As many here may know I’m new to Wireless Broadband and Canopy so this may be a " well duh " for everyone except me.
This is a 900 MHz system-
I have an AP on top of a two story building (it’s just a test system) and a few days ago I went to install a SM at one of my bosses house. Long story short, something came up and I ended up leaving the SM on a tripod setting on their front porch. Their house is only 2058 ft (according to radios) from the AP and was shooting through every tree, building and random car for the entire 2058ft. But the SM set there for 4 days at about 77db and never had a single re-connect.
Anyway. Today I go back to actually install it. They wanted the CAT5 brought in to their daughter’s room because that was were the computer was. I installed it under the eve by the window. At 2058 ft from the AP and now two stories up I could almost see the AP ( well… there is a 3 story old mill building directly between them and the ap but it was there when the SM was on the porch for 4 days and everything was fine) so I just pointed straight at were I knew the AP was and hooked everything up.
After getting it all set up the signal was at 78db but jitter was jumping around from 3 to 15 and it was reconnecting a lot. So set the laptop up and get out there. The only real difference from when it was on the porch is that I was (1) now probably hitting the metal roof of the mill building instead of going straight through it. (2) I was up at the same height as the power lines about 200 ft away. I tried pointing it a little off to the side of the mill building, point it up a little , pointing it down a little. Nothing helped.
Then , I just happened to point the ( Maxrad panel ) antenna at the wall of the house, the house it was mounted to, the wall was just 10 inches from it. Suddenly I was at RSSI 1680, 61db and 1 jitter, rock solid. I set there and watched it for 20 minutes and it never budged.
I’m home now and I have been keeping an eye on it and so far in the last 2 hours it hasn’t budged, it’s rock solid. Upload/Download test is 100% both ways and everything looks great. But will this continue to work ?
The panel is turned with it’s edge pointing at the AP and facing the wall of the house (about 10 inches from the face of the panel ) at about a 45 degree angle to the wall. As near as I can figure , the wall of the house is acting as a reflector.
Is this a trick I can expect to use in future installs ? The wall of the house has got to be acting as a reflector , neither the wall nor the panel is facing the AP. It’s like a V one leg is the wall the other is the face of the panel antenna, the AP is is straight out from the mouth of the V. Is something like this reliable for long periods ?
Mmm multipath.
The radio is set up for hardware scheduling? Is it in 2x or 1x mode? 1x can be more reliable in terms of settling the jitter (from my experiences). I’ve been in the same predicament (sp) you have…except, I pointed the antenna (13dBi Yagi) into the side of a hill 90deg opposite of the direction of the tower the APs are located on and the signal was great…throughput was crap. It was ~10ms ping times, but throughput was about 300kbps. I re-aimed it toward the tower APs and the pings jumped a bit to about ~20ms but throughput was ~3.1mbps. Jitter was bouncy so I disabled 2x mode and placed it into 1x mode…stabalized the jitter and the signal has been solid for about 5 months now. (both in 2x and 1x the link tests proved 100%/100%) I don’t personally rely upon those “freak” signal acquisitions for long periods and never have.
I have seen similar things happen with 900. Sometimes you can get some really good reflections but then they will not work in 3-6 months.
I have a few customers who can only get a signal if the antenna is lower down. Raising the antenna makes everything worse.
There are also a few times when the damn thing only works in exactly one spot. I have a few customers where if the antenna moves more than 3 inches in any direction the signal goes from 70/2 to 82/10 in 1x mode.
I have never figured out exactly what is the cause at each location, but the links have been solid for more than 1 year.
I had one install on a 30’ T.V. antenna…
The SM + Antenna are just above roof level…if you go any higher, it turns to crap signal…any lower it turns to crap. There’s about a 5-10’ area that the signal is actually strong.
What’s funny is at let’s say roof level, if I aim the radio (Integrated) up ~10deg i get a signal…but if I physically move the radio up ~10ft. I lose the signal. HAH.
One of those head scratchers…
That is what I’m thinking, if it even lasts that long.
mattmann72 wrote: I have seen similar things happen with 900. Sometimes you can get some really good reflections but then they will not work in 3-6 months.
I guess given the concept of “ground bounce” that I’m looking at “wall bounce”. Maybe you have an example of roof bounce 
Is that system still in place and working ?
rjk wrote:
What’s funny is at let’s say roof level, if I aim the radio (Integrated) up ~10deg i get a signal…but if I physically move the radio up ~10ft. I lose the signal. HAH.
One of those head scratchers…
That particular setup has been in place for about 3 months…
You also might try getting it out from under the eave of the roof. Being under the eave sometimes will interfere and sometimes it will shield interference. You really have to try it and see what happens sometimes.