The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (Tenn-Tom) connects the Tennessee River from near Nashville to the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile.

The waterway's Hydromet network collects remote field data and transmits it via a microwave-VHF network to provide real-time water management capability. Hydromet data is then integrated with other sources of information to provide streamflow forecasting and current runoff conditions for river and reservoir operations.

The Hydromet System is the waterway telecommunications system. All lock and dam sites, the waterway management office, and the Mobile district office are connected by a microwave backbone transmission system. Over 40 water quality measurement stations feeding an automated measurement system are connected by VHF links to the backbone.

The Howland Company designed both microwave and VHF radio transmission systems for intra-system telephone, two-way radio, computer-controlled water quality measurement, and supervisory/control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. We designed the interconnection of the intra-system telephone network and two-way radio systems to the public switched telephone network. The scope of work included site selection, path profile preparation, interference analysis, noise budget preparation, transmission system reliability calculations, antenna/feeder system design, and multiplex and alarm system design. Plans and specifications were prepared for the microwave radio, VHF radio and related systems.

On the web: Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway - US Army Corps of Engineers