van with lots of little ariels, wots it up to?

[Shoestringracer]

I overtook a otherwise unmarked van today which was equiped with about 6 ariels of varying designs, all about 6 inches long, mounted towards the back of the roof. Two blokes in the front. I wondered if it was gathering telemetry data by following a car? I was close to Lotus factory where they do a huge amount of testing and development for other manufacturers.

[balls-out]

Mapping data for GPSes?

[Tomo1971]

Possibly drive testing for mobile phone networks.

[sherman]

Storm chasers ?

[SonicShadow]

The fabled TV Licensing detector van?

[Impasse]

Aerial theif.

[jon-]

RC Car (Van)

[speedking31]

Giving out washing powder samples

[KAgantua]

balls-out said:

Mapping data for GPSes?

I read this as 'mapping data for gypsies'

[CarlT]

I saw a Renault Trafic with lots of aerials on the A34 last week. It was at the front of a line of camouflaged Insignias. So telemetry capturing.

[braddo]

CarlT said:

I saw a Renault Trafic with lots of aerials on the A34 last week. It was at the front of a line of camouflaged Insignias. So telemetry capturing.

So the camouflage wasn't very effective then.

What is this telemetry capturing you describe?

[Bombjack]

Mermaid transport?

[4a4]

Jason Plato.

[Shoestringracer]

CarlT said:

I saw a Renault Trafic with lots of aerials on the A34 last week. It was at the front of a line of camouflaged Insignias. So telemetry capturing.

Thanks, as I suspected.

[aka_kerrly]

KAgantua said:

balls-out said:

Mapping data for GPSes?

I read this as 'mapping data for gypsies'

I can see how that happened.

That said regarding the original title, Ariel - wasn't she a mermaid or is it a lump of rock circling Uranus?

[Krikkit]

braddo said:

CarlT said:

I saw a Renault Trafic with lots of aerials on the A34 last week. It was at the front of a line of camouflaged Insignias. So telemetry capturing.

So the camouflage wasn't very effective then.

What is this telemetry capturing you describe?

New-shape Insignia's (hence the camo) testing out radar cruise or road-train tech perhaps?

[daydotz]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving

[CarlT]

braddo said:

So the camouflage wasn't very effective then.

What is this telemetry capturing you describe?

Some were camouflaged some not. One was a 4x4 Audi Allroad style estate.
All the cars had 2 people in with laptops on the dash etc.
I'm guessing they were working on NVH etc