My internet sucks. The only available service here is 1.5 mbps dsl, but in reality it caps out around 0.2 mbps.
Less than a mile away, I can get 100 mbps cable service.
This is a hilly area with a lot of trees so I will have to build a tower. My house is in a clearing, so I am hoping to build a tower and get direct line of sight from property about a mile away. I own a lot of land in that area, and my family owns a lot of farmland. The only pitfall I see is that I need to find the optimum location so that I can ensure line of sight with whatever tower I build. Trees are tall here and the lay of the land is a little odd.
Will an ISP sell service to me if there is no residence at the location I want cable at? I would pick a spot on the road as close to a cable tap as possible. What if I buy a business account?
What sort of radios should I use? People speak highly of ubiquiti online.
What kind of latency issues will I see with wireless over that distance? I'm going to grab a drone and survey a few spots, my leading candidates now are 1 mile, 1.6 miles, and 2 miles from my house as the crow flies. The 2 mile location actually has the highest elevation. These are properties I already own or can use without issue.
I don't know anything about local permitting processes with regards to building a tower, but since it will be for non commercial use I can't imagine it will be any different from some ham hobby tower or antenna mast Whatever I do will be freestanding, I'm not looking to spend tons of money here (4-5k is my limit, not sure how reasonable that is)
Can I run the transmitter off of a couple solar panels, inverters, and batteries without too much issue? Power draw doesn't look too heavy.
Please tell me about your experiences with point to point internet services and whether I am chasing a pipe dream or not. Despite the short distance I don't see the telecoms expanding much here.
It can work on solar. Those ubiquiti things consume like 9 watts.
a car battery and solar panel will work fine.
You will need some type of shack, otherwise comcast will not install service there.
towers can be made from EMT conduit, google it
I linked multiple elementary schools together in a super rural area this way (conduit + ubnt equip)
Jose Powell
Pringles can.
Ryder Taylor
Oh yeah, also towers under 200 ft more than 5 miles from an airport do not require TOWAIR registration or permits
Leo Russell
>My house is in a clearing, so I am hoping to build a tower and get direct line of sight from property about a mile away. You need more than line of sight: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_zone
Also depending on the height of the tower you'll need FAA approval, running guy wires and having a light on top.
>Will an ISP sell service to me if there is no residence at the location I want cable at?
They'll sell you whatever but if you're in the middle of no where they're going to make you pay out of the ass to have their infrastruxture built out to your property.
>What sort of radios should I use? People speak highly of ubiquiti online. Its the only thing they have going for them
>Can I run the transmitter off of a couple solar panels, inverters, and batteries without too much issue? Sure why not.
I doubt I can run that much in my budget, and it would cross over other people's property. It's one thing if a telecom does it with a utility easement, another if I do.
Besides, wouldn't the service be shit that far from a node / trunk or whatever they call them?
I can put up a tuffshed or whatever I guess. Good info. Not a Comcast area but im sure rules are similar (spectrum).
Landon Cox
>fresnel wont matter under ~3 miles It does, pic related, for 2.4Ghz at 1 mile has a zone of ~23 feet
Alexander Lopez
I think most of the ubiquiti radios for this are 5ghz, which shrinks that a good deal.
Gabriel Garcia
I said that because I figured OP will use their 5Ghz equip with a height of at least 40. They sell premade 40' masts for tv that will work for ubnt stuff.
Carter Evans
the radius is 16 feet at 5ghz at 1 mile. as i said, OP needs more than line of sight
its likely where op lives if he has trouble getting cable he probably doesn't have cellular either
Robert Gomez
40 foot might cut it, not sure. I didn't realize how dirt cheap they were. I might just plop one down at the farm next to a silo and tell my family I'll pay their internet bill or something. I'm not using terabytes of data here, I doubt spectrum would ever notice us sharing.
I'll look at those premade and collapsible masts, I'm not absolutely positive 40 foot will clear the treeline but it might in some places.
Eli Diaz
The fresnel zone is real, and ignoring it will cause even more dropped packets, forcing retransmissions and increasing the effective latency. And there are plenty of other sources interference which will only stack. The 5Ghz radios are $1k each, the ISP's building will cost probably 5 figures, in relative terms OP buying a 20' higher tower isnt that expensive.
Landon Stewart
>I'll look at those premade and collapsible masts, I'm not absolutely positive 40 foot will clear the treeline but it might in some places. FRESNEL ZONE MOTHERFUCKER
Sebastian Young
well as were saying about fresnel, you need minimum 60% of the zone, which 5ghz at 1 mile means you need to be at least 10 feet above the treeline.
Build a brick and cement structure 6ft up to give a boost to a premade mast, plus reinforce it. Like light posts in a parking lot
5ghz makes wireless communication worse not better
Eli Cruz
Did I advise him to ignore it? I said aim for all of it, but down to 60% of the zone will still be by and far permissible.
Gavin Watson
I have no issue will cellular, but data caps are a bitch. Here is a pic off my back porch, those two towers are 2 miles or so away and aren't very tall at all.
You can't see it due to the treeline but the tallest tower in the region is less than a half mile through the woods and is actually on family property. So I'm actually full bars all the time, no problem.
Juan Davis
>well as were saying about fresnel, you need minimum 60% of the zone, which 5ghz at 1 mile means you need to be at least 10 feet above the treeline. You need more than 10 feet. Ignoring that i think the 60% idea is wrong (its 80%), trees grow, radio towers dont.
I said $1k not $5k. And what you linked is a wifi access point, not a wireless bridge. It is also only rated for 183 meters:
It doesnt include antennas or cabling. Getting the cables, the antennas and everything else will bring the cost up beyond that and it still wouldnt have the range. This is what OP needs to be looking at and theyre $1k each
60% is hardly a hard figure to reach given that 50% of the zone is above the direct line of sight. You're talking about it like it's huge at these distances. To maintain 60% one only needs a few feet of clearance above obstructions at these distances.
Im not advising OP to ignore fresnel. I've done this before. But he doesn't need a 200 ft strobed and TOWAIR registered $25000 tower either. If he can scrape together 60ft hell probably be fine. 100 would be ideal
Nathan Nguyen
i meant $250,000
Angel Bennett
>You're talking about it like it's huge at these distances. Nigger I already told you it is 16 feet at 5ghz at 1 mile.
>To maintain 60% one only needs a few feet of clearance above obstructions at these distances. 60% is 10 feet
>60% this is the bare minimum as the rule of thumb and trees grow, radio towers dont
100% is ideal
And I never said he needs a tower of a specific height
David Flores
5 feet, above/below.
Cooper King
If the Fresnel zone is an ellipse of 32 feet at that distance and 50% of that ellipse is totally unobstructed as it runs above the direct line of sight, then to reach 60% wouldnt you only need to have 3.2 feet of clearance below the direct line of sight?
Anthony Wilson
you must have a HAM license to have this much autism about theoreticals. I have one and sold my shit long time ago because the HAM community FUCKING sucks.
Austin Adams
You can't do basic math. the radius is 16 feet for 100%, the radius for 60% is 10 feet.
>32 feet at that distance and 50% of that ellipse is totally unobstructed as it runs above the direct line of sight which means the radius is 16 feet
>60% wouldnt you only need to have 3.2 feet of clearance below the direct line of sight? 16 feet * 0.6 = 9.6 feet
No and i hate hamfags
Colton Edwards
Oh, I see it means an enclosed ellipse of 60-80% of the zone. I thought it meant that just 60-80% of the zone itself needed to be unobstructed.
Julian Kelly
>what are unlimited data plans?
Terry a david has one.
Joshua Wright
> throttled to 3g or 2g after 16-22gb depending on major carrier used
> unlimited
Robert Garcia
If you own the land, you'd be better off setting up short utility poles there.
