Signal/Position - I need your input

[Donovan]

The situation I have is as follows.

CURRENTLY, my modem is attached to a wireless router up in the top of the cupboard, and just above this cupboard is a patch antenna mounted inside the roof. It connects to tower 82Honeydew. My property is near the edge of a cliff, and between my modem and this cliff are a number of trees, then it's around 4km to the honeydew tower, almost line of site. The problem is that every time the wind blows (which it does a lot this time of year), we lose the signal and get disconnected. The signal seems very sketchy, it varies between 1 and 2 lights, and the slightest movement of the patch antenna makes the signal disappear. This is becoming a problem and is preventing me from using my connection, so I went walkies to see where I get the best signal.

On the roof, closer to the koppie side, I get 4 lights (compared to one to two in it's current location). Just below this, INSIDE the roof, I get a solid 2 lights. There is also much less 'tree' in the way in this location, so I am hoping that by moving my router and wireless modem here that I will have a more stable connection (I can swivel the antenna around and it doesn't vary the lights much).

After all that long stuff, what I want to know is:
*Is there anyone here that DOES NOT get disconnected when the wind blows? What are your conditions (trees/signal strength in lights)
*What other small trick can anyone recommend to improve the signal strength so that it's not so flaky?

This is my last resort before buying a dish or something.

 

[Robone]

Can I make a suggestion. Go for the dish and stop messing around. If you want I can give you the name of a good installer.

As mentioned in another thread, I went from Modem antenna to patch to imported cantenna to dish, and if only I had of skipped a few steps I would have saved a lot of grief.

Do a search on google and put in "trees foliage attenuation microwaves" and you will get a few places where research has been undertaken that says foliage attenuates microwaves something to do with the size of the leaf been a wave length. If you look at deatils on how to build Cantennas, you will see that the wave length is about 147mm which is almost the size of large leaves. So get above the trees.

 

[noswal]

My computer is in a room on the south side of my house, my modem (custenna) is pointing south and down with the cutains closed most of the time, Linksfield is up on a hill to the North East - 3 lights, 13 signal 6 SNR 42%BER (max readings)
pics" http://lawsonic.tripod.com/pics/

_________________________________________________________________________
No more catenna, now its a custenna

 

[arf9999]

Robone,

Want to sell that cantenna?

-A

MW128, Tower <b>60</b>(Northpark Plaza), Signal:16%,S-N-L: 7, BER: 45%

 

[Donovan]

Hmmm... well as an insane penny pincher, I'd rather try this out first and see how it goes. I don't know if it's necessary to spend R 700+ on a dish when maybe just moving things around a bit would help. But thanks for the reply guys.

Oh, by the way. I just got a rebate for 60% of the fees I paid to sentech for the months of May, June and July... equal to R 1170 []. I'll post the entire story of how I got this right once the money is actually in my account... tl;dr version - treat them as they treated you when you signed up (like a criminal).

 

[dorris]

Donavan, if you really cash strapped, and looking for the cheapest solution, I found the following, a normal DSTV Dish from ellies electronics on Eloff Street(dish only, no lnb), just over R100, and the yagi from poynting, @ R200. (gain +18db)
I thought I'd got off so cheap when I got this setup, until I realised the price of LMR400, but I guess if you don't mind leaving your modem in the ceiling, and mounting a dish directly above on the roof, you can get away with 3m of cabling.
Good luck.

PS, Before my dish, I could not see signal anywhere within 500m of my property, after, I have signal of 7% : 16% ber=28%, since my last alignment, I still have occasional disconnections,
+- 2 / day. But wind has not been a problem (although I spent a little more, and got the 60cm dish @R230.
Overall R430, vs the standard R700 on offer to buy the 2 items readymade.
Also installed it myself, word of advice, if you're installing a dish with an offset reciever, angle the dish downward slightly.

 

[Brolloks]

Donovan

My setup: Patch Antenna outside on a steel bar, 5m LMR cable inserted in the patch antenna lead, no line of sight to mintek, modem is on 4 lights normally, but sometimes 3 although it does nothing to the speed.
Wind has no efect. Since there is no line of sight I doubt any trees are doing much.
Cost R250 to have the antenna modified for the LMR400 cable.
It helps to have the modem where ou can see it ie. not in the ceiling

 

[regardtv]

dorris - can you put up a pic of your setup ?

 

[Brolloks]

regardtv
Assuming you're talking about her MW setup

 

[dorris]

oh stop it bolloks, you making me blush. (I love the versatility of this nick)
regardt, I'll do it, assuming I get home before nightfall tonight.

 

[Brolloks]

oh dorris

indeed. I've seen brollocks and bolloks, but not Bolly yet. It is still Brolloks though from the book by Langenhoven: Brolloks and Bittergal.

Joking aside it would be interesting to see how your MW setup is connected.

 

[dorris]

Regardt, and anyone else interested, see http://dorris.no-ip.com/dish/
pics of the setup.

 

[Brolloks]

Nice dish dorris

 

[groenie]

I've got one of those Poynting grids up, but there is a huge tree between me and the tower (1.5km). I'm on a hill, not LOS from the tower. I found that if I point the dish upwards at about 25 degrees, I get a better signal, even though I'm on the same height as the tower. I guess I'm catching one of the upper lobes of the signal that passes over the tree. My signal is currently at 41%.

If I point it straight at the tree, the signal drops about 10%, but its still stable.

 

[Headend]

Hey Dorris - you in Lonehill? I live just across the valley (Glenferness) but haven't had any luck getting a signal. Which tower do you connect to?

Headend
Tower: Mintek (82 was 12) - Signal: 19% - Firmware: 4.2.1.8 - 128k - Smoothwall and PPPoE

 

[Burny1]

Hi there,

I just wanted to know, as far as I can see MW runs on 2.5&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;ghz range, however the yagi is in the 900mhz range - does this mean you can use any yagi or do you get a different type of yagi?

thanks for the feedback. Burny

 

[dorris]

Headend : That would make us about 2,5 km , probably LOS between us.
I connect to tower 66 (old 22) You definitely can't see it from your side, because its missing node 1, I'm catching a rebound of node2. By the sounds of it, you also just out of range of midrand too.

groenie: Your situation sounds about right, even though I am lower than the tower, my dish is pointing downward, this is because it has an offset reciever arm(not one of those ones directly in the centre of the dish)