A Radio-Controlled Air Sampling System for Diffusion Experiments

Abstract

A radio-controlled air sampling system was developed for sampling tracer gases at an array of remote, portable sampling stations. Each sampling station contains a receiver-decoder, a battery pack and three evacuated metal cylinders fitted with hand-operated toggle valves, radio-controlled latching solenoid valves and critical orifices. The transmitting station includes an encoder and an FM base station radio. It may be operated from a fixed base with a tower-mounted antenna or from an aircraft for greater distances. Distance is limited only by line of sight transmission. Three sets of samples may be taken at any selected time and for any selected duration within the volume limitations of the sampling cylinders and the flow limitations of the critical orifices. Each set is simultaneous at all sampling stations. Samples may be either continuous or intermittent. The system has been utilized in the field and a small representative set of data is shown to illustrate the system capabilities.