Well this has been a rude awakening - it would seem pretty much network wide (or at least 3 of our 6
transmission sites), our power levels have fallen through the floor. We’ve had a good rain - but I can’t see
why that would affect more than one site if we had connections that weren’t weather proofed very good.
Any other theories?
(Seems like we’ve seen this before - it comes and goes) - but never this bad…an example:
from April 17th:
LUID: 015 : MAC: 0a-00-3e-90-78-f0 State: IN SESSION (Encrypt Active)
Site Name : Pilcher, Charlie
Software Version : CANOPY 8.2.2
Software Boot Version : CANOPYBOOT 3.0
FPGA Version : 100207 (DES, Sched, US/ETSIv1.3.1) P9
Session Timeout: 0, AirDelay 130 (approximately 3.62 miles (19110 feet))
Session Count: 1, Reg Count 1, Re-Reg Count 0
RSSI (Avg/Last): 1260/1242 Jitter (Avg/Last): 8/8 Power Level (Avg/Last): -84/-84
Sustained Uplink Data Rate (APCAP): 20000 (kbit)
Uplink Burst Allocation (APCAP): 500000 (kbit)
Sustained Downlink Data Rate (APCAP): 20000 (kbit)
Downlink Burst Allocation (APCAP): 500000 (kbit)
Low Priority Uplink CIR (D): 0 (kbps) Low Priority Downlink CIR (D): 0 (kbps)
Rate : VC 31 Rate 2X/1X
from today:
LUID: 015 : MAC: 0a-00-3e-90-78-f0 State: IDLE
Site Name : Pilcher, Charlie
Session Timeout: 0, AirDelay 130 (approximately 3.62 miles (19110 feet))
Session Count: 31, Reg Count 191, Re-Reg Count 103
RSSI (Avg/Last): 1047/1013 Jitter (Avg/Last): 11/13 Power Level (Avg/Last): -90/-90
Sustained Uplink Data Rate (AP): 20000 (kbit)
Uplink Burst Allocation (AP): 500000 (kbit)
Sustained Downlink Data Rate (AP): 20000 (kbit)
Downlink Burst Allocation (AP): 500000 (kbit)
Low Priority Uplink CIR (D): 0 (kbps) Low Priority Downlink CIR (D): 0 (kbps)
Rate : VC 31 Rate 1X/1X
Same tower…
LUID: 016 : MAC: 0a-00-3e-90-0b-0c State: IN SESSION (Encrypt Active)
Site Name : Graham, Nell
Software Version : CANOPY 8.2.2
Software Boot Version : CANOPYBOOT 3.0
FPGA Version : 100207 (DES, Sched, US/ETSIv1.3.1) P9
Session Timeout: 0, AirDelay 115 (approximately 3.20 miles (16905 feet))
Session Count: 1, Reg Count 1, Re-Reg Count 0
RSSI (Avg/Last): 1300/1300 Jitter (Avg/Last): 4/4 Power Level (Avg/Last): -82/-82
Sustained Uplink Data Rate (APCAP): 20000 (kbit)
Uplink Burst Allocation (APCAP): 500000 (kbit)
Sustained Downlink Data Rate (APCAP): 20000 (kbit)
Downlink Burst Allocation (APCAP): 500000 (kbit)
Low Priority Uplink CIR (D): 0 (kbps) Low Priority Downlink CIR (D): 0 (kbps)
Rate : VC 32 Rate 2X/1X
today…
LUID: 006 : MAC: 0a-00-3e-90-0b-0c State: IN SESSION (Encrypt Active)
Site Name : Graham, Nell
Software Version : CANOPY 8.2.2
Software Boot Version : CANOPYBOOT 3.0
FPGA Version : 100207 (DES, Sched, US/ETSIv1.3.1) P9
Session Timeout: 0, AirDelay 116 (approximately 3.23 miles (17052 feet))
Session Count: 1, Reg Count 1, Re-Reg Count 0
RSSI (Avg/Last): 1182/1188 Jitter (Avg/Last): 6/5 Power Level (Avg/Last): -87/-87
Sustained Uplink Data Rate (APCAP): 20000 (kbit)
Uplink Burst Allocation (APCAP): 500000 (kbit)
Sustained Downlink Data Rate (APCAP): 20000 (kbit)
Downlink Burst Allocation (APCAP): 500000 (kbit)
Low Priority Uplink CIR (D): 0 (kbps) Low Priority Downlink CIR (D): 0 (kbps)
Rate : VC 22 Rate 2X/1X
from a completely different site some 15 miles away…
April 17th…
LUID: 003 : MAC: 0a-00-3e-90-0b-2e State: IN SESSION (Encrypt Active)
Site Name : Hancock, Amanda
Software Version : CANOPY 8.2.2
Software Boot Version : CANOPYBOOT 3.0
FPGA Version : 100207 (DES, Sched, US/ETSIv1.3.1) P9
Session Timeout: 0, AirDelay 63 (approximately 1.75 miles (9261 feet))
Session Count: 1, Reg Count 1, Re-Reg Count 0
RSSI (Avg/Last): 1309/1326 Jitter (Avg/Last): 8/9 Power Level (Avg/Last): -78/-77
Sustained Uplink Data Rate (APCAP): 20000 (kbit)
Uplink Burst Allocation (APCAP): 500000 (kbit)
Sustained Downlink Data Rate (APCAP): 20000 (kbit)
Downlink Burst Allocation (APCAP): 500000 (kbit)
Low Priority Uplink CIR (D): 0 (kbps) Low Priority Downlink CIR (D): 0 (kbps)
Rate : VC 19 Rate 2X/1X
then today…
LUID: 004 : MAC: 0a-00-3e-90-0b-2e State: IN SESSION (Encrypt Active)
Site Name : Hancock, Amanda
Software Version : CANOPY 8.2.2
Software Boot Version : CANOPYBOOT 3.0
FPGA Version : 100207 (DES, Sched, US/ETSIv1.3.1) P9
Session Timeout: 0, AirDelay 64 (approximately 1.78 miles (9408 feet))
Session Count: 38, Reg Count 51, Re-Reg Count 72
RSSI (Avg/Last): 1124/1121 Jitter (Avg/Last): 7/5 Power Level (Avg/Last): -85/-85
Sustained Uplink Data Rate (APCAP): 20000 (kbit)
Uplink Burst Allocation (APCAP): 500000 (kbit)
Sustained Downlink Data Rate (APCAP): 20000 (kbit)
Downlink Burst Allocation (APCAP): 500000 (kbit)
Low Priority Uplink CIR (D): 0 (kbps) Low Priority Downlink CIR (D): 0 (kbps)
Rate : VC 20 Rate 2X/1X
most of these customers were installed greater than a year ago so i don’t believe it’s foilage…
although i could be wrong…but this is pretty much systemwide. We are in the south -
and it’s already a headache.
help? 
thanks,
jay fuller
cyber broadband
brainstorming…between group members.
could it be moisture in the network cable?
what are the most common causes for drops of signal like this?
So these are all customers off different towers? Are they close to each other at all? Are all customers on the towers having reduced signals?
Moisture on leaves can cause problems like this, I’d be interested to see the numbers after everything has dried out.
what freq. is this?
id be willing to put my money on wet foliage.
it’s 900 mhz…customers are on two seperate towers. 2 of 6 from one tower - appeared to have maxrad flat panel antennas that possibly got water in them. the other antenna it’s possible has rotated about 10-15 degrees (it’s mounted on a pole). about to conduct tests for that now…by looking at map data. would have replied sooner but had to go fix stuff
Interesting assessment. Let us know your findings. I am only running at -79 where I live and it was raining hard yesterday and I was -85/-86 so I have to agree with the wet foliage. I really doubt you have water in the antennas.
On the brighter side if you were only using Maxrad antennas you can just upgrade to a higher gain antenna and probably be fine.
If you are using connectorized antennas and not properly sealing the connection, just a drop of moisture will degrade your signal.
yah…we replaced two maxrads with short yagis to fix 2 customers on one tower - one customer improved from 4% efficiency to 100%…although the power level was like -72 both ways.
on the other site we’re thinking the antenna got rotated - it’s a 120 sector and the last 10 degrees or so of the sector (actually 20 degrees, from 200 to 220 degrees) has lost about 5 db. we’re hoping to rotate it back today…need bucket truck for this
if your using those 7db max rads theyre junk. we have a crap load laying around in the shop we deinstalled because they dont work
yup…we came to that conclusion about two years ago…just have only uninstalled the ones we’ve come across. we probably had 20-30 in service…
i’d bet we have 10 in service now.