Through trees? uhhuh

I know this is a dumb question but i will ask anyway. Are you using a reflector dish? What is your background in. Are you an ISP or is it in RF? You seem like a very intelligent person and i dont want these questions to insult you. Could you give me the GPS location for that 95 foot tower and i will run a model of the location. I know you have invested alot of money as we have and i am sure everybody would like to help you solve your problem. Did you strictly go 900 or do you have other canopy modules in place? How are those working?

Not at all insulting.

Tower location:

30degrees 25.290N
094degrees 10.469W

86 Ft elevation

Very gracious, Thanks.

My background is 35 years Process Control Engineering, mainly with Honeywell, Inc. Very little to no RF. Lots of networking control and information systems.

Sorry, we are using the new integrated equipment. All 900mhz with the 9000APF APs. Presently, one cluster of 6 APs powered by CMM micro and GPS sync.

SMs also are integrated antenna units thus no reflector.

Equipment is very well organized with software and GUI. Upgrades are easy to understand and executable. Documentation lags revision numbers and not user friendly with regards to explanation of each selection. I have found this true with most industry vendors.

Now, if we can only make them work. :).

Testing today has revealed we connect consistently at 1 mile. Degradation starts and signal strength is very unpredictable at 1.5 and lost by 1.75 miles. We have made improvement.

In our area (Maryland’s Eastern shore) we see effective service ranges of 1.75 – 3.25 miles. Thick canopy can quickly shrink this to a 0.5 mile tenuous connection and near LOS has permitted registrations at 5.25 miles (at this distance, however, the RF link test reveals serious signal loss in both directions and reduced effective throughput of 50% or more).

If you are in the vertical, try using the 12 dBi omni from RFS (Tessco #98591) as it has given us good results (1.75 – 3.5 miles). We are testing a 9 dBi horizontal omni from RF Linx and the 900 MHz Cyclone has also given us good results.

If you have sufficient client density to require multiple APs, we have been getting 2.5 – 3 miles from the Canopy integrated units (check your down tilt as an installer can easily reduce your service area if they fail to plumb the unit)

wtkirk - now those appear to be realistic readings.

attitude - thanks for your kindness and support.

Jerry - thanks for the input and thoughts.

Motorola rep - great guy and great help. Thanks, Tom.

To all others, thanks for the support.

We have succeeded in consistent connectivity at 1 mile. At 1.25 - 1.5 miles signals begin to degrade and we pretty much lose it at 1.8 miles. This cannot support the WISP, given population density here. So we must get a range from 3 - 5 miles.

We have found pager and cell interference in the upper ranges at 925-930 range and also in the lower 900-902. We were able to avoid these with selective channel settings at 906NW/SE, 914N/S, 922NE/SW giving our minimum 8mhz separation. We stopped mast sway by lowering to its rest collar. (gets windy here) We established proper 'transmitting output power". In some cases, we only allowed the SM to scan it’s channel frequency. Lots of time taking spectrum readings radios on, radios off, AP side, SM side, multiple remote sites in all directions, etc.

We have concluded today that the radio signal strengths are just not there. We did find variations from SM radio to radio, one significant, but not enough to fault them as being bad ones. We will just have to assume all APs are okay unless future testing reveals no changes. (A lab test to measure radio performance is a must for incoming equipment.) We, therefore, conclude that we are just not high enough.

Tomorrow will begin some tests to determine actual needed height. This will be done by re-raising the 15 foot mast, achieving 110 feet and stabilizing it with guy wires. Then retest the signal strengths, calculate gain ratios and determine additional height requirements.

What if there is no signal gains? hmmmmmmm. Will leave no where for Motorola to run. :slight_smile:

Boy, these little scrawny, 60 foot, flat land pines and oaks just walk all over those other state’s tree densities and city buildings, huh? Then again, maybe we just have thicker air. LoL.

Thanks to all and kindest regards.

Update.

Raised mast 15 feet to 110 feet. Appreciable gains were acheived. Now connecting at 2 miles consistently and up to 2.5 miles at select sites.

We will be installing a new tower and will be a minimum of 150 feet. Wish list is a 180 feet but expense will dictate.

Again thanks to all. Any good deals on towers, please advise as cost is a major factor.

kindest regards,
Chappydean

Height is a double-edged thing as it will permit you to increase the effective range of your AP, but it will also expose the AP to more potential noise sources as well.

In my busy 900 MHz environment moving from 125’ to 250’ buys me almost nothing in terms of increased service radius.

Distance to the trees at the SM side appears to be a more significant factor in establishing a link.

If doing sectors, I would use the integrated sector AP at height as it has some shielding.