Whats the huge microphone thing?

[Miss Red]

Just past the prince of wales on the opposite side of the road theres a huge tall thing appeared.....higher than a lampost its all light grey and looks like a long microphone sponge on top - anybody know what it is .....its a bit alien/enemy of the state lol

 

[Gramaisc]

Mobile phone repeater?

there's few about these days..

 

[wmrcomputers]

Mobile phone repeater?

Sorry, could you repeat that?

 

[Gramaisc]

Mobile phone repeater?

Sorry, could you repeat that?

You're breaking (me) up!..

 

[Miss Red]

A whaty?? what do those do? It appeared last week (well thats when i noticed it)

 

[Gramaisc]

A whaty?? what do those do? It appeared last week (well thats when i noticed it)

They make your phone work. There's a big, dark green one on Beaconside, just south of the Main Gate.

They can be disguised as all sorts of things, even a church cross :-

There's one at the back of the Poly that's supposed to look like a pine tree...

But, sometimes, they don't bother.

 

[Wormella]

The uni is very proud of it's fake tree...

 

[Miss Red]

my phone was working ok for the last 7 yrs without one lol.....they are strange looking objects - certainly dont sit in well with the surounding trees, stick out like a sore thumb lol

 

[Gramaisc]

The uni is very proud of it's fake tree...

I will admit that I didn't notice it until it was pointed out to me.

Fake tree.

 

[stoofer34]

looks like a telephone pole

 

[Gramaisc]

looks like a telephone pole

Interesting cultural situation here - we make real telephone poles by cutting the branches off trees and then we make mobile phone poles from steel and plastic and try to make them look like trees....

 

[Withnail]

That's progress.


Maaan.

 

[WildwoodPaul]

Just checked on http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/search and it doesn't appear to be listed.

 

[The Stafford Beast]

Could either be preparations for 4G (100meg mobile internet) - in which case I hope they're transmitting on a much lower power level than their predecessors.

Or... some kind of MOD remote control transmitters for their classified stealth surveillance drones (that we're not supposed to know about but seem to have been spotted on a couple of occasions - not by myself though).

 

[Alee]

its a mast.. theres one by mod aswell...usually have network written on it. the one by mod is vodaphone

 

[MarkyD]

I love how we're not asked about these ugly monstrosities.

 

[Alee]

they probably think that if they paint them green then no one will notice

 

[glued2]

It's a shared Vodafone and O2 3G mast....

(If you want to get technical)... I think its a CU Phosco Mk 3 street pole, housing 6 no. 3G antennas within a 480mm GRP shroud.
- not that I'm an authority on mobile masts and poles!

 

[wmrcomputers]

It always amazes me how many people complain about these erections taking place, yet in most cases are mobile phone users!! For them to work, guys and gals, these things have to exist.

@Miss Red - bear in mind the number of mobile phone owners is constantly increasing, and so therefore must the masts to cope with the number of users who need to be connected. Although your phone has worked fine for the last 7 years without a nearby mast, I would assume you'd like it to continue working for the next 7 years as well

 

[WildwoodPaul]

There is the great gag in Gavin & Stacey, where the launch a campaign against a mobile phone mast however cannot then get signal to see where the rest of the campaigners are ......