I’ll go first.
We survey every site before scheduling an installation. We use 900MHz gear, and our survey rig is a 5’ mast with a radio and a Maxrad 10dBi flat panel on it. The radio is configured at full power, 2x mode. We will climb a tv tower as available and if none is, we add up to two 10’ sections of mast to get as high as the structure will practically allow. We survey from the place where we will mount the radio to minimize surprises.
What we consider to be an acceptable link is a site that will register and link test at least 75% both directions. Assuming we get closer to 75% than 100%, we’ll upgrade the antenna to be used to achieve acceptable results. We consider a link solid if after full installation we link test above 90%/90% at either 1x or 80%/80% at 2x. I know that the manual says 45% at 2x is equal to 90% at 1x, but we’ve had to revisit sites at those levels, so we’ve upped our standards.
I’m guessing that 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios may act differently, so as you post, please specify what band you’re using.
Thanks!
We use 900MHz gear…Our survey techniques are close to the same. We use a telescopic 30’ pole. Start at 10 feet and work our way up.
An acceptable link to me is something with no more than -81 or -82 dBm. Although we have 2 links at -83dBm and they work with 100% uptime. This pretty much varies location to location though.
We never use panels, however, we always start the link test with a 14dBi yagi, work our way to a 17dBi and if that link works but has a high jitter, we’ll use a grid dish if we have to.
Link test has to be 85/85 1x. I don’t like any jitter higher than 4 in 1x or any RSSI lower than 1275 but if all other criteria meet, I do it on a case-by-case basis.
My recommendation…dont look at dBm to determine a good link.
I would recommend that you disable 2X for the SM you are aiming to remove the 1x/2x guesswork. Use the headset to get aimed in the right direction. Next start a ping to a device behind the AP (I know its not connected yet but start one because the Jitter values will not update unless user data is present)
After that use alignment mode to get the lowest jitter. Perform link tests to get better than 90% up and down.
Personally I dont understand the whole site survey method but I know a lot of people do it. I would recommend each crew having the tools to install and know your potential coverage area. Dont spend two truck rolls on a customer, each truck roll costs your company 1-2 months of that potential end users service when you pay the crew and gas. If you can get the customer during the site survey then install them. If you cant then explain the difficulties of attenuation, high noise floors, etc.
Canopy_Support wrote:
Personally I dont understand the whole site survey method but I know a lot of people do it. I would recommend each crew having the tools to install and know your potential coverage area. Dont spend two truck rolls on a customer, each truck roll costs your company 1-2 months of that potential end users service when you pay the crew and gas. If you can get the customer during the site survey then install them. If you cant then explain the difficulties of attenuation, high noise floors, etc.
I personally couldnt agree more. We will usually group a bunch of "drive by" site surveys together to weed out the "no way in hell" (or if the installers are in the area,repairs,etc) if the drive by looks good we will continue with the install. we have never had a case where we had LOS and couldnt get a good link.
Every truck role is money, each truck role costs me about $45
(labor,gas,materials)
1 truck role installation = ~ $420 (assuming $100 for labor,$250 for modem, $70 for gas/materials
2 truck role installation (sitesurvey,etc) = ~ $480-$500 almost 2 months longer of not getting profit from that customer.
what ever you charge for installation will obviously help that cost, but in most cases you are still not making profit for 3-6 months.
If there are anyways around the profit/loss for the first year that i am over looking lemme know :-)
900mhz
13, 11, 9 dBi Yagis.
12.5dBi Integrated Canopy
Link Test:
1x 95%/95%
2x 85%/85%
RSSI/Jitter:
1250/<5 (2x & 1x)
I record latitude/longitude, bearing, distance, elevation, accuracy from GPS readouts. Also, run bandwidth tests, and ping latency tests.
All-in-all, about 15 minutes worth of time per survey. Depending on how the situation turns out.
you also have a really cool van 
vince wrote: you also have a really cool van :-P
Yeah, I dunno what I'd do without 'er. Probably be out there holding 5 10' poles off the ground. =(
Kewl, Van!!
It must be nice to be rich
I don’t even know what to say =P
clueless wrote: Kewl, Van!!
It must be nice to be rich
haha...i doubt the van was that much $$$$
vince wrote: [quote="clueless":39jhfuow]Kewl, Van!!
It must be nice to be rich
haha...i doubt the van was that much $$$$[/quote:39jhfuow]
it's not the van that's important, it's the mast, 7kw generator, air compressor, rack servers inside that make it worth the $$$. =P
Some interesting files you have in your FTP directory there, rjk
=P
Sorry I was curious!
That van is pretty awesome though, what do you think you have invested in it ballpark if you don’t mind me asking?
Chas wrote: Some interesting files you have in your FTP directory there, rjk
=P
Sorry I was curious!
That van is pretty awesome though, what do you think you have invested in it ballpark if you don't mind me asking?
~$15k
That van is great!
Are you able to articulate the tilt?
The mast has a rotator atop with 360 degree rotation with up/down tilt.
I can plug in the control unit to my laptop and have the antenna auto-aim toward our tower with precise measurements via the given bearing provided by the GPS unit.
It’s pretty handy. =P
EDIT:
woops, i noticed in my last post i said “~15k” I mean ~5k. We purchased it from an old local TV station for around $8k. Put some hydraulic jacks on it, rack mount, battery system, and a new rotator. I was told the mast is worth almost $25k alone. The van isn’t much of a looker, but it’s guts are the glory.
/EDIT
where are the van pictures?
Yes please, repost the pictures
The mast has a rotator atop with 360 degree rotation with up/down tilt.
I can plug in the control unit to my laptop and have the antenna auto-aim toward our tower with precise measurements via the given bearing provided by the GPS unit.
What kind of rotor and program are you using?