likely to be his irrigation system telling him the water pressure is down or the power has failed. He, in turn, may call to tell it to change directions or put out less water.

"There wasn't a lot of backup before," Crane said. "Now I can be off 50 miles away doing something else."

Crane estimates there are only about a dozen systems like his in the state of Maine. They're more common in Kansas, where Dr. Pat Barker has a dozen systems of his own to irrigate his corn and soybean fields. His systems are from Valley Irrigation and his cellular hookup from Cellular One, the RCC operator in Western Kansas.

It's a 3W data-packet application using a Motorola data connector, which transmits data in tones, according to Charlie Depperschmidt, Cellular One territory manager.

"A couple of years ago, when airtime was 50› or 60› a minute, it wasn't popular, but as airtime prices came down, that's changed," Depperschmidt said.

For Cellular One, it's an added revenue stream. It helps the farmers, too. Barker allows the power company to shut down his systems the two hottest hours of the day, and he gets a break on his power bill. That wouldn't be feasible if someone had to drive out to turn each system off and on.

Barker calculates a year's savings: "Saves us a pickup (truck) a year and half a man or a full man's time."

Analog cellular also saves time and money for Central Maine Power when it comes to meter reading.

As a result of deregulation last year, the company went up from 200 to 600 customers whose meters have to be read on a daily basis (based on amount of power used), according to Jeff Ballard, Central Maine networking services manager. The company came up with a series of solutions, wireline and wireless, including some that use cellular phones from Global Data. Though Ballard considers the equipment costs high, the monthly cost of Unicel cellular service is less than landline service, he said. The real advantage is being able to install the equipment instantly, he said.

Perhaps one of the most unique uses of a Unicel cellular phone is as part of a "buoy cam" watching over the entrance to the scallop-breeding grounds off the Maine coast where fishing has been stopped. The issue is a hotly contested one.

The buoy cam was created by Task Force Atlantis (TAF), according to Ron Huber, TAF executive director. TAF is an organization seeking designation of an underwater plateau as the Gulf of Maine International Ocean Wilderness Area.

"We used parts culled from everywhere, from a down East Maine junkyard to (an Internet service provider's) spare parts bin, to Unicel, whose special projects director, Larry Vinal, provided a cell phone, unlimited phone time and technical advice," Huber said.

The buoy cam is a digital still camera inside a glass globe, which is mounted inside a gimbal to allow free movement. This is mounted on a set of masts that go down to a 55-gallon steel drum, reinforced and waterproofed, which contains a 12V marine battery, a laptop computer, and a cellular phone. Every six minutes an image from the camera is downloaded to the laptop. Hourly, the images are batched up and downloaded to the mainland using a card modem and cellular phone.

It's a solution, but one that needs upgrading, Huber said. He now is seeking a "bold wireless entrepreneur to gain fame and a tax deduction by assisting in the design and deployment of an improved buoy cam - one that can either withstand a `perfect storm' or be constructed cheaply enough that replacement costs don't break the bank."