Anyone used the new RF Elements TwistPort feedhorn sectors? http://www.rfelements.com/products/wireless-broadband/twistport-adaptors/overview/
I'm looking at deploying them on our tower that sits 1700' above the town. Current sectors have too narrow of a vertical beam to hit the entire area. Clients are close in (1 mile to 4 miles) so I think I can sacrifice a few dBi of gain to get a much taller pattern.
I have a buddy that's interested in doing practically the same thing. He mentioned that RF Elements told him that it wasn't shipping yet... still in beta?
Streakwave has the 30, 60, and 90 degree units in stock as well as many of the radio adapters.
True and not true. They have the 30, 60 and 90 sectors and the adatpers for all radios except the ePMP and the Ubiquiti Rocket 5AC PtMP. Those are the only two radios I am using and need adapters for. I just got a letter from the CEO of RF Elements and he says both of those adapters should be available in the next couple of weeks. There were some last minute hardware tweaks that needed to happen on both as requested by Cambium and Ubiquiti, I guess.
Was just looking at those, but am concerned that the ePMP1000 adapter specs state it is for frequencies from 5.4ghz to 5.9ghz. I don't know about others, but we use the 5.1-5.2 end of the spectrum about 60% of the time. (quite a few PTP600 and similar backhauls living in 5.7-5.8, plus more significant noise floor across our service area)
I'd want to know what performance we'd see with 5170-5250 frequencies before considering them. (although with the 3dB-lower transmit power limit in FCC for 5.2 vs 5.8, I don't know if we could afford the ~5dB weaker performance compared to the ePMP 90 degree sector)
j
Totally agree with your comments. I am waiting for my ePMP adapter to arrive. I have an ePMP on a 60 sector now with some test clietns running at 5.2. I am going to swap the radio to a TwistPort 60 degree sector and test throughput at both the 5.2 channel and an open channel up around 5.8. I want to see what happens to the speed. RF Elements states that they are recieving successful feedback with ePMPs down in 5.2 but I will believe it with my own eyes. I'll report my findings. I have the Twist Port sectors, just waiting on the ePMP adapters.
newkirk wrote: I'd want to know what performance we'd see with 5170-5250 frequencies before considering them.
Their spec sheets says that the 17dBi 2x2 version should work fine at 5.1-5.2, but it looks like the 20 dBi 2x2 version drops off the map below 5.4Ghz
The antenna and adapter will set you back less than $200. Buy one and try it out.
The bigger concern I have is that people think this is a "fix" for a problem that they have. The datasheets provided by RF Elements have clear frequency plots down to the bottom of the range they officially support. Beyond that will have to be tested in the field. The actual horizontal beamwidths may surprise some folks once they deploy these. I see these as a very useful tool for specific situations. They are in no way an all-purpose sector.
@Jacob Turner wrote:The antenna and adapter will set you back less than $200. Buy one and try it out.
The bigger concern I have is that people think this is a "fix" for a problem that they have. The datasheets provided by RF Elements have clear frequency plots down to the bottom of the range they officially support. Beyond that will have to be tested in the field. The actual horizontal beamwidths may surprise some folks once they deploy these. I see these as a very useful tool for specific situations. They are in no way an all-purpose sector.
Yes. I see them as a good addition to normal sectors to point at locations with many cpes. They don't have the pattern of normal sectors. What makes them usable is the very high FB Ratio which helps with loaded towers. These FB ratio differs very much between different simper models. So take a deeper look into datasheets before ordering. The epmp adapter is still not available.
Thought I'd re-open this conversation. The new version 2 adapter for ePMP is out for the TwistPort horn. This one is designed to go from 5.2 to 5.8 (old one would not go below 5.4) and it supposedly has better shielding.
I swapped out a version 1 adapter as well as a 120 degree RF Elements sector with two of the version 2 adapter / horns. I was honestly blown away by the performance increase between the sector and the horn. The version 1 horn and version 2 horn comparison was pretty close. Little better RSSI but about the same. However, the sector vs horn was no comparison. RSSI improved about 8 dBi, SNR improved and speeds to my clients increased on a couple SMs, especially upload speeds
I did go from a 120 degree sector to a 60 degree horn so there is much less noise entering the antenna. In addition, the lower gain of the horn allowed me to increase the power output a bit. We are on top of a 1700' mountain so subscribers are a ways out (1.5 miles is considered close). Extra power helps.
I'm pretty satisfied with these and will be looking to use them in future AP deployments. Only drawback with the horn is they start to get pretty large if you need a wide pattern. But I think the goal is to put more APs up with smaller patterns - if you have the channels...