An irrigation controller provides a current to operate an irrigation valve assembly and superimposes a data stream on the current. In this way, writing can complete in about the same time as reading, without risking corruption of data on adjacent bitlines in the memory. The antenna is electronically connected to the first ground plane. A first flange is fixedly attached to a first end of the core so as to form a sealed joint. The pair of biasing elements are positioned on opposing sides of the magnetoresistive sensor for providing longitudinal bias to the free layer. In another embodiment, the baseline of an object is used in the dropout control operations to reduce artifacts that can be created by the addition of samples in the vertical direction.