Yes…I am running them in 906, 915, 924…I am going to wait and change out my sector antenna’s now. I have some screen shots of the Spectrum and will post them when I get to the office. I do have them all set to different color codes and all the other settings like control slots and downlink and stuff are all the same on all three AP’s. Thanks for the support…
I wouldn’t change out the AP’s until you have verified the noise floor to be unacceptable. Do you have a 900 SM w/ integrated antenna to test with?
No…All mine are conectorized…The noise was pretty bad throughout the whole spectrum…
That will likely drop up to 15dB with the horizontal antennas. As I mentioned very city, county, and state agency uses vertical omnis.
I think even SCADA systems on 900 use omnis as well.
That’s what I am hoping for Jerry…If it does drop 10 DBM that will stabilize the links. Hopefully that will also help on my distance problems as well
I see all kinds of tree thickness in my area. Dense to me is 150ft pine trees that are 5 feet apart. 900 is good but it cannot go even 1000ft through that.
I install no customer with worse than a -72db signal level in 1X mode.
I would suggest like others that you use the 120deg MTI horizontal antenna. You will want to get a few 14 and 17 dbi M2 yagi antennas. Also get an Integrated 900 SM. There are times when the integrated panel will outperform even a 17 yagi.
Once you get the hang of 900 in dense forest you will be able to do surveys in about 1 hour or so. I find it takes me about 3-4 months of two installs a day to teach a new guy to learn 900 in my area.
Putting as much distance between the SM and the first trees will help quite a bit. Also sometimes going lower (closer to the ground) will increase signal by reducing the number of trees in the way. You also need to be careful that trees swaying in the wind do not cause dropouts. When you go to mount an SM be sure that you can move it left, right, up, and down at least 5 feet and maintain a good signal.
And if all else fails find a tree climber and have them mount the SM 10ft from the top of the tallest tree. I have over 100 SMs like this in the field for many years now.
What kind of trees are you dealing with?
Well, they call my area the Piney Woods of East Texas! But we have all kinds here but must of them are pine trees. I did get my new sector antenna’s today so I am installing them over the weekend. I should know by next week if this fixes my problems. I will get some of those Yagi’s comming in the mean time.
Well, I happy to report so far so good. Changing out the Sector antenna’s was a great advice. I have now been succesfully conecting new users. Thanks again for all the support and help. I have an install everyday after work this week and next…
Many thanks!
You the man Jerry!
You have not seen the bil for consulting yet…just kidding. glad its working
lol…Thanks Jerry!
I will be glad when you training materials come out…
I took all of the tilt out and gained a lot of area.
ClineC005 wrote: I have just fired up my starter kit on a 105 ft. tower…I have three access points that are 900mhz and have 3 120 degree sector antennas hooked to those. I have a 2 degree downtilt on them. Not sure if the tilt thing is my issue or not but I cannot get a good lock on an SM at 2.87 miles out. I tried a 13 db yagi antenna and the panel antenna it came with. I have it set for 1x and I can see the AP at times but the link is very poor -85DDBM with a jiter of 9…What am I doing wrong? I thought I would get great coverage on 900 mhz…I live in a very dense wooded area. But the top of my tower is well above the tree line…Is my tilt messing me up? Should this be set to 0? Any ideas would be great…Also, would not mind talking to a few more experence members on the private PM or even the phone…Any help would be appreciated…I have not slept in 3 weeks now…
Thanks
ClineC005 (New Guy)
P.S. I love the site…I have read so much my eyes hurt…