Table of contents
No headersThe tag detection table obtained from an .rds file or from the master .sqlite database has these columns:
alt altitude of receiver (metres ASL)
ant antenna code (for sensorgnome, USB port number; for Lotek, whatever they use, usually numeric, but can be e.g. AH0)
antFreq frequency receiver was tuned to when tag was detected, in MHz
bootnum number of times receiver had been rebooted before this detection (SG only)
burstSlop discrepancy between registered and observed burst intervals, in seconds. This is always 0 for the first burst in a run (see posInRun).
OBSOLETE: crossFreq cross-frequency detection; if 1, indicates a tag at lower frequency (e.g. 166.300 MHz) was detected by a receiver tuned to a higher frequency (e.g. 166.380 MHz); when this happens, the signal strength is typically 10 to 20 dB lower than an on-frequency detection. Only happens with SG.
dbm signal strength received from antenna, in dBm; logarithmic units: 0 dBm = 1 milliWatt, -10 dBm = 0.1 mW, -20 dBm = 0.01 mW, etc.
Warning: this is based on a quick and dirty calibration with a single funcubedongle (for sensorgnome data) or on my reading of the Lotek receiver product blurb. This value takes into account the gain setting of the receiver, but not the gain value of the anntena; i.e. it is the power level reaching the receiver from the antenna, which will already be amplified according to the antenna's gain pattern.
depYear year tag was deployed; we have some multiyear tags deployed, with detections in 2013 of tags deployed in 2012.
freq frequency offset from antenna frequency, in kHz; SG only. Tags often transmit on a frequency several kHz off the nominal one.
freqsd standard deviation of freq among pulses in this burst, in kHz; SG only (NA for Lotek receivers). Values larger than 0.1 kHz suggest a bogus detection.
fullID full tag ID formatted as PROJ#ID@FREQ:BI; e.g. Hamil#113@166.3:6.1. This allows distinguishing among tags from different projects but having the same ID. For now, cross-frequency detections have 8000 added to the ID in this column, but this will change.
OBSOLETE: fullSite full site ID formatted as LAT, LON (SITECODE); e.g. 45.7, -64.5 (JOGG) This allows for use of the same sitecode among different projects, but in some cases this might not uniquely identify the site. Note: due to GPS drift, some sites might be split into multiple "sites" by this field, each with
slightly different lat/lon coordinates. For analysis, you should use site, or paste(site, proj), in case sites at different projects have the same name), not fullSite.
gain gain setting on the receiver at the detection time, in dB. SG: 0 means default, non-zero means relative to default. Lotek: actual gain setting. This value is taken into account in computing the dbm column.
id the manufacturer tag ID. For Lotek ID tags, this is a 3 digit number.
label organism label formatted as SPECIES ID @ FREQ - PROJECT; e.g. SESA 184 @ 166.300-Hamil
lat latitude in decimal degrees North (so negative is south of the equator)
lon longitude in decimal degrees East (so negative is east of the Prime Meridian)
noise estimate of background radio noise when tag detected, in dBmax; SG only.
nomFreq nominal frequency receiver was tuned to, in Mhz. This really only applies to SG, where we usually tune 4 kHz below the nominal tag frequency. So in that case, antFreq = 166.376 while nomFreq = 166.380
posInRun a run is a sequence of burst-interval-compatible detections of a single tag on a single antenna (SG) or receiver (Lotek) at a single frequency. This column numbers detections in a run, from 1 to runLen
proj project code of the receiver this detection is from
recv model and serial number of the receiver. SensorGnomes start with 'SG'.
runID unique identifier for a run of tags - see posInRun.
runLen number of tag bursts in the current run; constant for all records having the same runID - see posInRun.
sig signal strength in "native units"; for SG: dBmax (logarithmic, 0 = max possible, -10 = 0.1 * max, etc.); for Lotek: 0...255
sigsd standard deviation in signal strength among pulses in this burst. SG only
site site code of receiver at detection time
slop total discrepancy between inter-pulse intervals for this burst, in milliseconds; SG only.
sp four-letter species code. For birds, all upper case. For others, GeSp (genus, species). NA is typically a test tag
OBSOLETE: tagFreq nominal frequency of tag. Equals antFreq except when crossFreq == 1 (in which case this is a cross frequency detection)
tagProj code of project that deployed tag. Use this field to select "your" tags from the master tag database.
ts timestamp; GMT, precision: 0.1 ms (SG); 2.5 ms (Lotek). For SG, ts is for centre of first pulse in burst. For Lotek, ???
tsOrig in case an automatic correction has been applied to the timestamp (e.g. for pre-GPS-fix timestamps, or cases where a known clock issue has occurred), this is the pre-correction timestamp. Might be useful in diagnosing undetected clock anomalies.
