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Summary of Testing On Thursday April 8th 2021, ANCOM conducted an RF study of the area in and around Arden hills, MN to determine any potential interference to the automated water meter data collection system that is currently used by the City of Arden Hills. Test equipment used was a Viavi (formerly Aeroflex) 8800SX series Digital Radio Test Set, Anritsu S332D Spectrum Analyzer, Neon Signal Mapping Software, a Motorola XPR 7550e portable radio, and iBwave Design Enterprise software for post processing and data mapping. Testing began at the Red Fox Road collector. We documented that the noise floor in the area around Arden Hills was noticeably elevated likely due to the proximity of the Shoreview broadcast towers. There were no other discernable sources of interference present during the testing. The portable radio was set to the water meter transmit frequency of 456.7625 MHz so that we could verify that transmissions were actually coming from the water meters and not another source. Once it was determined that the only likely source of interference was the elevated noise floor itself, we began to map the level of the noise floor throughout the city and surrounding areas. At no time during the testing was any other potential source of interference identified. Conclusions Based on our test results, and signal documentation, it is our conclusion that the existing collectors are functioning. However, due to the elevated noise floor, signals coming from too far away are being "washed out" by the noise, and therefore not receivable by the collectors. Essentially, the collectors are trying to "listen" for a transmission that is being "whispered" from a mile away; while something is "screaming" right next to them. The collectors cannot separate out the water meter transmission from the noise if the water meter transmission arrives at a signal level that is below the noise floor at the collector. Based on noise floor levels and the collection data provided by the city, we have generated a diagram that illustrates the effective receive area of each collector. In areas where the noise floor is high, the water meters need to be close to the collector for reliable functionality. This leads us to make the following recommendations.