I *am* a bit concerned with the -88dBm noise level, but, I do agree with you that I have a high-gain antenna and high power transmitter with decent receive sensitivity.
What concerns me most about the -88dBm noise is that some of my neighbors, using the exact same equipment and connected to the same WISP AP, have 9 dB less noise!
Since every 3dB is doubling (or halving), I have 8 times the noise that they have! That's mostly what concerns me.
It would be nice if others on a.h.r listed their noise figures, so, we could take an informal survey.
My modem (actually it's a tranceiver, but, it's just like a modem) is where I measure all this noise.
Can you guys get noise figures out of a cable or DSL modem?
Hi, You guys are little bit behind me, when I was into it during and after school, computers were called electronic calculator as such containing vacuum tubes, mechanical relays.. from there transistors, small scale IC all the way into nanotech which is now. I used to use blank punch card with columms and rows all half pre-punched so we can push the confetti out to make holes where we want to do Fortran programming. If you drop the card deck by accident, you have to resort one by one to make them in proper order before you can have it read. Also remember 51 column card? Credit card receipts were 51 column card size which could be read after they are punched by key punch operators(girls) reading the amount written and imprinted account number. My Ham radio hobby was from the '50s, licensed in '60. Hold Extra U.S., Advanced/Digital Canadian, First class Korean licenses. Right now I am busy resetting up our HT system into 7.1 with new AV receiver and speakers. Better be done before X-mas.
Hi, How come you are using radio link. no cable access? You way out in boon dogs like my cabin? My only access is via satellite there. It costs a lot so I don't use it.
I should clarify that those of you who are on DSL or cable won't have any way (that I know of) to increase your signal quality ...
But, since there is no cable or DSL service to my neighborhood, all of us get our Internet from the airwaves.
Given that, we do have a direct one-to-one relationship between the quality of our signal and the speed of our Internet.
What I can do, at home, to improve *my* Internet speeds are: a) Increase my antenna gain (this is usually the best way) b) Decrease my noise (this is usually the second best way) c) Increase my transmitter power (this works only to a point) d) Increase my receiver sensitivity (again, works only to a point) e) Decrease my channel bandwidth (mine is set at 20MHz now)
I increased my antenna gain by replacing the Nanobridge M2 with the more powerful (and directional) Rocket M2, so, now I'm working on the noise level.
We are in mountains. Our roads are one-lane for miles on end. Zoning in our area is 40 acres, so, if you have 79 acres, you can only put one house on it (they don't want more people living in the mountains - they prefer them all squashed together in San Jose, which we can "see" (along with the smog above it).
Even though we're few and far between (we can't even see the neighbor's houses) but we all know each other better than if we lived in a city.
So we all know what the others have by way of Interner access. None of us can get DSL because we are something like 30,000 feet from some switching station that we need. It's too far.
None of us can get cable because the poles out here only have power and telephone. Nothing else is on them.
Luckily, we're high up, so, we have a fantastic view of the sky. Satellite is no problem. Out here, both Hughes and Viasat Exeed serve us. But, satellite, in a word, sucks, only because of bandwidth limits and latencies. Mostly the bandwidth limits. The speeds are actually pretty good. But, that bandwidth limit is a killer.
Of course, we could use cellular modems, but, there is a better solution for us. We use line-of-sight WiFi access points. Since we can see both sides of Silicon Valley, we could put an antenna up 30 miles away and see it easily by line of sight. In almost all directions.
The net is that we all have dish antennas bristling on our roofs. They point at the local access points.
We have only four WISPs to choose from (that I know of), so, each of us points to whatever WISP gives us the best deal.
Mine allows me to be unthrottled, which is great because I have no bandwidth limits and I have no speed limits. If I can get
30Mbps, that's what I get.
My first radio, a Bullet M2, only got about 8Mbps (symmetric). So I upgraded that to a Nanobridge M2, which got about 10Mbps. Now with the Rocket M2, I get almost 20Mbps.
So, our investment in radios has a direct relationship to our Internet speeds. Our "modem" is the radio (aka, the transceiver).
BTW, I'll ask you a question about you cabin in the next post ...
We must pass our knowledge and skills on to a younger generation because they are being lost. If our modern society crashed, most people would be helpless because they have no idea how older simpler technology works. Perhaps Boy Scouts could help people survive? o_O
Hi Tony, Satellite is fast, but sucks due to bandwidth & latency reasons.
If your cabin can use WISP, that's what I suggest. What you need for WISP is line of sight to the access point.
From your cabin roof, can you *see* anywhere that does have cable Internet access?
If so, you can home-brew up a fast Internet access easily. Of course, there are *many* solutions, and the best is to find a WISP access point that you can visually see ... (which is what I do).
But, by way of example, let's say that 25 miles away, you can see a friend or relative who has cable access. Remember, you must *see* the area. Of course, even at about 3 miles, I can't actually pick out my WISP antenna, but, I can scan the area with binoculars enough to know I'm pointed roughly at it (at 3 miles, my 5 degree beam is 1200 feet wide in both horizontal and vertical directions).
At 25 miles, your beamwidth will be fine if you're anywhere pointed close.
Then what you do is buy a pair of radios that cost about $100 in total, plus another $100 (or so) for mounting equipment, and another $50 or so for cabling.
So, for roughly $250, one-time cost, you can establish a link that easily transmits that cable Internet access from the populated area to the rural area of your cabin.
The great news about that is the $250 is a one-time fee, so, if you divide that over it's useful life (10 years?), it's about $25 a year.
In summary, it's really easy to transmit WiFi from one place to another, with the huge caveat that you need line-of-sight between the two points. Hope this helps you with your cabin.
Ditto. Despite the briefcase analog computer contrivance, the grunt work was done with a 6" K&E. The one in the photo is what I used a half century ago. (Hmm... why am I suddenly feeling old?) I still use a slide rule for doing gear ratios. I also give occasional demos of the slide rule to kids that have never seen one. Incidentally, I give a song and dance on using a nautical sextant in a few minutes... oops, I'm late.
Just by way of another example, I can see all of San Jose, so, out of the million people down there, I could find one willing to beam their high-speed Internet to me, simply by adding a radio to their roof and to mine.
(In effect, that's what I do, except I'm paying my WISP to be that other antenna.)
The fact it's so easy and cheap (nowadays) to beam an Internet connection a dozen miles, makes me wonder why more people don't do it.
Of course, the caveat is (and always was) line of sight is needed, although not having LOS is easy to solve with repeaters.
20 years ago, I was working on the chilled water system at a bowling alley when a 10 year old kid walked up to the counter and asked the counterman if he could use the phone to call home. The fellow reached under the counter and set a rotary dial phone in front of the kid and the kid had no idea what he was looking at much less how to use it. ^_^
That was a heck of a lot of money for me in those days considering minimum wage was $1.60/hr and I was paying 22 cents a gallon for regular at the San-Ann gas station. In 1971 I was working at a defense plant that made some munitions parts for the military and I was paid $1.68/hr because I was working 11pm to 7am. The 8 cents was called a shift differential paid to those who worked the night shift. ^_^
The pot's been boiling for a long time and the frogs still haven't jumped out. o_O
It was my senior year in college. The minimum wage was $2.00/hr and I only worked 20hrs/wk (all they would give me during the school year). It's a good thing a glass of beer was only $.25. ;-)
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