Friday August 12, 2011
FISHBIO, along with more than twenty researchers from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and non-governmental organizations, traveled to Denver, Colorado this week to participate in a passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag training workshop. The classroom portion of the training was lead by Warren Leach from Oregon RFID. Warren not only sells cost effective PIT tags and equipment, but also provides outstanding technical support for people building their own passive interrogation systems. Warren did an excellent job providing training on the theory behind FDX and HDX technology (see PIT Tags: The Full Story) and providing practical design applications.
Vince Tranquilli from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), who has extensive experience constructing PIT tag antennas for fisheries research, led the participants in the many nuances of designing and building stream-width passive interrogation systems. In the photo above, Vince demonstrates resonance tuning of an 8 ft by 8 ft antenna fabricated out of a fine gauge copper wire. With some creativity, and a lot of patience, PIT tag antennas can be fabricated for many applications. Watch for more on the use PIT tags in future posts.