Abstract: In a remote meter reading system, a tamper protection circuit provides a warning at a central station upon the disconnecting or tampering with a remote utility meter. Tamper protection is provided for the meter and for the transmission line carrying energy usage information to a transponder (500) such that any interruption of the circuit path causes an alarm to be generated. The circuitry includes an encoder (302) associated with each remote meter (300) to be protected and a centrally located decoder (350) for receiving the signal transmitted by the encoder. When usage information is not being transmitted, the encoder is considered to be in a quiescent state providing a pulsed carrier signal to the decoder. For the transmission of usage information, the encoder modifies the pulsed carrier signal by causing a single pulse of a greater period to be superimposed on the carrier and transmitted therewith over the line to the decoder.