OK, I have a set of PTP links I've been testing for a few months and they have been pretty solid. I got them all going well, or so I thought.
For the last six hours they have basically been going crazy and it is all related to signal strength.
Let me just say that all my links have clear LOS/fresnel and are "big boy" Andrew ptp waveguide antennas. Currently the weather is perfect. Clear skies, 68 to 72 degrees F, no wind, 29.99 barometric pressure, 94-100% humidity, 66 degree dew point, no fog. But my signal strength is going haywire. Torrential rains, crazy fog and ice storms have never bothered my links like this.
Link #1 (26 miles): Normally -55 to -60 strength is bouncing around from -75 to -90 and above and dropping out even at MCS0. CCQ normally 95-100% is now in the 40s with no traffic passing.
I have about 7 other PtP links that run back to back from each other and span about 150 miles worth of ground. They are all sucking for signal strength, at least 10 to 20 db off their normal readings which usually vary depending on link from -45 to -60 (at worst.) Tonight everything is just taking an nose dive and I don't know why.
I'm use RB411AH boards for every link, SR71-15 cards at default power, Laird pigtails, ROS 5.0 beta2, 5.7-5.8GHz, and bandpass filters. The links all run stable at MCS7 but I also have MCS6 and MCS0 enabled for fall back but signal strength on some links are so bad that MCS0 isn't working.
Remember, this isn't 7 links running out of the same place. Each link is in a different location and covers completely different geographic areas, runs between 18 and 36 miles, and is experiencing severely impacted signal strength and CCQ. I've tried rebooting and it hasn't helped (duh.)
I'm thinking weather is causing this but I don't know why ostensibly perfect conditions are resulting in all these different links to wig out.
Ideas?
BTW, this would be a great time to have that power offset issue fixed in ROS for the SR71-15 so I could bring the full power of these cards to bear on my problem! Days like today make me appreciate my old XR5s.