CBRS Template - Downtilt?

[uberdome]

The CBRS template references “Electrical and Mechanical Antenna Downtilt (degrees)”. Please confirm: does a positive value in this template represent the antenna aiming downward?

[A positive downtilt technically means the antenna is aimed downward. A positive tilt technically means the antenna is aimed upward. I want to confirm so we are not entering incorrect data here as I am working with both CBRS and cnHeat templates. The cnHeat template explicitly defines sign, whereas the CBRS template uses different language and does not.]

Thank you, Chris

[Simon_King]

There was a discussion about this recently:

Common CBRS installation parameters mistakes

I tend to agree with you, and it makes more intuitive sense to have “negative” going “downward” or “below” the horizon. They look at it like this: the term “Downtilt” incorporates the negative (i.e. down), therefore positive downtilt points downward, below the horizon, towards the ground. This is the convention that was adopted by the rule-making body, so we must abide by it.

Positive downtilt does indeed mean that the antenna is pointing downward.

[uberdome]

Thank you for the confirmation, and the associated reference.

I wanted to confirm since I usually expect relative consistency with Cambium, and there was an inconsistency in this circumstance.

[Eric_Ozrelic]

You can blame WinnForum for this.

[uberdome]

It sounds like they did it correctly, it would just be nice to have explicit clarity since Cambium has internal variation.

The cnHeat spreadsheet states (completely):

AP Tilt (Down is “-”, Up is “+”)

The CBRS spreadsheet states (I think, incompletely):

Electrical and Mechanical Antenna Downtilt
(degrees)

I think they should add the same sort of note so it is clear:

Electrical and Mechanical Antenna Downtilt
(degrees, Down is “+”, Up is “-”)

[Then, separately, all of the Cambium antenna datasheets should show "downtilt" as positive down, negative up; or use the word "tilt" instead. Listing downtilt as negative down is technically incorrect.

Other manufacturers appear to correctly list downtilt as postive down (i.e., Ubiquiti, KP Performance, Mimosa, etc.).]