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began transmitting a continuous tone which rendered the
ATMSinoperable.Anotherfieldtriprevealedastuck
switch within the sensor which was easily repaired, how-
everthis continuoustransmission had drained the radio
batteries which neededreplacement.
Afterthese repairs were made,the sensor successfully
detected several avalanches beforethe seasoncame toa
close.Itbecame apparent this season that repairs to the
sensormidwinterwere quiteserious,requiringa climb
directly up the avalanchepath andworking directlyunder
the starting zone forseveral hours.
CONCLUSION
The originalobjective of developing aremote sensor which
gives real time indication of avalanche activity and auto-
matically resets to monitor multiple cyclic events was suc-
cessful.Further development remains in the areas of du-
rability and low maintenancethroughout the winter.
Future plans are to eliminate all PVC components and
replacethem with high strength aluminum.Exterior con-
nections on the signal wire between sensor and datalogger
will be eliminated and housed within the sensor.Finally,
a non working radio frequency should be used during the
testing of the device to eliminate the possibility of disrupt-
ing the workplace should a malfunction occur.
The potential of this device is wide ranging, from moni-
toring a single avalanche path on a remote stretch of high-
way to an array of sensors throughout a single operation,
linked with telemetry to a central computerizedalarm sys-
tem.Future developmentofthisdevicewillallowitto
reach it's fullpotential ofremotely indicating down ava-
lanches.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank Robin Black and the In-
dustrial Research Assistance Program of the National Re-
searchCouncil of Canada for their assistance with funding
this project.Thanks as well to the SRAWSteam in Rogers
Pass fortheir continual technical assistance.
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