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yalcttocs
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Need help to stablize 900 connection in the woods

Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:29 pm

I have an xr9 access point (ap) and xr9 mobile station.
From reading the forums I thought 900 mhz was my answer
to delivering data through the trees.
However, I found out yesterday that my system will not go thru
the trees at all. Attaching picture. The red circles indicate the failures
from a satelite view of the property. I should have taken a picture
of how thick it was in there, but I didn't think about using my phone
to capture it. However, it was covered with vines, poison ivy, undergrowth
with small and tall trees in full bloom for the spring. You couldn't see any daylight
thru the brush back to the AP. The good news is my GPS said the furtherest failure point
in the brush was .2 miles (~1056 ft) with most points being .16 miles from where I was at to the AP antenna.

Some info:
AP has 6dBi 900 Omni Pacwireless (vpol)
Station has 7dBi 900 Mobile Omni Pacwireless (vpol)

When I entered the woods, all connectivity was lost. It remained that way
until I came out the other side.
Is there any fine tuning that can be done to accomplish my goal? Any thoughts would be
appreciated.

Sorry bmp to jpg conversion lost some quality in the pic.

Thx
TrinityELab.JPG
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wildbill442
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Re: Need help to stablize 900 connection in the woods

Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:33 am

Higher gain antenna on both ends?

Otherwise you'll probably need to add additional repeater locations in order to get acceptable signal.. my guess is the trees are too dense and attenuating the signal to unusable levels.

Another option would be to amplify both ends..

900MHz is the best solution for nLOS (near line of sight) but physics still come into play and it won't shoot through everything.
 
erastusec
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Re: Need help to stablize 900 connection in the woods

Fri Apr 23, 2010 6:01 am

Can't you hop from station to station?
 
yalcttocs
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Re: Need help to stablize 900 connection in the woods

Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:18 pm

Are posts lost that occur right before the maintenance last night? I believe someone said something about height & power.
 
0ldman
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Re: Need help to stablize 900 connection in the woods

Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:31 pm

I've got an 8dBi omni on the AP. I use 12-13dBi directional on the client side. You just don't have enough antenna, and may have issues with interference that so many of us have.
 
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warwick09
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Re: Need help to stablize 900 connection in the woods

Sat Apr 24, 2010 2:16 am

In addition to what others have said...

You need to use higher gain antennae in any event ... also why omnis? Esp at 900Mhz. Your spewing out wasted energy, you'd want to focus it on your given targets.

Again, why omnis for clients? Sure its cheaper but your doing yourself and injustice for the same reason above. Go with directional antennae, i.e panels, yagis or even grids.

I get excellent results with 900mhz using a 13dbi sector and ~13-15dbi yagi/grids as receiving antennae.
 
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znet
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Re: Need help to stablize 900 connection in the woods

Mon Apr 26, 2010 8:25 pm

How about horizontal polarization? Have had much better luck in the trees with it. Every forest is very different though, and things like pine needles affect signals significantly. Just a suggestion.
 
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Gunzoid
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Re: Need help to stablize 900 connection in the woods

Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:16 am

I'd try H pol and 2Ghz-5Mhz.
I run a link from my office to an AP 1/3 mile through very dense trees and manage to get 2mbps through using 12db panels. 12-17db Yagi's will work even better.

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