We recently added a 5.2 omni to our tower. Located on this tower
3-2.4 120 degree cyclones
2-5.7 backhauls
cmm micro provides sync to all items. I was hoping to take some of the load off the 2.4 cyclones by moving some of our customer to the 5.2 Omni. There is no noise in the area on 5.2 but I’m having trouble with customers that are less than a mile with a clear LOS. several are registered but with a power level of -70 or worse, then I have a couple of customers at a mile and a half with a power level of -60. The firmware is 8.1.5.1 AP-DES. any help would be greatly appreciated. we are mounted 36" off the tower leg
at less then a mile with LOS have you tried using any uptilt?
We have played around with up tilt but doesn’t seem to make much difference.
Is anyone having good luck with the 5.2 over a mile without some type of reflector?
We have never had good luck with the 5.2 omni’s at more than a mile without using a grid or usually a reflector sometimes even less than a mile, although we dont have much problem with our sectorized antenns on a different tower. Are you using GPS sync on all AP’s?
So you have good luck with the sectorized 5.2?
Try a reflector with the power level set to low.
the 27RD is +18dB and low power mode is -18dB so you stay legal.
The tighter beam (6deg vs 60deg) should give you more distance.
Thanks Richard that does work.
I just hate the idea of customers less than a mile from the tower with the additional cost of a reflector. I should have went with the 5.7 sectorized ap. Because the 5.2 has been a big disappointment. I was hoping someone else has had this trouble and found a setting to correct it.
I hate to say this but if you would have gone with a full cluster or at least 3 120* sectors at 5.2GHz you would have had a better experience.
Do the sectorized 5.2 ap’s work the way there supposed to? The omni’s don’t
If they do I can get a 120 5.2 instead of changing the sm units we already have in the field
We do get more distance with the 5.2 sectorized than the 5.2 omni just because of a smaller beam width per antenna. And with 5.2 being low power compared to 5.7, having the omni just makes things worse.
Well, I was going by what we were told. it should go 2 miles without a grid. so if figured we should get at least 1.5 miles but we can’t even go a mile. There is no noise, clear los less than a mile will not work. What distance do you get on your sectorized units?
What is the gain of the Omni?
A sector will ALWAYS outperform an omni.
Keep in mind that the 2 mile without a reflector recommendation is for the built-in antennas, and you’ve changed that equation by putting an omni on one side, which spreads the 60 degree directional antenna’s available power around 360 degrees. So you’ll get less distance that way for sure. We have a few omnis on 5.7 APs, and we can get no more than 10 miles no matter what we do on the far end. That’s the tradeoff for only deploying one radio.
Just like Jerry said, the sector will always outperform the omni. That’s just physics.
This is right of the detail page of lastmile
5.2 GHz 360° 2 Miles with stinger 4 Miles 30 EIRP
5.2 GHz 120° 3 Miles with stinger 6 Miles 30 EIRP
This falls in line with what I have been told, but doesn’t seem to work in the field.
That’s a different story then. Have you talked to Last Mile?
Yes, still working with them, but as we all know this forum is a great place for real life experience. I’m sure we are not the only ones running the 5.2 omni wondering if anyone else is having the same issue.
This honestly sounds to me like it could be that P10 loss of sensitivity issue. I ran across this issue with a LMG 2.4GHz AP and an omni. A mile away my signal levels were in the -90s. Replaced the units and had signal levels in the -50s. for the same links.
I agree with wifiguy. What version is the AP running? Are you still on 8.1.5.1 as in the OP? I don’t know if upgrading the firmware will help the issue, but I think 8.2.7 was supposed to prevent it from going out of calibration.
cvs wrote: I agree with wifiguy. What version is the AP running? Are you still on 8.1.5.1 as in the OP? I don't know if upgrading the firmware will help the issue, but I think 8.2.7 was supposed to prevent it from going out of calibration.
The loss of calibration issue is P10 Lite hardware only and I've personally only come across it on 8.2.4. No clue yet if 8.2.7 will resolve it but my fingers are crossed!
The issue I was referring to was the manufacturing defect on a few rounds of P10 hardware where after a few minutes/hours of operation some glue or something would melt inside the unit and it would lose most of its carrier sensitivity. The unit would ultimately have to be replaced.