Rural Internet Service

[th3w01f]

Great info Grant, very interesting.

Any guess at why Aerux failed to perform here? The tech just did a simple test but said he couldn't get beyond 3Mbps (he was only here about 20 minutes). We have clear line of sight, no trees or buildings and were pretty high up for the area. We're also supposed to be well within their coverage area even though we are a few miles from their tower.

The tech said he thought it was a Fresnel zone issue.

Anyone else you'd recommend in the castle rock area? I have 2 with Kellin and I've been pretty happy but I'd like to swap one out for redundancy.

[Grant H.]

Great info Grant, very interesting.

Any guess at why Aerux failed to perform here? The tech just did a simple test but said he couldn't get beyond 3Mbps (he was only here about 20 minutes). We have clear line of sight, no trees or buildings and were pretty high up for the area. We're also supposed to be well within their coverage area even though we are a few miles from their tower.

The tech said he thought it was a Fresnel zone issue.

Anyone else you'd recommend in the castle rock area? I have 2 with Kellin and I've been pretty happy but I'd like to swap one out for redundancy.

Does the shot cross water? If you want, I can run a pathstudy for you and likely see what was causing the issues. I just need GPS coordinates of both ends (even rough google earth coordinates are fine for a guess at troubleshooting) and relative heights above ground level.

In reality, the path determines the signal quality, and line of sight isn't the only issue. You can also experience multipath issues and many others. If you have them back to look again, have them try moving the radio/dish up and down by just a few feet. I have watched radio links with multipath issues go from barely working to over 100Mbps due to moving the dish up/down by as little as 6". Multipath is where there is a reflection of the signal off of something (even the earth if there is a gentle slope somewhere between you and the tower) that then arrives to the same tower just slightly out of phase. This then causes constructive/destructive wave interference, which turns the signal to gibberish. Changing the incident angle by raising/lowering the antenna just a little can sometimes clear this up.

Since you are saying there are no trees or buildings in the way, that makes me guess more of a multipath issue than fresnel zone issue. Fresnel zone issues are usually only apparent when you have "line of sight" but immediately below that line of sight is blocked by something.



The blimp shape needs to be as clear as possible. The higher the frequency of the radio being used, the smaller "r" gets, but it is important.

The other issue that you could be facing, since you said you are higher, is if you are outside of the useful patch of the antenna... In a given radio system, you only have so much signal. If you want to stretch that signal out in one direction, you lose signal in all the other directions, including up/down and left/right. Microwave dish solutions like WISPs use are extremely directional in that they usually have a 7° or narrower beamwidth (side to side) and usually 7-10° or narrower vertical span, which gives them a high gain value, probably 20-25dBi gain. The patch antenna for AP will be a 90°, or possibly 120°, horizontal shot, so they will design the antenna to limit the up/down so they can have more power across the horizontal beam. These patch antennas are usually only 12-15dBi gain, so noticeably lower when you know the rule that every 3dB up is double the power, and every 3dB down is half the power. So, if you are enough above their antenna, you might be in a "dead zone" for that antenna.

I don't spend a lot of time down south, so I don't know a whole lot about what is available for you, but I have heard/seen decent results from Kellin. If Aerux can't get it figured out, maybe see if Kellin has a second tower that could be an option for redundancy (make sure you explain the reasoning so that if their towers aren't redundant you don't switch for no reason).