5.8ghz antennas, which ones work as advertised?

[Skaught]

I am about to start deploying 5.8ghz gear on my network with the CM-9 cards. There seems to be a lot of discussion about the 5.8ghz antennas and which ones are as they claim to be.

Can others pass along thier experieces with good or bad 5.8ghz antennas?

[Mark]

I currently have 4 equinox dishes, which are not performing anything even faintly close to expected.

The CEO of the company is presently working on testing and verifying that I'm getting functional antennas that work as specified.

[mp3turbo]

hello mark,

no he is not, trust me. No CEO on this planet would verify antennas.

bye, mp3turbo.

[bkehoe]

Andrew, works as advertised, every time. :)

[lonnie]

We use SuperPass 21 dB patches and they give us results we can count on.

[WISP]

I have several Andrews 2' and 3' dishes. Works great.

[mp3turbo]

bkehoe & wisp,

what does it mean - did you get your link budget according to calculation ?

thnx, mp3turbo.

[Mark]

hello mark,

no he is not, trust me. No CEO on this planet would verify antennas.

bye, mp3turbo.

Trust me, he did.

I found the problem elsewhere, though, and called him and told him he can keep the replacement dipoles.

It's a long story, but Electro-Comm shipped me antennas with the wrong assembly instructions....

[Mark]

I have a 21 mile link, with a CM9 on one end, and a DWL-AG520 on the other. The CM-9 reports -81 to -85 with Equinox 28 db grids at both ends.

BTW, the dwl-ag520 appears to perform better than my CM-9's by about 4 db on another link.

I am suspecting it's the pigtails???

[tim]

I am seeing a HUGE variation in the quality of my u/fl terminated pigtails.

[bkehoe]

The pigtails are a huge problem. The AG520 is the most consistant performer till you take the pigtails into account. I've around 6 u.fl - n type pigtails sitting here which are worthless - all were new, and all dont perform up to scratch - 10 - 20dB loss, even though they check out fine for resistance and shorts, and have no visible damage. So from now on, I've decided to solder pigtails onto the minipci cards, as that seems to be the only way of assuring a proper connection.

[funkywizard]

that's the big reason why I would prefer a PCI interface rather than a mini pci. Those pigtail jacks are already small enough and when you start trying to put a pigtail jack on a mini pci board, you're lucky to get a reliable pigtail in that form factor. With RPSMA on a Dlink G520, I can connect LMR400 straight up to the card, and I'm sure that gives me less loss than having a fragile pigtail to n-connector to n-connector to lmr400.

[Fedde]

3com cards are ok, look in the pictures. It got a good solider point for the pigtail or you can press fit a N on the cable that is already on the card. And they work with star-os :D On the picture it's fitted with a SMA connector that we use alot here.

http://forums.star-os.com/viewtopic.php?t=2853

FRedrik B

[tim]

atheros has compression built in plus it seems to be the card of choice for the staros team, so I want to continue using this chip set, if someone could explain in detail how to make professional quality soldered connections instead of using the u/fl connectors, I'd be more than happy to do it that way. One thing is for sure the u/fl connectors have been a major cause of my problems.

[CovenLink]

You can buy ready made RG316 pigtails with N-type bulkhead females with what ever connector on the other end that be scrapped.

I've got some RFLinX amps on order.
I plan to try joining the two cards (CM9 and RFlinx amp) using flex-form or RG316.
Then use an RG316 pigtail with N-type female soldered direct to the amp.

I must admit I do not like uf.l
1. Its too small to be made reliably.
2. Very high loss cable.
3. Fragile, keep trapping the cable in the standoffs for the Wrap.
4. You cannot make the ends yourself, you need to rely on someone else doing it.

I'll do some experimenting on 802.11b and post my results.

[CovenLink]

I have just looked at the ways you could solder a cable on:

Flexform is a little too large.

RG316 is ideal, its small and flexible, but not too much loss, and can be worked with

I just need to work out a suitable cable stay to glue onto the board to take the strain off the cable then I will solder the cable on.
Looking at the connector on the CM9, making a 'y' shape out of the coax end keeping the core length to just under 3mm (1mm of core + 2mm of clear insulation), with the braid twisted up and off to one side, should be ideal to solder on below the existing uf.l socket.

When I have done it I will post a before and after signal test on 802.11b and g and may be even 'a'. With pictures of my soldering. It will require a fine tip small soldering iron and maybe some solder paste (surface mount type solder).

[Skaught]

I finally recieved my order of Hyperlink 29dbi 5.8 antennas. (thanks UPS and Canada customs for taking 3 weeks)

I am mondo impressed so far. They are built like a brick house. They are better built than some 2 foot andrew antennas I have worked with.

The first 2 go in tommorow night and I will see how they perform but I already have a great deal of confidence in these antennas.

[tim]

I have just looked at the ways you could solder a cable on:

snip

When I have done it I will post a before and after signal test on 802.11b and g and may be even 'a'. With pictures of my soldering. It will require a fine tip small soldering iron and maybe some solder paste (surface mount type solder).

That will be really useful, are you going to desolder the existing connectors or leave them on ?

[CovenLink]

Hi Tim,
I want to leave the sockets in place, I don't think there will be a much loss leaving them in place. They look like they are soldered on the underside, so de-soldering them could be difficult.

I plan to solder the core in place first as this is more critical, then the shield can be soldered to the pre-soldered ground plane running around the edge of the card.

I'm desperate to know what gain increase, if any, I will get.

Rob

[tim]

I would have thought removing the connectors showld be easy, nice hot soldering iron and the should just float off. The other reason for removing them is that with some of the other cards (5054), you cannot solder onto the reverse side.

[CovenLink]

I have done some testing, short range (8 metres) and it looks like the pigtail gives the same signal as a hard soldered RG316 cable gives.

I would like to do a long range test as a signal of around -34 dB is probably not a fair test.

I will post any long range results when I get a chance.
2 miles should do it.

[ldvaden]

We use SuperPass 21 dB patches and they give us results we can count on.

What would you use at 12.5 miles?

rgds/ldv

[go.fast]

What would you use at 12.5 miles?

rgds/ldv

At least 2' solid dishes.
George

[lonnie]

I agree, George.

[Skaught]

I have recently deployed a 3 foot solid parabolic from Tranzeo. They do not make them but they are Canadian and have a good price on them. 32dbi and it works exactly as advertised. Also a fraction of the price of an andrew. Overall I was impressed.

[lonnie]

What sort of pricing did you get?

[Skaught]

$264 each plus shipping.

They are the same make as the hyperlink 2 foot dishes but apparently hyperlink does not sell the 3 foot version.

I had the antenna in my hands 4 days after I ordered it. Being in the same country has advantages.

[lonnie]

Is that US or CDN $$ ?

[monkeyboy]

Skaught,
Did you deploy those with or without the radomes? I was considering using the same dishes, but did not know if I really wanted or needed the domes.