Patent ID: 8228759

Claim:
A tranmission system for seismic data acquisition units, said system comprsing: A. a self-contained wireless seismic acquistion unit, said seismic acquistion unit comprising (1) a casing that is fully buried below a ground surface; (2) a power source for said seismic acquistion unit within said casing; (3) a short-range receiver module completely disposed within said casing such that no portion of the short-range receiver module extends from said casing; and (4) a geophone disposed within said casing; and B. a communications unit wirelessly coupled to said seismic acquisition unit, said communications unit comprising: (1) an elongated support structure having a first end and a second end, wherein one of the first end or the second end is mounted in the ground surface a distance from the casing such that the communications unit does not interfere with the seismic acquisition unit; (2) a power source for said communications unit separate from the power source for said seismic acquisition unit; (3) a short-range transmitter mounted on said support structure and configured to wirelessly communicate with the short-range receiver within said casing, wherein the distance that the elongated support structure is mounted in the ground surface from the casing is sufficient to permit short-range transmissions between the short-range transmitter in the communications unit and the short-range receiver module in the seismic acquisition unit; (5) a mid-range radio transmitter mounted on said support structure; and (6) a mid-range radio receiver mounted on said support structure.