I would like a wireless link for Internet access and phone service (through the net). I live near the Oregon coast. No land lines here, and no cell service. Now have Direcway but, uplink speed slow (as low as 22k at times), and latency and packet loss (I assume, voice unintelligable) too bad for phone service. In addition, FAP (although I only hit it 3 times in several years) nearly had me take a sledge hammer to it. Normally I'm using pretty minimal bandwidth, just email and browser, but pull chunks when upgrading computers, and have problems trying to do a video chat with family. Never have gotten into games or file sharing. Do a few websites, and uploads are very irritating (at work I'm used to the dual T3s, and have had them available for many years there).
I've seen some complete bridging setups that range from 6 to 8k per link (like Carlson or Motorola). Double that for me. I could not afford it. Also, the area is frequently used for hunting, 4-wheeling, etc. Quite a few yokels out here that shoot up equipment for fun. I need something relatively inexpensive so that I can afford to replace it occasionally, when vandals hit. I've been perusing wireless links for 8-9 years now, but have no experience other than the WGR614 Netgear at home.
Required: - 512k both directions (1M would be a plus) - inexpensive hardware (I might spend a couple thousand dollars, I would not spend 10k) - a repeater since I live in a hilly, forested area and have no LOS to the source - always on, and available for phone through internet in emergencies (one of the mostimportant considerations) - point-to-point (point to multipoint from repeater site to remote would be a plus - a couple neighbors might share some costs then)
Source Site: Oregon central Coast Elevation: 40m
Repeater Site: 16.6Km from Source Elevation: 488m No utilities vailable
Remote Site: 4.5Km from Repeater Elevation: 364m My home (Remote Site) is actually about 100m below the radio site on the opposite side of the hill. Have normal grid power. I saw an earlier post suggesting a program called Radio Mobile. I downloaded it and plotted a couple of links (prior to that I've only used Topo USA for profiling terrain). If anyone is interested, I posted the profiles (viewable with rmpath.exe) to: frenock.com/radioMobile along with a jpeg (500k) and the map file the program created (3.7M).
Lastly, we are heavily forested out here with firs over 50m. Depending on the chosen site, this would require a huge tower to top them which I am unlikely to want to buy and install, even if I could get permissions for it. What's the chances of placing an antenna part way up one of these trees (as far as movement and alignment for these long links)? Has anyone tried that before?
Snow is infrequent. Winter weather mild, but much precipitation. There are emergency towers and radios about 3 miles away, at right angles to the line from the remote site to town. I'm hoping to hook up to an ISP at the source site (Newport, OR). I haven't done any type of check for frquencies in use out here, but it is a remote area and unlikely that I'd have much to contend with. State police and county sheriff vehicles out here have no reception unless they get up on a ridge.
What I'm looking for is your opinions, suggestions, for the equipment. I've read some of the earlier posts concerning power requirements for a solar site, etc. Not wanting you to re-hash that, but keep it in mind when suggesting equipment.
I've managed to stay confused about the hardware requirements for the repeater. Does it require two seperate units in most cases? I've seen hardware like the Airpoint XO2 that features dual radios and seems to suggest it will work as a repeater with two antennas facing opposite directions (I assume one radio for each antenna, and an internal connection to pass data). I've seen equipment advertised that show a picture of just what I want (repeater on top of a mountanous mid-point), but they don't mention whether that requires two units, or just two antennas, etc.
What else can I give you that might help your suggestions? Have a great day!
bobf.