Re: we get NO signal, all your 802.11 base are belong to the Man

From: Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Date: Sat Mar 10 2001 - 12:43:44 PST


Gregory Alan Bolcer wrote:
>
> Very likely a free line of site, hard to tell from the hill
> but hard to tell from all the trees, etc. I can mount something
> very high up and they are at a very strategic point on the
> hill. My budge is that it can't be more than $100 per month,
> but up front costs can run up to a couple of thousand. If
> TAD stock ever recovers I am just buying a T1, but until
> then I have to be judicious with my spending habits.
>
> Any ideas?

You'd want to get up high, have free line of sight (ideally,
not even shrubbery) and use a good directional antenna (needs
at least rough alignment). If it doesn't work, or the data rate
is lousy, you could conser using a signal booster.

I have no clue about HF antenna, but this looks more or less
usable:

        http://205.159.169.11/reference/antennas/2ghz_helical/

In that frequency range a satellite dish might also come handy.
The larger the better, but then you'd have to think about windload.

I hope you realize that an antenna on a high pole is an invitation
for trouble at the next thunderstorm. Get a good lightning rod (higher
than the antenna, and well-grounded) and galvanic separation (fiber
or air gap (i.e. there's no copper between your computer and the
antenna -- if you're going wireless, you could as well go wireless
up the pole ;)). It might be a good idea to talk to the local
HAMs, which will also know about directional antenna types for
that frequency range as well as signal boosters.

Both are illegal, of course.

You'd be a fool not to ask second, third and fourth opinion of
knowledgeable people before you start with this project. A few
days researching the issue is well spent.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 27 2001 - 23:13:58 PDT