17 km wireless link

Hello, I would like to know if you could point me in a right direction. I need to make a 17 km wireless link and would like to know what antennas should I use as well as the best wireless mini pci suited for the job.
I have a clear line of sight.

All your comments are welcome!!!

Regards,
Ignacio

5.8 Ghz radio for Throughput. Routerboard 532,333,433 whichever you want just with good cpu power, on both ends of your link. And for a radio the R52 or R52H or the ubiquiti sr5.

Then for antennas, i suggest good 28 dbi gain antenna’s from pacific wireless…


Thats a pretty good setup… Just don’t go over your FCC limits.. High gains plus high power cards can easily go over your limits. But that should give you good throughput on each end…



Also H-POL mite be the way to go with those directional antenna, to keep away from interfernece.. Im sure others will chime in with what they believe to be a good setup to so good luck. -Jordan

Thank you, do you recommend that I use an amplifier with this setup?
Regards,
Ignacio

No not at all, amplifier will send you way over your FCC limits and also incure noise.. This setup should more than enough to do what you need. -Jordan

I have a backhaul link of exactly 17.19km using RB532s with sr5s and 22dB parabolic antennas at each end.

An interface monitor report at the station end reads:

status: connected-to-ess
band: 5ghz
frequency: 5200MHz
tx-rate: 6Mbps
rx-rate: 6Mbps
ssid: “ccct”
bssid: 00:15:XX:xx:xx:xx
radio-name: “Jill”
signal-strength: -76dBm
tx-signal-strength: -77dBm
noise-floor: -101dBm
signal-to-noise: 25dB
tx-ccq: 57%
rx-ccq: 65%
p-throughput: 27879
wds-link: no
nstreme: yes
polling: yes
framing-mode: none
routeros-version: “3.0rc10”
802.1x-port-enabled: yes
authentication-type: wpa2-psk
encryption: aes-ccm
group-encryption: aes-ccm
compression: no
current-tx-powers: 6Mbps:16,9Mbps:16,12Mbps:16,18Mbps:16,24Mbps:16,36Mbps:14,48Mbps:13,54Mbps:12
notify-external-fdb: no

CCQ isn’t great and a stronger antenna would probably help, but it suffices.

That CCQ has been bothering me as I don’t recall seeing it that low before and the last couple of times I checked it has been up around where I expected it - Tx/rx CCQ 80/75. The link runs NE-SW and the time the above reading was taken, mid-morning, the sun would have been close to an alignment with it. Moreover the link falls from 490m to around 50m with the high end to the North (we’re Southern Hemisphere) so the alignment would have been even closer, and it was a clear autumn day.

Anyone know if the sun can affect 2.4GHz if it gets in-line with the LoS?

Why? Would it improve the link?

This is my gateway router and if it goes down so does the entire network’s Internet connection. And it’s a 2.5hr, very expensive, drive each way for me to access it by ether or serial. So far my attempts to upgrade anything v3 have been unhappy so I’ve adopted the motto, 'If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it."

Probably true, but the RIC522T ain’t available in this neck of the woods, and trying to import one would probably provide employment for at least two customs staff for the next three years.

Why do you say that? There’s not much else in the 802.11a spectrum 'round here.