Monday, December 30, 2013

Where are Radio Based Stations located?

The life of an RF Field Engineer is very interesting, as you not only have the opportunity of travelling throughout the city but you will also encounter interesting obstacles and issues to troubleshoot. I have been doing mentorship as an RF Field Engineer for T-Mobile since the summer and what an RF Field Engineer does, is if there is an issue with the cellular network in an area they must troubleshoot the problem. Usually the problem comes from the Radio Based Stations (RBS), which transmits and receives cellular data such as 2G, 3G, 4G, and LTE. And these RBSs' are scattered throughout the city, most of which are hidden.

Here are some of the areas that me and my mentor found the Radio Based Stations to be located:

This RBS was located on top of a McDonald's rooftop.



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This RBS was located right behind the LA County Fair back in September. 


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This RBS was located at a giant Garden in Pomona. 



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This RBS was located inside a Catholic Church, and the antennae was cupola. 





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This RBS was located in a dark alley in Pomona.



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Someone ran over this power meter for the RBS in Compton.

There were hot wires on the floor from the power meter with 200 Volts of electricity.

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Those are some of the areas of which I have been to fix issues with the Radio Based Stations. As you can tell some of these areas don't seem safe at all, but the Radio Based Stations can be located anywhere, even places you wouldn't expect.