We are planning to replace two nodes on a local tower that have been up for maybe 4 years. They are Ubiquiti bullets with omnidirectional antennas. One on 2.4 and one on 5ghz. We would like to replace with something and the question is what. We have not built up a AREDN network in the area but have been trying to get activity in the area. Cost per say is not an issue but reliability is since they are not readily accessible. We are planning on tower work this summer so it will be easy to replace what is there now.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.
Barney K3LA
Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.
Barney K3LA
Highly suggest that you go with something dual polarity. Are you getting any activity with your current setup? Maybe something with sector antennas, either UBNT Rocket of Mikrotik Basebox and Sector antenna(s). Do you have any particular areas that you wish to have coverage? Unless you are mounted on "top" of a tower, the Omni isn't probably going to do much for you due to tower shading off the back side. Concentrate on 5GHz, 2.4GHz around here is almost totally useless anymore due to overload and congestion issues.
Do you really need 360 degree coverage?
Would 1 or 2 or 3 'panel' devices do as well (each 60 degree coverage and << $)?
73, Chuck
Ubiquiti and Mikrotik report their beamwidths at -6 dB (1/4 power) rather than the traditional -3 dB point. So users on the fringes of the coverage may not get as good of a link as they might expect. Our rule of thumb here is to overlap sector antennas by at least 20 degrees to avoid that zone of reduce coverage. While that means if you need 360 degree coverage, four sectors would be needed (that would be 30 degrees overlap). For many high level installations, users are usually bunched together (in communities, etc), meaning 360 degree coverage isn't really needed. As they say, your mileage may vary!
Orv W6BI
I just wrote a proposal for a similar site. Send me an email and I'll email you back the proposal. It will show you what I propose for a 120deg sector. Very similar to what was suggested above, but like 40 pages of detail in my proposal to the site owner (a municipality) and the sponsor agency (a ham radio club). It includes extensive RF modeling and details on the backhaul link and expected connection quality. That proposal is for a point to point back haul link and a single 120deg sector. You could add additional sectors to make it a 360deg coverage site. We are hoping to build out this water tower site this summer, pending approval at a board meeting in two weeks. Feel free to steal anything from that proposal.
My email address is good on qrz.
I'm happy to share with anyone else that would like it, but there are some details on it that I'd prefer to not post publicly. I write construction specifications for a living, so it is an area I have some experience in.