I am attempting to use the “Radio Mobile” program to determine a likely location to place my AP’s for a start up WISP, but I am missing some information.
I have looked through the documentation on the Motorola site, but the documents are missing critical parts.
What I need is the following for the AP, BH and SM for 900Mhz and 2.4Ghz units:
Transmit Power in dBm or watts
Antenna gain in dBi or dBm
Receiver Threshold in uV or dBm
How does the reflector affect the antenna gain? I assume it improves it, but by how much?
While I’m at it, does anyone have the raw proprogation data for the antennas for the above units. Radio Mobile has a way to enter the data and build an antenna to display the proposed coverage area. I tried entering the information from the pictures, but it comes out pretty rough.
Anyway if anyone can provide me the information I would appreciate it. Either the specific information or where I can find it.
Thanks!
I would be very interested in getting a radio mobile layout for my area also. If you can get it working and find the correct stats I would like to talk with you about it.
Matt
email: matt@resonance.org
I received the following from Motorola technical support. The first key is that all of the AP, SM, and BH have the same radio characteristics. The AP manual has most of the information.
The tech support person said Motorola does not publish the antenna radiation patterns for their radios, which confuses me to a get degree. I would think this is the a key piece of information.
Anyway the information they sent me follows:
I am pulling this from the AP manual. AP, SM and BH units have the same values.
Transmitter power is on page 2:
2.4 GHz 340 mW
5.2 GHz 200 mW
5.2 Extended range 3.2 mW
5.7 GHz 200 mW
On page 100 the reciever sensitivity is given as -83 dBm. Antenna gain is given as 7 dB. This converts to 8 dBi. The passive reflector adds 17 dBi.
900 MHz varies the power based on the antenna gain setting the max is 0.63 W (this is on page 15 of the 900 MHz User Guide). Also gives the EIRP if the antenna gain matches the antenna chosen at 4 W.
The radiation patterns for 2.4 GHz have not been released to the public.
I havent had a chance to really look through the Radio Mobile program much yet. Is the information you listed and what is in the Manual enough to get a decent idea of what kind of coverage could be attained with Radio Mobile?
Matt
I have been working with radio mobile for a while now, but still having issues getting some settings working correctly. I put in the data to the best of my knowledge but the program shows we cannot hit some locations when we actually have customers there working fine.
We are using the 5.7 ghz AP’s and SM’s.
What should I set for the following settings:
Network Properties - Paramaters:
Mode of Variability?
Surface Refractivity?
Ground Conductivity?
Relative Ground Permativity?
Topology:
Should it be star topology(master/slave) or cluster(node/terminal)?
Systems:
Line loss?
Antenna Height?
Any help would be appreciated.
mattmann72 wrote: I have been working with radio mobile for a while now, but still having issues getting some settings working correctly. I put in the data to the best of my knowledge but the program shows we cannot hit some locations when we actually have customers there working fine.
I've been using RadioMobile for the past couple years, and I've yet to come up with some of these answers myself. I have a 25mi link that RM says would not work, and it's actually been one of the most stable links we have in our network. One thing I have noticed is that RM does not take into account the ability to point the antenna in the H (elevation) plane. Given that same 25mi link, if I artificially change the tower elevation of one end so that both antennae are at the same altitude, then they show link fine.
Go figure.
I use RM for much of my Part 97 (Amateur) stuff, where elevation is not so critical. ;)
Hi Guys,
I too use Radio Mobile to attempt to determine the coverage area from a given cluster or AP.
Line Loss should be 0 for a module with an integrated antenna. Foe the modules with an external antenna, you must calculate the loss of the coax connecting your module and the antenna.
It doesn’t matter if you use Star or Cluster topography.
Antenna height in the Systems section is just a default. When you view the Radio Link, this can be changed. It is normally the height of your tower (assuming your Canopy module is at the top)
Radio Mobile should be used as a guide only. RM will say some links will work and they won’t and some that won’t but they do. There is one glaring ommission from RM that validates this statement and this is that obstructions cannot be dropped into the link as required (like buildings and trees).
Having said that, I find RM very good but you should be backing up the “predictions” of RM with actual live tests. With the low cost of Canopy, why wouldn’t you?