Well, I have all of my new 450i 900 gear in hand, lab/table tested as I am still learning many of the settings and options. This will be replacing a ubquity (ubnt) 900 sector that I have on the tower. I will be posting my speeds -signal and noise reading once I have it mounted on the tower. I also have ubnt 2.4 gear on that same tower which will be either replaced by epmp or another 450I. So far everthing looks great, very well constructed gear in comparison to ubnt.
One thing that is interesting is that on my ubnt gear I had a noise reading while using the spectrum analyzer at my house (prior to putting on the tower) of -83 on the lower channels from 902 to 906 and I also had some high noise at the very end of the spectrum as well around 925 or so. I dont see this noise with the 450I gear. the noise floor is -100 on 10 mhz channels. I do see the noise -83 of my current ubnt gear which is expected and right where it should be. Is there some sort of filtering that 450i is doing from posible cell tower blead or something? I am glad it is not there and I will have a better view once it is on the tower but I know my unbt gear read it at my house prior to installling it and it still reads it on the tower.
The missing: I really wish there were a 10 or 12 DBI 45 slant panel antenna option so I could give some clients a option on appearance.
Table Test: I had the ap/antenna in a garge on the floor about 100 yards from my house pointed in complete opposite direction of my house using a 10 mhz channel with a sm in my home in a back room so it had to go through about 6 walls 2 exteriors and laying on the floor. Speed tests were 25 down 20 up. I know 900 goes through alot but it was still impressive. I plan on putting my sector up on the 13th and will post ubnt readings VS 450i readings and speeds.
The missing: I really wish there were a 10 or 12 DBI 45 slant panel antenna option so I could give some clients a option on appearance.
I think that the use of a yagi on the SM side represents Cambium's best attempt at a mix/compromise between price, performance and size. That being said, there are a couple of 3rd party flat panel antennas out there, you just have to look for them. Here's an example of one, but if you look at the price and the gain, I think the yagi makes more sense. A 10 or 12dBi panel antenna for 900MHz will have a very large footprint and (IMHO) be ugly looking in an equal, but different way from a yagi.
After doing some more research on 900MHz flat panel options, I found this antenna made by mimomax.com (PDF spec sheet included) which at first glance looks pretty amazing specification-wise... dual-pol, 16dBi gain all in one flat panel package! Hmmm... what's the size? 3 feet wide, by 1.6 feet tall and 2.3 inches thick. Talk about a billboard!
Everything that I've found is big and/or ugly, and a lot of it isn't really tuned for 900-930MHz... most of the antennas I end up find are tuned for a wider range, or lower band like 800MHz because they're really meant for use with certain cellular carriers.
You could just use two separate patch panels (or two monster 17dBi yagi's!!) which would give you a bit more spatial diversity (possibly a slight boost in performance depending on how far apart they are) at the cost of slightly more attenuation introduced by having to use longer RF jumpers and adapters. It might just be a wash though.
I love the new 900 gear 10,000 times better than UBNT gear. I wnat some more sectors but have to wait to justify the cost. I am also waiting for another option in a mimio panel style antenna. All my clients have been impressed with the new gear as well. Handles gamers just fine as well.
HEy pgator17 i would like to talk to you about how you setup your new 900 gear. I have been having trouble lately with it. IF you could contact me that would be great, I am in the process of changing out all my old canopy and ubnt equipment. Right now i have two 65 degrees sectors on a 200foot tower, having throught put issues from the Client side. Any input would be very helpful.
KP Performance was showing a (relatively) high gain panel and a high gain black yagi at WISPAmerica, both dual slant. They were bigger than I would like, but if you want the gain ...
Also, the panel had N connectors and the jumpers would have to be fairly long.
KP Performance was showing a (relatively) high gain panel and a high gain black yagi at WISPAmerica, both dual slant. They were bigger than I would like, but if you want the gain ...
Also, the panel had N connectors and the jumpers would have to be fairly long.
Nothing new on KP's website... did they mention when these new antennas would be available?
Just spoke to KP performance on the Phone mentioned all of the above info and they said expect a 90 degrees 900 sector antenna shortly, panels/17dp yagis very shortly as well. didn't give a date.