Hello. I have a problem that is somewhat strange. First here is my setup
RB433 WLAN1 STATION_WDS(L1) --------- WLAN1 BRIDGDE (L1-L2)RB433 BRIDGE WLAN2 -------- (L2)STATION_WDS RB433
So i have 3 RB433. L1 with one RB52 card inside, L1-L2 with 2 RB52 card inside, and finally L2 with one RB52 inside.
All equipment are mounted in a mast at the height of approx 20meters, the antennas used is a 19dBi panel antenna, the lenght between L1 and L1-L2 is around
700meters, between L1-L2 and L2 there is around 300meters, so this is small distances and I use the antenna to be able to lower the output since this is a harbor and i don’t want to crowd the air. The whole thing run in 2,4 since 5gHz is not a option in the harbor with ships radar and such.
This is the layout.
Now to the problem. We start with link L1 to L1-L2, the lineup is accurate and is total clear of sight. When the link L1 comes up it comes up with around -83-90 dbm signal
the S/R is around 15-28dB and a CCQ of aroun 35-40. This is at the TX power of 7. Ok, so i drop the Tx power to around 5, and the links drops. So now to the strange part, whatever i change the TX power to from 7-19 it doesn’t effect the signal a bit, i mean nothing happens. I do this with the setting of all manual_power. This is driving me crazy. Could it be bad pigtails, bad Antennas. Is there some what to test this really out? I have set the antenna gain to 0 and manual on the regularity domain.
Are those figures for link L1 when the other card is enabled!!
If so try disabling other card and concentrate on L1 firstly.. I would anticipate -40dbm.
Could be that the other card is swamping the sensitivity of the one next to it.
What channels are you using…
Try turning down the power to as low as you can go. See if that improves things.. Over a distance like you quote I could immagine a huge signal, from what I have read, sometimes some manufacturers card cant cope with huge signals.
Are you sure you have selected the correct antenna in your wireless settings? Thats the sort of signal level you might expect on an unterminated antenna connection!
Sometimes its not such a good idea to have 2 cards working within the same band on the same RB… Of course that depends on the quality of the card and its screening around the RF section and the quality of the pigtails.
Make sure that the pigtails are routed so that they are seperated as best as you can.. Or try it in seperate enclosure. I prefer metalised enclosures on sites that run more than one service.
Thanks for the input.
I have tried this with the other card disabled since im concentrating on one link.
The board and card is mounted in a enclouser of thick aluminium. I as well had assumed a link of around -35 to -40. This was what I have calculated for.
So as I see it I have to climb up and check the pigtails first and see how that turns out. More ideas on general setup and ideas is most welcome.
After climbing up and changed all the pigtails I’ve got a stable link, like it was supposed to be from the beginning.
Now we have around -40 to -50 in signal strenght, the average ping time in the whole section is around 2ms stable.
When fully load the link with maximum download over the link we get a stable ping time of around 30-40ms.