Antenna installation and alignment

[LazyLion]

That's great to know, thanks! Did you tee them off at the top of the mast? Also keen to know how to properly earth the mast as well - and where to connect *on* the mast.

I suppose I should earth them, but just never bothered.
I never installed them, they were actually installed by Vodacom when we moved to the premises.
And since there is no physical contact with any of our devices, maybe the earthing is not really necessary.

 

[Seriously]

That's great to know, thanks! Did you tee them off at the top of the mast? Also keen to know how to properly earth the mast as well - and where to connect *on* the mast.

To earth the mast you take a thickish copper earth cable from the mast pipework or using the antenna clamps down to ground with a proper earth rod preferably copper as long as possible and hammered as deep as possible in the ground as close as possible to the mast. The antenna's are obviously already grounded to the mast with the clamps tightened as tight as possible. Apart from lightning protection an antenna act as filter and any unwanted signal frequency are also directed to earth thus improving the signal to noise ratio of the specific frequency band the antenna was designed for.

 

[koeksGHT]

To earth the mast you take a thickish copper earth cable from the mast pipework or using the antenna clamps down to ground with a proper earth rod preferably copper as long as possible and hammered as deep as possible in the ground as close as possible to the mast. The antenna's are obviously already grounded to the mast with the clamps tightened as tight as possible. Apart from lightning protection an antenna act as filter and any unwanted signal frequency are also directed to earth thus improving the signal to noise ratio of the specific frequency band the antenna was designed for.

Thick copper,

some criminal just jizzed

 

[Seriously]

Thick copper,

some criminal just jizzed

Yeah nowadays you get copper clad or galvanized earth rods. Problem is that the outer layer get damaged while hammering them in the ground so they rust away leaving you with an supect but unknown risk.

A company I recently worked for had a copper drive 1M *100mm we used on industrial mechanical equipment that disappeared, a replacement cost us R8000.00.

 

[Keeper]

- Two users on my network can stream 1080p from YouTube.
- I watched the iTunes Festival live.
- Peak downloads are 1.5MB/s.
- Internet browsing and Tapatalk are liquid smooth.

Yeah but for how long though?

R1800 for 60+60 GB? That translates to about R3600 p/m for my current ADSL usage and I'm only running 1mbs :wtf:

 

[Azimuth]

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The R1800 is 3 month's data for me, especially with the night surfer allocation. In fact, the night surfer is just going to go to waste.

I'm on prepaid thanks to RichardG's insistence, and with TM opening all prepaid data to LTE. So if the TM LTE turns to crap, I will switch to MTN. The only issue then is that I need a *second* B593 CPE - one that works on 1800MHz.

 

[Hosehead]

I am at at unknown distance from telkom's single tower in Camps Bay (apparently they are negotiating for something to blanket the whole suburb but its a very spotty coverage atm) I do know I am right at the edge of Telkom coverage and while my cell will regularly drop 8ta I solved that by switching to mtn. But the modem has both accompanying antennae up and manages just fine, I am inclined to think building external antenna contraptions the size of Boeings does not make an ioata of difference or so I was told, true or not.

 

[Azimuth]

Since signal gain is improved, it definitely makes a difference. You also lock onto the signal and it doesn't ever drop. That said, speeds vary wildly. So far my antenna installation has *not* stabilised my speeds but my range has gone from 2-28Mbps to 13-73Mbps. (Edit: large speed variation stopped after a couple months and settled down nicely)

As stated before, I'm also sure my tower is not up to scratch. Additionally, there are rules for antenna installation and I know my particular install needs some fine tuning.

 

[Azimuth]

I recently bought an A-XPOL-0002 cross-polarized antenna for an install in Noordheuwel. Decided to pick up one for myself as well since I acquired a B593u-12 (MTN/Vodacom) in addition to my B593u-91 (Telkom a Mobile only). (Was thinking of running two parallel installations; one for TM and one for MTN. As such, each router would need its own antenna(s))

Yesterday I was looking out the window at the pool and it dawned on me I had clear LOS...I realised then and there I was putting up an XPOL-0002. Not from my 3m mast but right outside the window.

Here's a quick and ugly trial of the install before it goes permanent:

 

[chrisc]

Is the antenna polarised correctly?

I had the CellC engineer at my house and he said the aerial should be vertically polarised

 

[Azimuth]

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This is an all-in-one: 2 antennas, one vertical, one horizontal (cross polarised) inside one housing:

http://youtu.be/_cj2F1AUkQk

 

[Azimuth]

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Test fitting the bracket before it goes up.







Ideally I wanted a minimalist wall bracket but then I lose the ability to change azimuth. I will need to swing 15-30 degrees to the left.

 

[JerryMungo]

Aaah, here I thought people were going to share their SSID's and wpa keys lol.

On a serious note, for earthing, just earth it to your building's system. You have to supply power so why not just earth it to the socket?

 

[Azimuth]

On a serious note, for earthing, just earth it to your building's system. You have to supply power so why not just earth it to the socket?

Nope, it's not being powered. Antennas just have low-loss signal cable that connects to the router. It's not like a Mikrotik or Ubiquiti CPE that requires PoE. This is transfer of energy only i.e. increasing the usable signal transmitted from the cell tower.

In any event, it's water under the bridge now. I'm not earthing as I did a complete overhaul to my installation.

 

[JerryMungo]

What's the antenna connected to? Just use common clamp and clamp an earth wire to the pole and run it with the antenna cable inside the house and to a socket. You'll be glad you did if that pole takes a hit. Right now the pole is earthed to the equipment via the shielding in your antenna cable.

 

[Azimuth]

Thanks but

In any event, it's water under the bridge now. I'm not earthing as I did a complete overhaul to my installation.

 

[Azimuth]

Round 2:

Area: Helderkruin
Mobile broadband of choice: Telkom Mobile
Distance from tower: ~1.36km
Cell ID: 174 (Helderkruin Laerskool)
Antennas used: Poynting A-XPOL-0002 LTE cross polarised antenna
Note: the above antenna isn't actually for TDD 2300MHz yet still has good gain
Bracket: medium wall bracket from Poynting
Mast: 0.5m mast
Router: Huawei B593-91 LTE CPE (2300MHz only)
Before antennas: -xxxx, 4 bars
After antennas: -80dBm, 5 bars
Antenna cable length: 5m
Extension cable: none necessary
Speeds: TBA
Installation cost: R1141.14 (XPOL-0002 + medium wall bracket)
Contract or prepaid: prepaid (Telkom Mobile 60+60GB)

Like I said, a wall bracket would be easier on the eyes but this will have to do. I'll take the cable through the roof once I'm 100% happy.







Sweet shot of the valley. Can't quite see the tower in this pic - see the mono blown-up pics to follow.

 

[Azimuth]

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I finally estimated my straight-line distance to the tower using Apple Maps. I printed out a map with scale and measured out the distance as 1.36km. (1622km is the correct distance, see edit below)

Edit: this proved to be rather inaccurate. Rather use Google Earth ground measurement or even a mobile app such as Measure Your Land.

 

[Azimuth]

Share your home equipment setup

The new install saw a loss of 7dBm in signal strength. I was hoping for better quite honestly...but I suppose a compact housing cannot compete with those monster LPDAs I had to begin with.

With the insane electric storms this season (worst I've seen in 6 years), I wasted no time in decommissioning my LPDAs.



No further need to worry about lightning strikes or the mast bowing under the terrible winds we've been having.

Edit: as a learning and note to the LPDAs, I didn't have them spaced far enough apart to be recognised as separate antennas and they need to be perfectly aligned on top of each other.

 

[Azimuth]

Ugh. I've just realised I'm using the wrong frequency antenna. OMG. What a dufus. I completely misread the specs on my XPOL-0002 or perhaps I never checked them to begin with and had the all-band LPDA-0092 in my mind.

Please note the difference in antennas for those buying them for the B593:

XPOL-0001: for all networks
XPOL-0002 : for MTN, Vodacom and Cell C LTE/4G
XPOL-0006: for Telkom Mobile ONLY
LPDA-0092: for all networks

/Hides.