We just purchased 2 sets of used BH20’s from a vendor. One 5.2 and one 5.4 set.
I believe that some of the radios have bad antennas in them, or some other issue, because they fail to see each other at 1 mile apart. We tested in the office and they work fine in the confines of our office (about 15’ away from each other). I did some tests using the built-in spectrum analyzer and the 2 radios behave very differently, in that one of them barely shows any reading when pointed to another radio in the field, while the other shows a -75db reading.
So I assume that either the antenna is bad, or else may be whatever governs the power in the radio in not behaving properly?
So I am wondering if there is any tests that I can do to prove one thing or another? Has anyone else experience bad antennas?
what kind of power levels did you get when you tested them in your office? are you using reflectors? are they refurbs? my experience has shown that internal really doesn’t get super powerful results unless you are right up on each other but plz someone correct me if i’m wrong on that one. also what do the spec tests look like on each side?
ATItech wrote: what kind of power levels did you get when you tested them in your office? are you using reflectors? are they refurbs? my experience has shown that internal really doesn't get super powerful results unless you are right up on each other but plz someone correct me if i'm wrong on that one. also what do the spec tests look like on each side?
I was seeing power levels around -55db when testing in the office (I only noticed that when we brought them back to test after they failed in the field). I think that is way too low for radios that are 15' away from each other.
We are not using reflectors. They should still easily handle 1 mile distance. In fact we are replacing older BH10 units which are in place and working perfectly well w/o reflectors, so I know that is not the issue.
I am not sure if they are refurbs or just used.
it would make sense that theres something wrong power wise if they are used or refurb. but i guess to answer your question i don’t know of anyway to test if they have good power output without just trying them out. -55 doesn’t seem right being 15’ away tho good luck post what you find out as i’m very curious 
1 Mile without reflecters is about your limit. In my experience with 50 towers on our nertwork anything more than half a mile gets a reflector on atleaset 1 side. With that said I think your power levels are weak also. When we put ours in the same room we usually hit 40s and some times upper 30s. If you go through a wall or 2 you can end up in the 50s.
Also, the 5.2’s are extremely low power compared to 54’s or 57’s. If you add a reflector to 1 side you’ll gain close to 20 db.
jmaysww wrote: 1 Mile without reflecters is about your limit. In my experience with 50 towers on our nertwork anything more than half a mile gets a reflector on atleaset 1 side. With that said I think your power levels are weak also. When we put ours in the same room we usually hit 40s and some times upper 30s. If you go through a wall or 2 you can end up in the 50s.
Also, the 5.2's are extremely low power compared to 54's or 57's. If you add a reflector to 1 side you'll gain close to 20 db.
We have new radios coming from the vendor to test. As I mentioned, this link is already in existence and we are just upgrading the pipe from a 10 to a 20, so I don't think that the distance should be a problem. Adding a reflector is out of the question on at least one side of this link.
I'll let everyone know what happens.
etech wrote: [quote="jmaysww":1lqnzqse]1 Mile without reflecters is about your limit. In my experience with 50 towers on our nertwork anything more than half a mile gets a reflector on atleaset 1 side. With that said I think your power levels are weak also. When we put ours in the same room we usually hit 40s and some times upper 30s. If you go through a wall or 2 you can end up in the 50s.
Also, the 5.2's are extremely low power compared to 54's or 57's. If you add a reflector to 1 side you'll gain close to 20 db.
We have new radios coming from the vendor to test. As I mentioned, this link is already in existence and we are just upgrading the pipe from a 10 to a 20, so I don't think that the distance should be a problem. Adding a reflector is out of the question on at least one side of this link.
I'll let everyone know what happens.[/quote:1lqnzqse]
For anyone who cares, so far this is what I have found out:
1. The range on the BH20's is indeed only 1 mile as compared to 2 miles with the older BH10 models. So, this link we are working on is just at the 1 mile mark and we were finally able to make a connection after getting new radios, but we are registering at -80 to -82db, so it is not good enough w/o using reflectors. We can not put reflectors on BOTH sides of the link (one side is on top of a roof and they would not allow us to do that). Fortunately we should be able to use a reflector on one side, and that should be good enough to give us a few extra db's and put us in the -70db range.
2. As I mentioned we got replacement radios from the vendor. So after testing I did find that we did indeed have at least one "bad" radio in the previous batch. So all together I had 4 5.4 BH20 radios to test with, and what I found very disconcerting was that I got VERY different strength readings from the different radios. This was just a simple test across our office, and I got anywhere from -52 db to -16 db reading depending on which radio I tested. These radios were all used or reconditioned, so I guess the point that is of concern is that they all "seem" to be operating fine, and yet they had very different strength readings. So I guess just keep that mind if you buy used equipment. Unfortunately there is no easy way to test for this other than doing what we did and seeing if the strength reading is within expected range.
And here is the next unknown issue. We were testing both 5.4 and 5.2 BH's and I have yet to test out the 5.2 set in the field, but in our simple within office test, the 5.2 radios (we had 4 of those to test as well) all have very low readings. This makes no sense at all either. 5.2 radios should be actually slightly more powerful than 5.4's, and yet in the simple office test with the radios being 15' apart they are showing a strength reading of -45db. I suppose it is possible that we have 4 bad radios, but that would seem really unusual. I will be testing those using reflectors within the next couple of weeks, so I will update this thread.
as far as the BH on the side of which u cannot use a reflector. how about connectorize it or use a “test adapter”(from wireless beehive) and use a 5ghz yagi of some sort just to get a little more gain? or even better use a Canopy LENS http://canopywireless.com/products/specs.php?spec_page=4. They operate from 5.2ghz to 5.7ghz just snaps on and provides 7-10db of gain. at least it would help on the side without a reflector.
Antenna specs for Canopy LENS
~16 dB in 5.2 & 5.4GHz band
(Adds +9 dB to +7dB internal patch antenna)
~17 dB in 5.7GHz Band
(Adds +10 dB to +7dB internal patch antenna)
nucoles wrote: as far as the BH on the side of which u cannot use a reflector. how about connectorize it or use a "test adapter"(from wireless beehive) and use a 5ghz yagi of some sort just to get a little more gain? or even better use a Canopy LENS http://canopywireless.com/products/specs.php?spec_page=4. They operate from 5.2ghz to 5.7ghz just snaps on and provides 7-10db of gain. at least it would help on the side without a reflector.
Antenna specs for Canopy LENS
~16 dB in 5.2 & 5.4GHz band
(Adds +9 dB to +7dB internal patch antenna)
~17 dB in 5.7GHz Band
(Adds +10 dB to +7dB internal patch antenna)
Actually I was wondering about using those on both sides. Again, since we are just under 1 mile on this link, I think that even these would be sufficient. I'd rather not put dishes up if I don't have to. These are not our structures that we are using, so we do not want to pop up too many obtrusive dishes if we do not have to.
I'll check into this. Thanks.
thatd probably be the way to go in that case. they are only $20-25/each
nucoles wrote: thatd probably be the way to go in that case. they are only $20-25/each
Have you used Wireless Beehive Stingers with BH's before? Their site seems to specifically only refer to using these with SM's. Is there a reason why these could not be used in this application?
Also in general any comments about Canopy Lens products vs. the Stingers? We have used the Stingers for our SM's with good success. Never tried the Canopy Lens.
The stingers work great and will work on sm’s, ap’s, and bh’s. They are all the same hardware just different software. The Canopy LENS I like better due to the fact that it actually snaps on with clips to hold it down. As well as they are much more sturdy especially in really bad weather such as hail, and tend not to weather/turn color in the sun near as bad as the stingers. We have a lot of high winds here in west texas so we’ve had a several occassions of the stingers blowing off of the sm’s.
nucoles wrote: The stingers work great and will work on sm's, ap's, and bh's. They are all the same hardware just different software. The Canopy LENS I like better due to the fact that it actually snaps on with clips to hold it down. As well as they are much more sturdy especially in really bad weather such as hail, and tend not to weather/turn color in the sun near as bad as the stingers. We have a lot of high winds here in west texas so we've had a several occassions of the stingers blowing off of the sm's.
Wow! Well we get some high winds here from now and then, but we have never had one blow off. I am surprised, as I find the Stingers sometimes hard to get off. They fit on there pretty snug. I suppose if you have consistent high winds, it can vibrate them long enough so they eventually slide off. And we have no hail here, but we have super dry and cold, long Winters (CO), and so far the Stingers have managed to hold up pretty good.
I may give the Lens a try, since we have never used them before.
Where are you getting your Lenses for $20-$25 each??
sorry the pricing was a typo should have been $45-50
nucoles wrote: sorry the pricing was a typo should have been $45-50
Ha! Yeah that's more like it. ;-)
No one ever seems to stock these things though. I'll place an order today and hopefully test it out end of next week.
Thanks.
check em out here http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM2423060602P?sid=IDx20101019x00001a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=SPM2423060602
they are in stock and $47
although didnt know sears sold wireless equipment?
nucoles wrote: check em out here http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM2423060602P?sid=IDx20101019x00001a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=SPM2423060602
they are in stock and $47
although didnt know sears sold wireless equipment?
Yeah, I actually found that yesterday while searching. It's not actually through Sears. It's through so called "storefront" for some security company called "Surveillent" (why they are selling Canopy stuff is a bit of a mystery as well). Kind of like Amazon. Amazon sells a lot of stuff that is not actually through Amazon directly. They are just renting out their name and webservers for others to sell their stuff.
I'll have to give these guys a call. I don't trust the "in stock" status on any of these websites.