Bloody Pigtails :o(

[phendry]

That's it. I have had enough. All the pigtails I buy always seem to be hit or miss when it comes to signal loss. Is use U.fl to N type short pigtails that directly connect between my 5004x based radios (used for 5Ghz links) and the antennas. Does anyone have a good source for good quality pigtails?? I was thinking of soldering but this is not my strong point and the results would probably be worse. Any advice on how to get minimum los between radio and antenna??

Cheers,

P.

[staroslanf]

Any pigtail will lose 2-3db , This lose I think can be accepted.

[lonnie]

phendry - how are you determining that the pigtail is the problem? We have not had any issues, except for some obvious physical damage caused by "rocking" the connector home instead of a straight push.

[phendry]

I can tell it's the pigtails because I setup a link and get poor readings then when I change the pigtails I get good readings. This keeps happening with 1 in 2 pigtails giving this problem. I don't move the antenna's or change anything else which is why I suspect the pigtail build. Where do you get yours??

[lonnie]

From Netgate. Where do you get yours?

[bkehoe]

These u.fl pigtails are the worst ones I've ever seen. Have tried several different companies and there's way too many bad ones for comfort from each. In one batch of 5 I got, 4 had amazingly high loss, around 20dB. And there wasnt any physical damage, i take great care to put them on directly and evenly. The best I've got so far are the SMA ones from farnell, havent had a single bad one out of 10 (yet). The alternative is to solder, but the tracks seem to lift very easily off the cm9s compared to the 5354 cards.

[phendry]

Hmm, not tried any SMA ones yet. Do you know what grade of cable is used with the farnell ones? How did you measure that loss?

[David L. Vrablic]

Hi guys,
I tried to remove the uFL connector from a CM-9 and came to the conclusion it was "Hard soldered" or worse yet "Silver Soldered"
Mu iron wouldn't heat it hot enough to move to expose the pads.
The other side doesn't have any place to solder to.
Any comments?

I would like to solder connections right to the board if possible.

[mp3turbo]

damn, could this be the reason why I always saw 10-15dB less on actual signal than expected on link budget calculation ?!?!

such a simple thing I wouldn't never think of. Probably.

[lonnie]

No, that is the result of OFDM modulation. We use 3 dB transmit power and threshold of -95 dB for our calculations and we are now typically within 2 dB of expected.

[phendry]

That old 52 carriers thingy again huh ;) gets em every time.

[lonnie]

People are hoping that a bad pigtail is the culprit, since that would mean a simple change and 15 dB more output (as measured at the receiver).

I think we will just have to live with this, and personally I love it, since these units perform WAY better than any previous technology where the signal levels show higher. :D

[David L. Vrablic]

Now the DB rubber ruler thing gets even more complex!

I feel like a man standing up in a rowboat with a weight on the end of a 4 ft rubberband.
Trying to measure the height of the waves.

[rbolduc]

Now the DB rubber ruler thing gets even more complex!

It's like buliding a high performance car and measuring horse power by "yer seat of your pants" feeling, I have to learn slowly if it works and passes data with no problems that link is OK........for now :lol:

Reed

[Mark]

The calculator says:

21 miles, 5320 MHz, 13 dBm into a 28 dBi with 2 dB cable loss, receiving antenna 28 dBi with 2 dB cable loss is: -72.562618540579 dBm

Star-OS reports:

-78

I have seen it peak at -72.

Go figure.

[phendry]

21 miles, 5320 MHz, 13 dBm into a 28 dBi with 2 dB cable loss, receiving antenna 28 dBi with 2 dB cable loss is: -72.562618540579 dBm

Star-OS reports:

-78

I have seen it peak at -72


Hey Mark, 8W EIRP??? What country you in? What speed have you had through that link?