Hi all, Setting up an AP about a mile away from my first. About 100 Feet high, Clients are LOS and NLOS thats why im setting up 2.4Ghz/900mhz setup. But i need your guys experienced help… What do you all suggest for the 900mhz antenna’s. I like pacific wireless, im thinking of getting the 9.2 dbi antenna http://www.wlanparts.com/product/KP-20/KP20_900MHz_92dBi_OmniDirectional_Antenna.html
For Radio’s I plan on using the Xr2 for the 2.4Ghz, and for the 900mhz The Xr9.. Does anyone suggest the Sr9? Please give me your suggestions on the best performance Radio’s/ antenna’s
IM looking for Long distance stuff here, and good NLOS equipment because many are not quite LOS… Please give me your guys suggestions. and Let me know if the equipment posted are a good option or something different. Thanks a bunch guys/gals. -Jordan
One point I’ll make is that I would recommend the XR series over the SR series just for the MMCX connectors as they are more reliable and that’s important 100 feet up a tower.
ditto on the XR series. If nothing else, the MMCX is definitely a hardy connector, easier to change on a tower.
I’m using 12.5 dBi pac wireless omni for 2.4 and 8 dbi for 900, work pretty good so far. I’m hoping to get enough people on to run sectors, but 1 step at a time.
Another option, run two XR9 with 9 dBi yagi 180 from each other. I’ve read where several WISPs use the 9 dbi pac wireless yagi as a 180 degree sector and have pretty good performance. I’m using one in town right now, but I don’t have anyone on it yet. I’m still testing with friends an family on my AP before I connect actual customers on the AP in town.
How far have you been able to go NLOS Glen, Or just Barely LOS, tree tops. How far were you able to go with the omni.
I will try the Yagi thing, when i get enough clients but right now one step at a time. Where did you get your omni from? pac wireless? Thanks Glen. -Jordan
The only testing I’ve done so far was on my tower, and I’m limited by geography before signal. I get right at 2 miles north, south and west with both 2.4 and 900.
Signal is excellent, -75, right up to the point of complete loss, thats why I know its the land blocking me, as well as familiarizing myself with the terrain maps before I ever started. This is near line of sight. Non line of sight, I’ve gotten -85ish with 900MHz 2 miles away, but I didn’t try to get the antenna any higher than about 7 feet. I was riding around with my brother in the back of my truck with a 13dBi yagi on a piece of PVC pipe. Quick and dirty site survey. I also found out the next day my Ntype connector on my LMR400 had come apart, and I have not yet redone my 900MHz survey.
One note however, my two AP’s are 6.6 miles apart. When I scan for AP’s from the 2.4GHz AP in town (same AP as my 5GHz backhaul) it can see my AP at home. Both AP’s run R52H @ 24dB, 12.5dBi omni, signal from AP to AP is -80. I’m fairly confident I’ll be able to get 7+ miles out of the AP in town as the layout of the land works in my favor, quite different from the AP at my home.
whats pissing me off on my Long links (not really) But i have a backhaul link 1.5 Miles, 5.8 ghz 8602+'s on either end Rb112 on backhaul #1 Rb133 on #2 end, (also has Sr2 for AP) backhaul radio and AP radio in same routerboard. The thing is i have a good signal 72-68 36Mbps, but when i go to do a download i can only push about 4 maybe 5 megs. My NOC is pushing 10 Though… And i do not get anyweres close near the connection speed. I run a speedtest on the connection using TCP (routed Network, thanks Thom) I get about 8-10 MBPS Throughput. And that is creating its own packets to run the test on. I also notice that the speed goes up and down up and down, its not steady at all… noise floor is 94-98 100 noise floor on AP end. Anybody have any idea as to why i have this problem? thanks -Jordan
P.S Didnt mean to get off topic i am still interested in anteanna types cards etc etc. Where to buy, what kind.. Going to be buying shortly and need to know. as of right now i plan on going with 12 dbi pac wireless 2.4ghz omni with Xr2 . 900Mhz Omni 9dbi, with Xr9, all on RB 333’s… I just hope for good performance on 900mhz Like 5+ miles through tree tops. -Jordan
I got 3 miles for a test shot through trees before I started this project. Signal was pretty poor, but as I said before, the ground elevations cause problems here.
Do you have any queues? What is your connection speed once you have traffic? Mine will show 54mb on the backhaul, then drop to 48mb on occasion during load. I just disabled 54mb as the latency took a hit when it changed connection speeds.
Yes i have Queu’s but just for my clients. and i have a queue for the backhaul but it is unlimited. I just had to do that so the Restricted IP queue does not pick it up. Connetion speed usually is 36Mbps dropping to 24 under load. But even 24 should be fine… to give me 12 Megs… -Jordan
What is the link performance when using the UDP test, one-way and bidirectional? Also, run the bandwidth test through the units running the backhaul – don’t run the BW test using the RB112 or RB133 running the link. This will be burning the CPU cycles running the test not processing packets.
THe Link performance is 36Mbps 70-68 dbm, Both times were TCP and one-way, when i do bidirectional its is all over the dame place , like 350K up 2 megs down 250kdown 350k Up.. I will have to do it again and see if it still does it. I will try to set the antennas on the 5hz wave length, or the 10hz wave length..
I have not choice on the running the speed tests on the Rb112 or the Rb133 Thats all i have right now untill i setup another AP, I do speed tests and i top out at 5 megs down. Speed tests on the routerboard says 7-9 Megs.
Also on routerboard Rb122 it says a good signal 68 at 54 Mbps, but it will not make the connection at 54 its always 36 Mbps or 24… I will have to see about locking it at like 54/48/36 Mbps.. Let me know what you guys think… -Jordan
Jordan,
I’m running a 532/XR9/11db PACwireless Omni AP
RB133C/XR9/12db PACwireless Rootenna clients.
Range from 6 miles LOS to 2 miles very NLOS.
Noise floor at client ends from -86 to -96
S/N range from 32 to 10
Upload queued at client- 256K
Download queued at AP -2Megs
Backhaul- 532’s with XR5 and R52H to a 7meg/1.1meg DSL
All running on 2.9.50
10Mhz channel
Thank you for that input Gunzoid that was helpful. Do you suggest i get a 11 dbi omni antenna for 900mhz? will the doughnut be to flat? 100 feet elevation at AP. -Jordan
Our omni is at 2300’, surrounding terrain mostly 600-900’, so I guess it’s not all that flat a vertical beam. You could look up the radiation pattern in the PACwireless specs and do some calculations. Nobody is any closer than 1.5 miles from the AP however.
I use all 12dbi omnis for my 2.4 ghz AP’s. They work quite well. One big point that hasn’t been mentioned for 900mhz is polarity. I have had many problems in my area with vertiacal polarization on 900mhz. There are some places that I am using the 9.2dbi vertical omnis, but in other places I have to go horizontal. Horizontal sectors and omnis for 900mhz are EXPENSIVE!!! I have used yagi’s as someone mentioned, but they don’t work nearly as well. The noise floor is way worse anywhere I have a yagi for an AP and the 9dbi’s really only have a useable beamwidth of 45ish degrees if you’re more than a couple miles from the AP.
Also, I have another post on here somewhere which has been talking about my problems with multiple 900mhz radios on a tower. Even with 15-20 feet of seperation, they still interefere with each other when any decent amount of traffic is going over the links. That means that putting 2 yagis back to back will kill each other. One tower I have is using a 12dbi 120 degree horizontal sector (~$500ish!) and I’ve been holding holding off on spending another $1000 to replace the other 2 yagis with sectors. Because of intereference and self interference, I used a 9dbi horizontal omni at another site and it has worked very well, except for the $700ish it cost.
So to give a little summary of what I would recommend for 900mhz: use the 9.2 or an 11dbi vertical omni if you don’t have any noise. If you do, then my second option would be the 9dbi horizontal omni. If you need lots of clients, 3 120 degree 12dbi horizontal sectors (or 13dbi vertical if no noise) would be really good if we can figure out the self interference issue, but until then I can’t really recommend it.
Also, I have 2 links in the 10-12 mile range off the 12dbi sector. They are non line of sight, but are not obstructed by thick forest, pine trees, or hills. The signals are -75 to -83. The pine trees are the worst tree to try to penetrate. The one of the links is a 12dbi rootenna and the other is an 18dbi yagi.
My experience has been that if your noise floor is pretty good, 900mhz links will work as low as -88 to -90 signal, but they are barely usable. They usually get fairly stable around -85, but try to keep them at least -80 or better to give yourself some margin. Also, the more clients you have with low signals, the more everyone suffers. Ideally everyone would be -75 or better, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.
It was very much appreciated. IM going with the following
2.4ghz 12 DBI from pac wireless,
900mhz 9.2 dbi from Pac wireless
2.4ghz Radio is an Xr2
900mhz Radio is Xr9… Would like to know more about the Sr9 Because i can get them alot cheaper than the Xr9 Is it worth goign with the Xr9 the performance??? that is one big question that i have…
and a 21 dbi backhaul antenna … 2.4 ghz… Probibly should be 5.8 but i do not have a AP as 5.8 just 2.4 at my first AP…
ANd that is how it is setup as of so far… Thanks for your guys help.. -Jordan
Personally I would go with the XR9’s for any new sites. I know that the SR9’s are still being produced, but if they decide to phase them out, at least you’re not stuck with old stuff.
Also, check out this thread. I posted some info on there from when I was first comparing the cards.
not that I was aware of. I don’t see anywhere that it says “you can only discuss MT products here”. This is a place for people who use Mikrotik products to learn how use them to the fullest potential. That may include discussions regarding antennas, towers, accounting, and other non-MT products.
The end result is that this is a community for people to share knowledge which keeps MT users loyal. If you censor what people can discuss, they will quit coming here.
well sorry - it is. you can only discuss things that are either made by mikrotik, or are directly related (antennas etc is fine, promoting competitor products, alternatives etc is not fine).
that was helpful. Do you suggest i get a 11 dbi omni antenna for 900mhz? will the doughnut be to flat? 100 feet elevation at AP. -Jordan