Using PTP 550 with a Reflector Dish or a larger satellite dish

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1

I would like the opinion on the possibility of using the PTP 550 with a reflector dish such as from KP-Performance or a larger satellite dish to increase the total gain. My worry is that the small 8 degrees beamwidth is small to actually reflect on much of the reflector dish surface area thus negating the advantages of using a reflector dish however big it is. Also if my assumption is correct would it be better to use the PTP 450 with a larger dish of say 120cm (4ft) as compared to buying the PTP 550. Any comments and opinions will be most helpful and greatly appreciated.

2

Eh, I’d avoid use a reflector dish with the PTP550, or any PTP links for that matter. You’re going to get better gain, front to back ratio, isolation, etc. out of a parabolic dish, not to mention if you have snow, you can get a radome to protect the feed horn.

For environments with high interference, or nNLOS challenges, or multi-path issues, use PTP670

For environments with clean spectrum, and lots of it, use PTP550

I’d probably avoid the PTP450 altogether unless you’re wanting to do something in a band other then 5GHz, or you happen to have some PMP450b radios that you want to use as PtP’s to save a bit of money.

3

Hi, thanks for the info. I’d like to add that I reside in the tropics so no snow but the link I’m planning is 50km in a very very noisy RF environment thus the need to add more gain, more isolation, more everything in order to have a good signal as well as reasonable bandwith. I can only use the unlicensed 5GHz channels so my considerations or options factoring in costs and utility are:

  1. Airfiber 5 AF 5 - (Currently acquired from a closing isp at reasonable cost )
  2. Ptp 450 - (Currently acquired as well with kp performance 23’’ reflector dishes )
  3. Ptp 550 - (Unavailable but considered as an option)

I also have 2 satellite reflector dishes of 120cm (4ft) thus hoping to pair them up with the ptp 450. Any thoughts …???

4

Buy PTP670’s and the biggest, highest quality dishes you can find/afford.

5

Hello Vik, try to plan your links using LINKPLanner first. Over 50 KM, 1.2 m dish should be Ok on such link if there is no much interference on the PTP 550, PTP 450i connectorized radios. Now, how much capacity you want to push on your links. If this is beyond 100 Mbps, that is where I do recommend you the PTP 670 connectorized with the 1.2 meters dish. Beyond 200 Mbps, go for the licensed radio 6-11 GHz band (PTP 820S or 820C) with 0.6-1.2 meters based on region climate conditions, the performance will be great.

6

@Olympe & @Eric_Ozrelic Thanks for the reply. Which type of dishes and from which company or examples would you recommend. Thanks.

7

Hello Vik,

You can consider Cambium Networks dishes:

  1. PTP Dish Antenna, 4.9-6GHz 4-ft (1.2m), 34 dBi, High Performance Dual-Polarization Antenna with 2x N-Female Connectors (Replaces RDH4510B) at https://www.winncom.com/en/products/RDH4510C

  2. PTP Dish Antenna, 5.25-5.85GHz 3-ft (0.9m), 32.3 dBi, High Performance Dual-polarization at https://www.winncom.com/en/products/RDH4509B

  3. PTP Dish Antenna, 4.9-6GHz 4-ft (1.2m), 35 dBi, Standard Performance Dual-Polarization Antenna with 2x N-Female Connectors (Replaces RDH4505B) at https://www.winncom.com/en/products/RDH4505C

  4. PTP Dish Antenna, 4.9-6GHz 3-ft (0.9m), 32 dBi, Standard Performance Dual-Polarization Antenna with 2x N-Female Connectors (Replaces RDH4504B) at https://www.winncom.com/en/products/RDH4504C

Either 0.9 m or 1.2 m will work on 50 Km link. Use these dishes on the 4.9-5 GHz radios (PTP 450i, PTP 550 or PTP 670) only.

All the best!

Niragira Olympe

8

What about offset parabolic dishes with ptp 450 . What size are would we be looking at for example…???

9

Hello Vik,
I apologize for late replay. I would not recommend offset parabolic dishes for terrestrial long range links. Do refer to the BOM from LINKPlanner.

Sincerely yours,

Niragira Olympe

10

There is a Connectorized version of the PTP550 - so that you can connect larger parabolic dishes for increased range and performance. I wouldn’t use the panel antenna version and then try to use a reflector - but we have links using the version built for external antennas, and those work as expected.