A few days ago the installers came to my house, spent 10 mins, said “Nope can’t do it” then left. I was so looking forward to broadband!!
Here are the particulars that I know right now.
LaGrange, Indiana
I am approx. 4.5 miles ESE from tower.
Canopy 900 AP mounted at 225 feet.
Tower is located at N41° 38.00 W85° 24.898
House is at N41° 36.431 W85° 20.289
I live on a lake.
The test was performed with a connectorized SM with a flat panel antenna. The rep on the phone said they would be using a 13dB yagi.
I really, really want to try to figure out why this isn’t working. I can be the hero of a number of people around this area 
Any/All help would be greatly appretiated
Bob
Just out of curiosity what exactly did the installer say? did he give a reason. terrain, outside interferance?
What they said was that they had no signal from the AP. I tried to talk to them about it but they weren’t very interested in discussing the problem.
Just by looking at google earth of both locations it looks like the elevation increases between you and the tower like a very gradual hill. Also several hundred yards from your location in the direction of the tower their are two large groves of trees that look pretty thick. The signal is probably hitting the ground before it reaches the trees if not the trees are probably taking the rest of the signal away. From the trees it looks like the ground slopes even more down to the lake where the houses are. Just my 2 cents.
If you think you have several neighbors interested find someone around you who has a windmill or grain elevator or something tall. If you can see the tower from their and the majority of the houses on the lake then call the provider and tell them you have 5 customer’s who want service and that you have found them a location to provide service from. Tell them they could put up a remote AP for next to nothing and see if they go for it.
If they came out with a flat panel, that’s probably the 8dbi panel antenna. Not the same as the 13dBi Yagis we use. Also, unless they tried from the roof, they did not try hard enough.
I am 6 miles out firing though a stand of trees on a 13dBi Yagi. I get 2400 down by 560 up.
As a bit of back story: The best dial-up connection we ever get out here is 24k. Usually it’s more like 21.6
To attitude0330:
I am going to talk to the neighbors over the next few days. There are at least 15 of us who are screaming for something better. And guess what? One of them has a farm with a TALL grain silo. I guess I’ll have to go over and look around from up there. (i am afraid of falling, but willing to brave it out) What would the cost to them be to install a remote AP? (I might even suggest to help pay for part of it if it would help them.)
Thanks for the info about the elevation. I used Google Earth from work yesterday and noticed tha same things. The crazy thing is I’m pretty sure I can see the beacon on the tower from my roof. Unless there is another one in the same direction.
To Jerry Richardson:
I thought that the least they could have done was try the yagi antenna they brought with them. They did go up on the roof, but that isn’t actually very high. I would have suggeted to have them use my TV mast. That’s over 60’ up there. But they didn’t really give me an opportunity. Guess I should have been more forceful.
ask them to come back out and bring a 17 db yagi and put it on that 60 ft tower you might get lucky
kenny
Info-Ed Inc.
If there really are 15 of you, the owner of the company will listen (I would anyway). If you were to offer them 1500 bucks (100 from each of you) that would more than cover the costs of the remote AP.
Then you would just pay the normal install fee for your house.
$100/person!!! That’s outragous!! Since the normal install is free I guess that isn’t so bad. But I think I will try out my mast first. Since I already have one.
typicail walmart shopper no wonder the installer left. Good Luck!
I agree. This is why we don’t focus on residential.
A DirectWay install is 599. We charge 299 so we are a deal, especially for folks that have no access. 100 bucks sure seems like a deal for broadband.
Good luck getting the installer to put it on the mast for a free install - I know I wouldn’t.
1500 would pay for the AP and the SM and the time to install it. Otherwise it’s not worth the time.
Oops, my mistake… Thought this forum would be populated by professional type people. Guess I should have known better.
If you would have thought about it for a minute you woud have guessed I was just joking. I already have the neighbors lined up now we just need to get the provider interested.
Also, remember we are only talking about 512 Kbps (Download) 128 Kbps (Upload) not exactly blazing speed, but much better then we have now.
Thanks for the help.
I like to think of myself as a ‘professional Canopy tech’… still learning new things everyday, whether it is hands on or from this forum.
You have a point!
Lets just analze the joke, $100/person!!! nope, no joke here. how about, That’s outragous!! no doesn’t seem to funny. and now let’s complain about the speed before we even get connected. remember we are only talking about 512 Kbps (Download) 128 Kbps (Upload) not exactly blazing speed.
Yes sir, Typical Wal-Mart shopper
Well, in case you’re interested…
I was able to get the installer to come back out and try it on my 60’. Works great!! No big deal either. Just swing the mast down, attach the antenna and SM and swing the mast back up. A little fine tuning for position and voila.
Sure am glad for the advice. Will be able to get most of the neighbors set up too.
Talk to you all later.
Goog deal - good thing the mast swung down easily. Installer probably loved that.
I apologize if I was rude, we get ALOT of folks that don;t see the value in what we do and it gets a little frustrating.