Do any of you use the 2.4ghz band?
Any pros?
Any cons?
How is the interference?
Thanks
Vince
Our area is pretty saturated with 2.4.
I have two 2.4’s up, but I get better range with 5.8.
Tell your supplier that your are looking at 2.4 and ask them to lend you a 2.4SM to use to drive around and do some spectrum analysis.
It’s not the same as a real spectrum analyzer but it will tell you what the noise floor looks like in your area.
how do you find the 2.4ghz performs through trees?
We have one AP that points down to the back side of the mountain where it’s fairly quiet. We have had success getting through some oaks, and some slight non-los at 2-3 miles.
It does not have the penetrating power of 900 though.
I use 2.4 AP/SM pairs for backhauls, because I need to get through trees to get to most of my sites. Its just too hard to get above 150’ pine trees. The noise floor in my area is about -60 or worse. All of my links are worse signal than that yet they all work well.
Dont tell anyone, but I put stingers on some of the APs to reduce them to 30* and increase the power. I find this makes a BIG difference.
Some examples of extreme shots:
2.4AP with stinger pointing 7.8 miles to an SM with one of the 36"/22dbi Pac Wireless Grids. The SM is about 6 feet above a metal roof on a freestanding 1-58" pole. It sways quite a bit. I get -61dbm / 3 jitter at the AP and -72/2 at the SM. Link tests are always 100%. This link has about 4 large oak trees at the SM side, which did cause a signal drop this spring and it had to be moved up a few feet to clear some of the other trees.
2.4AP with stinger shooting 8.36 miles to an SM mounted 150 feet up a pine tree. The SM has a 24"/18dbi Pac Wireless Grid. 100% 10 sec link tests. Signal at AP: -64dbm / 2 Jitter. Signal at SM: -73dbm / 3 Jitter.
The AP is about 36 feet off the ground yet still shotting through the top of 3 decent sized oak trees and one digger pine tree about 200 feet in front of it. The SM has about 4 other pine trees about 50-100 feet in front of it.
I think 2.4 is under rated. It seems to work surprisingly well imo.