Wireless cards die after a week or so

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Good Day,

I would like to find out what could be causing wireless cards to die, after about a week or so?

It does not completly die, the card is still usable, but with only a fraction of it’s transmit power.

Everytime I replace the card, I can get -75 signal, but after about a week of operation my signal drops down to -82.

Nothing on the system changes in this period.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

2

what is your location is near you a GSM tower; I have the same problem after COSMOTE have upgrade their tower what card are you using; what is the distance of the link ?

3

Hi Thanks for the quick response

I am located in Botswana, I am at least 1km from the nearest GSM cell tower, I am started out using R52-H card, that is no longer working correctly, then started using SR2, which is now also not transmitting at it’s full tx power even though it is set at default.

I am going to try a restore default configuration on the card and see what that does.

Oh I am using an omni.

[EDIT]

Reset default configuration on the interface has had no effect. Still does not have the tx power that it did when I installed the card!!

4

You might be experiencing damages caused electrostatic discharge. You need to ground the omni antenna properly and also run a ground wire along the length of the antenna. There was a post in this forum where this issue was extensively discoursed about two years ago but I cannot find the post anymore.

5

I found the link. http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/wireless-card-recieve-blows-issue/7930/1

The solution proposed by Gerard is what you need. It works better than charms.

6

Hi again,

Thanks for the link, same exact issue, as it has only happened when there was rain in the area…now that I come to think of it.

No lightning, just rain, so must be ESD issue.

Pitty the Manufacturer does not put a warning label on the antenna.

It’s wierd though, all my home made antenna’s omni ±9dbi work 100% even through weather, this is the only one I have purchased, and I have been through 3 wireless cards in 3 months.

Think I will just go to sectors from here, same me in the long run :slight_smile:

Thanks again

7

I had the same issue you had using an sr2 fried the card after a while. installed the grounding wire as gerald purposed and haven’t lost a card sence. However I have an omni up using an Xr2 without the wire going up the side and it has been up for months without issue. ( but i beleive the xr2 does not have the diversity chip thus the reason it does not blow) But its never a bad idea to put a grounding wire up the side of antenna to ground it from static discharge.