Signal Strength Ratio

Hi there,

Hope everyone is doing well. 

I'm I correct in my thinking that when reading the Signal Strength Ratio , the differance between Vertical and horizontal  should be as small as possible ?

-steph

Hi, 

Yes, In the absence of moderate to strong interference, they should be as small as possible. But in many cases, there can be a interferer on one of the pols leading to a difference in SNR. 

A misalignment can also cause this. If the SM is on its side lobe for instance, this will result in a difference in Signal strength of each pol which in turn will result in difference in SNR. But the first indication of a misalignment will be the signal strength on the two polarizations.

Thnaks,

Sriram

Ah thanks for the reply , makes more sense now :)

I've found that it can be an indicator of reflections or multipath as well.  If I get a large difference, then I keep aligning to see if I can bring it down without sacrificing overall signal strength.  An 80/80 signal should be a more stable than a 78/82.

Ultimately, though, link capacity is king.  If I have a really wide area of what appears to be good signal, I'll use link capacity to determine where the best spot really is.

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I've also seen where (unnamed antenna manufacturer's) dual-pol omni pattern really sucks. Lots of nulls that lead to imbalanced SSR and in turn SNR, which then leads to MIMO-A operation.