RooTenna with WRAP 2.A

[olebno]

Hi!

Here you have a Pacific Wireless RooTenna14 with a WRAP.2.A CPE board in it.

Tests of the capacity will come during next week I hope. I'm going to put this baby out there during the weekend if time permits.

Best Regards
Oleb


http://www.webconnect.as/img_3060.jpg

http://www.webconnect.as/img_3061.jpg

[tony]

Nice system. Our order of these boards have not arrived yet, so if you can let us know how they work with StarOS, that would be wonderful. I do not foresee any problems.

[bobbyc]

That is sweet. Is the rootenna case plastic or metal?
Thanks, Bob C

[szern]

Very cool :)

What pigtails are you using (U.FL to what ends?) and what connector does the rootenna come with?

Thanks!

[Pete_WirelessWales]

Where did you get the 2A board from? They're not on the order page on pcengines :?: :!:

[olebno]

Hi!

The RooTenna case is plastic with a metal plate in the back of the antenna part, and a metal plate as a lid for the compartment.

Pacific Does not have U-FL pigtails yet (it's coming soon), so I'm currently using the original RP-SMA pigtail from PAC from the antenna, and connect it to a standard U.FL <-> RP-SMA pigtail from netgate.

That adds some cable and an extra connector, but its far better then having an external NF connector and a couple of meters of cable down to the radio :-)

This is just samples from the prototype run of the WRAP.2.A boards, and production boards will be on the web during Q2 i guess.

Reports of how it behaves etc. will come soon.

Best Regards
Oleb

[John Huszar]

This looks VERY cool. I bought one of these rootennas for eval. Its a nice unit. Have not tested it with an AP yet. Some questions:

1) This is a question for Lonnie mainly. I have been considering using something like this for our CPE: ie a rootenna, a wrap board/Soekris (routerboard is probably too expensive) and STAR as the OS. But I dont see a CPE version of STAR anywhere on the main web site?! Whats the deal there? Isnt there a CPE version of STAR for the WRAP board/routerboard? If not, why not? Eje offers it on his web site (wisp-router.com). I am trying to get the total price of the CPE down to $200, and obviously the lower the price for the OS, the better. Eje has it listed for $35. Is this correct?

2) Has anyone been able to find any cables which would allow you to connect the rootenna directly to the radio? It seems like a logical thing to do, instead of going through an additional connector/pigtail (which adds to the signal loss and to the cost of the CPE).

Tanks!
John

[olebno]

Hi!

Pacific Wireless are coming up with pigtails for the U.FL connector so you can connect the antenna directly to the miniPCI radio. Currently they have some other selections of pigtails but the last reply i got from them abaout pigtails, is that a U-FL version will be made avaiable :-)

Best Regards

Oleb

[John Huszar]

Hey Oleb!

Thanks for the info. Let me know how the WRAP board does in this unit. What version of STAR are you running in it exactly? I presume you are going to use this for a CPE, right?

John

[olebno]

Hi!

I run them with the Router+Atheros lisence and the tiny bit of testing so far is satisfying. I'll do some longer shoot tests during this weekend.

By the end of March, PAC will probably also have 5 GHz versions of the RooTenna and they are currently working on a 18dBI version for the 2.4 GHz spectrum :-)

Lonnie has been talking abaout a CPE lisence for the WRAP at about 30$, but if and when it will become avaiable I have no idea.

The advantage of running the router lisence on CPE's in the rural area is the possibility to "make an extra hop" to a small group of clients you would normally not be able to reach??

Best Regards
Oleb

[szern]

Can anyone give me a Pac Wireless email contact?
I can't seem to access their website from my part of the world.
Would like to email them and inform them about it.

Thanks!

[olebno]

Hi!

I have forwarded the info to my contact together with your e-mail address so I guess you will get a responce on Monday :-)

Best Regards
Oleb