hi all new user to the fourms and canopy as well.my problem is simple i’m using canopy(900sm) to shoot across the worlds highest tides and i can see the effects so my question is does any one else shoot across water and do they have any problems with tides and any suggestions on how to combat the problem.and just in case anyone is wondering the tides are in the bay of fundy but more specific the minas basin average tidal rise and fall is 51 feet
We shoot across water a fair amount too and have found that using a bit more uptilt than you would normally on the SM side helps a great deal. You have less chance of RF reflection/refraction off the water by doing this.
Yes, you do lose a bit of power off the DB center beam but overall it is better than losing the link entirely when the tide comes up.
A higher gain, narrow vertical beamwith antenna on the SM side will help as well.
If your AP and SM are at different altitudes (AP being higher) this proces will help, if they are at the same elevations your other option would still be to use a higher gain, narrow vert beamwidth antenna on the SM, or more elevation on both ends.
Would Horizontal 900 make any difference? Just a thought.
Here is some interesting info i’ve found over time;
locate the SM where it does NOT have
a line-of-sight to the water. Basically, keep SM
out of any reflective paths from the water. It
does cause problems.
If the SM can “see” the water, then you will have
problems.
The simplest solution (already mentioned) is to elevate the antennas. Make
them look up above the LOS path. Even if you lose a couple of dB on each
end you may gain a smaller specular reflection fade depth. However, due to
the low gain at this freq, I doubt this helps much.
Switching to 5.8 GHz could fix the problem as 2.4 GHz links are vulnerable
to fading due to lower antenna gains. You also have higher interference
levels due to wider beamwidths. The 5.8 antenna “sees” much less to the
sides and above and below therefore the multipath from the water will not
have nearly the same amount of effect.
Pulling them back so you have terrain blocking reflection paths would most
certainly help.
The best way to fix this would be to get a dual band cyclone. If this is a
problems for AP to SM customers, use a dual band cyclone to the far end and
a local AP. Of course $$$ but not likely to have both frequencies faded at
the same time. Essentially adding frequency diversity to your system.
Space diversity could also help but it is impractical with canopy. If you
set up another set of radios on 5.8 and coupled them both together with
spanning tree or load balancing they you would have space diversity and
frequency diversity. That is always a winner when you are over the water.
If they are close to the water, you can sometimes get a better signal and
connection closer to the ground, not up higher. Try that.
i’m allready running horz pol and using 13 db cushcraft yaggi and i’m also not directly on the water i do have a half mile to mile buffer
in the next few weeks i’m going to place the ap up on a 70’ tower hopefuly that will solve my issues since right now its only on a 20’ tower