Problem: West Slope Water District in Portland, Oregon, has an integrated water meter and radio, resulting in the radio having to transmit from 12 to 36 inches underground. Two of the variables that affect radio propagation are metal and water. West Slope gets a lot of rain, making it common for meter boxes to have water inside much of the year. The integrated radio, when combined with water in the meter box, forced crews to drive every street slowly and even stop to wait for meter reads to come into the reading software. This made monthly meter reading more time-consuming
