DCI

On any HDD job, you’re going to face challenges. As a driller, you have to know how to confront each challenge. While no locating system (link to Digital Control Inc. | DigiTrak HDD Locating Systems | DigiTrak HDD… (digital-control.com) is going to solve all your problems, the right features can have a huge impact on your production and therefore profitability. At Whole Solutions, we want to give you the tools you need to do the job right. In addition to transmitters, you’ll find transmitter housing (link over to housing tab under borzall) options to ensure the “brains” of your drilling operation are well-protected.  

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Since the inception of HDD, drillers have had to contend with signal interference that may wreak havoc with the locator. High-pressure gas lines with cathodic protection, fiber optic tracer tones lines and metal objects near the drill path mean that HD drillers are tasked with threading a high-stakes needle. Squirrely information can baffle the locator person, resulting in lost productivity or, worse yet, a bore that deviates significantly from the intended drill path.

In this article, we’ll cover the types of interference you’ll encounter, how it affects your transmitter and receiver, and how new technology developments in directional drill products have helped mitigate these challenges.

TWO TYPES OF INTERFERENCE

Before you can tackle your interference problem, you need to understand the interference itself. There are two types of interference that can play tricks on your walkover locater: active and passive.

Active Interference – Active interference is anything that creates its own magnetic field, like tracer tone lines, underground or overhead electric power lines, two-way radios, and invisible dog fences. The rule of thumb is: if it’s conducting electricity, it’s emitting a radio frequency. Active interference causes problems with your locator when its frequency matches (or comes close to) the frequency at which you’re transmitting and receiving. When active interference is overwhelmingly strong (like in the case of a nearby power plant), its frequency can be off from yours on the spectrum but still interfere with your equipment.

The new DigiTrak Falcon receivers are specifically designed to minimize the effects of active interference which is present on most HDD project sites. The two Falcon locators are new versions of the popular F2 and F5 models. The Digitrak Aurora LWD Live app provides a real-time bore profile on Aurora touch screens.

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HOW YOUR LOCATOR WORKS

This is a good time for a quick refresher on what exactly your locator is measuring when it takes a reading before transmitting information back to the drill rig operator. According to your locater, signal strength equates to depth. Locaters simply measure the amount of signal being received. Then, based on your above-ground calibration, the locater converts “x” many counts of signal to number we are familiar with, 120 inches.

The bottom line: if interference affects your signal strength, you’ll notice a repercussion on your depth readings. Erratic signal strength leads to erratic depth numbers.

BIG CHALLENGES LEAD TO NEW ADVANCEMENTS

In the old days of directional drill products, we would recommend dealing with the problem by getting a bigger, louder transmitter with more signal– or switching to one of the few alternate transmitter frequencies. This solved some of the interference problems, but contractors would still struggle on many drill sites. Massive amounts of active and passive interference sources overwhelmed the best equipment offered by the industry leaders. Ultimately, these challenges opened the door to extensive R&D that has now benefitted the entire HDD industry.

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ACTIVE INTERFERENCE MEETS ITS MATCH: THE FALCON F5

To mitigate the interference problem, DCI engineers developed a single transmitter that has the ability to broadcast anywhere in the range, from <4.5 kHz up to 45 kHz. The Digitrak Falcon F5 breaks this spectrum down into 9 different bands.

Falcon locating equipment is the world’s leading locating system. With thousands of frequencies to choose from, it will help with the most difficult of jobs. Trade in your old system today.

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