Very infrequent signal from neptune R900 water meter

[sombrero2003]

Hello,
my utility switched my water meter to a Neptune R900, so I jumped on the occasion to read the signal using rtl433 (thanks for the amazing work).
It decodes fine, but it can be several hours between readings.
From this faq, I was expecting much more frequent readings. Indeed, other Neptune R900 do show up in my feed every couple of minutes.
For what it's worth, all their SNs start with a 1, while mine starts with a 2.

Are other users experiencing the same behavior, and if not do I need to change something on my end?
Thank you.

[andrewjmcginnis]

Where is your antenna located, and where/how is the meter antenna puck situated?

I too have a recent meter change out from manual read to AMR. Depending on where I initially placed my antenna, I’d pick up the two meters more line-of-sight from it (normally my other next door neighbor) far more (and frequently) than my own.

I ended up placing another SDR and antenna out between my house and adjacent neighbors house so it’s kind of shielded from the street. I still see plenty of meters around my neighborhood (some on the same kind of frequency you’re seeing- hours between receptions) but most signal reception now is her meter and mine in the shared meter box.

Also, remember the meter usage increments immediately on the dials, but the broadcast only updates (without pulling my log file to verify) every 15 minutes.