Hello, I have been using mikrotik for routers for quite a while now. I am beginning to try and implement it into my wireless system. I recently built a RB532A backhaul link to use on a 9 mile hop. When I put the card to 22db output (sr5) with 27dbi dishes I get terreble signals of like -73 or so. Now while it does run at this signal level, the speeds suck and the throughput is minimal. However when I change from mikrotik to proxim with the same output power my signals increase to -64 with an easy 54mbps of clean data. Now why do these “amazing sr5 cards” not perform well. I am using 48v poe to the board so power should not be an issue. let me know if there are any suggestions.
I bought one of these power meters.. one of the best WISP tools I have ever owned.. Found tons of bad cards, and bad cables.
Praxsym Broadband Wireless Power Meter for 2.4, 5.3, 5.8 GHz Frequency Bands
http://www.streakwave.com/shopexd.asp?id=872
I have one too, they’re great. It sounds like either you have some Fresnel zone incursion, are running your cables too long, or the polarity is wrong on your feedhorns. You should certainly see signals in the 60s up to 10mi or so.
hmm, I’ve got a 18 mile link with CM9 radio’s, radiowaves 3 ft dual pole dish’s, signal is -64… you should be getting better…
a much cheaper alternative for a simple power meter is the butterfly from BVS…
http://www.bvsystems.com/Products/WLAN/Butterfly/butterfly.htm
it’s probably not nearly as accurate as the Praxsym, but it does a decent job, and the price isn’t too bad, don’t remember what we paid for it, but it was well less then half the price of the Praxsym, and it does a decent job for just testing power levels. I think the Praxsym also does SWR and a few other tests, where the butterfly is only a power meter…