Securing Property on the Border
The Problem
We live on the US/Mexico border here in California and have for years had to deal with the ongoing masses of illegal border crossers passing through our property and causing thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to fencing, irrigation systems, water supplies for the ranch and in general depositing tons of garbage along the way.
Traffic was so heavy that many of the ‘immigrant highways’ are still unsightly scars left through the brush that have still not regrown. It’s fairly unsettling to have people walking through your yard at all hours of the night and not being able to do much other than making a call to the Border Patrol.
After a couple of years of this we began using military surplus ground sensors to help alert us to intrusions and were shocked to find the nightly alarms to be as high as they were. The old military equipment worked surprisingly well at first, but was limited by the range of the RF, and the sensitivity of the sensors themselves. We literally had to place the sensors within a few feet of the expected path for them to make a viable detection.
With the range and sensitivity issues, our limitation was that we couldn’t move the sensors far enough away to gain enough lead time for the Border Patrol to maximize apprehensions.
The Solution
Since then, we’ve replaced the military surplus equipment with the ARA Pathfinder system and are extremely pleased with it. For us, it’s a huge leap forward. At first we were concerned with the high seismic sensitivity of the units. We’re basically in the wild with abundant wildlife and what we’d learned about false alarm rates from animal activity worried us about a high false hit rate. We also knew that we’d missed intruders with the old system due to the relative insensitivity of the sensors.
From a strategic standpoint, we decided that placing a pair of Pathfinder sensors some distance apart, but equidistant from the anticipated point of intrusion, would allow much better covert opportunity for concealment as well as acting as a ‘verification’ of a legitimate target. All one needs to do is look at the time log of the detection. If the alarm times are coincidental (one after the other) then you’ve got a target of concern and a verified target to either report or investigate.
Other initial concerns with Pathfinder were regarding the frequencies available for use. Our concern was the UHF signals would present problems getting from the sensor to the receiver reliably in rugged terrain. We have an extremely rough landscape presenting huge issues with RF reception.
Trespassers have learned the routes over the border well enough to know where they can be seen with thermal imagers and radar, and stay in the cuts and ravines to avoid detection.
The only option to monitor traffic in this case is a ground sensor. Pathfinder works extremely well in difficult terrain and can in fact get signal out of significant ‘holes’ provided antenna placement is thought out. Also, we’ve discovered that the antenna can be remotely placed and RF linked to the monitoring station quite successfully. We’ve done this and the system performance is stunning. We were able to get 100% signal strength from a point 35 miles away. This is far beyond our needs for sensor placement range, but does illustrate just how far one could go with a system.
The Result
All in all, we’re very pleased with Pathfinder as a first line intrusion detection system. We’re absolutely confident that when alarms do occur we’ve just been informed of an intrusion. Sensor placement also tells us where the traffic is moving, and where it is going. We can then know where to direct responding parties to intercept the trespassers. This is a great system for anyone needing large area remote surveillance.
THE PATHFINDER ADVANTAGE
Automated Targeting
Pathfinder can integrate with ground and air-based camera systems put eyes on target as anautomated “slew to cue” or “fly to cue” capability.
Undetectable
With only the antenna exposed, Pathfinder is undetectable to the human eye and its short burst radio signal is hidden in the noise.
User-Friendly
Simplified wireless architecture allows for easy installation.
