BulletM5 < 17.7 KM> another bullet.. works! woo!

[dmck]

This whole adventure started awhile ago on another section of the forum, see the following link for more info:
http://www.ubnt.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13982

What started as a thread about powerstation5s basically turned into a Bullet M5HP installation.

So, here's where we stand now.

Height of the mast/antenna is 130 ft.

After 17.7 KM of direct LOS over water

we reach tower 2, or basically big pole on the
side of a dock around 90ft in the air.


The equipment came from microcom.us/

First off, BulletM 5 HPs have the BEST admin config pages I've ever seen.
While some of the 'advanced' stuff i didn't quite understand, there was easy to find documentation all over the wiki and in the forum.

Link Install (finally!)


so, bullet 1 (plugged into the internet side)
using http://store.microcom.us/kgrid00306.html which is an awesome looking grid antenna..
First step : firmware update. Then,
Configured as Access Point - WDS then
20mhz channels
Was configured with ACK set to 11.5 miles
(people had said to make it a tad higher then actual)
Turned on wpa2, set a key.. .
Airmax on
Mounted on the roof

As someone deathly afraid of heights, I think I did a pretty good mounting job, cables all locked in place, secured down, looked pretty good. And most important, aimed it directly where I wanted the signal to end up 17.7 Kms later.


With Bullet 1 setup, it was time for #2
Station/WDS
lock to bullet 1 WDS mac ID
Ack 11.5 Miles
WPA2 key set
Airmax on.

Now, not being totally familiarwith ubnt hardware, or long range wireless in general. I have to let out a secret that when we put up the second bullet, i was worried i'd not be able to find the signal.

But, Suprise! it worked the first freaking time! just finished getting it mounted. plugged it in.. BLAMO!

According to the link status thingy,

The link status shows -58 at the station
65 up, 65 down

Sadly it got dark and rainy AGAIN! before I could do some real testing..

Tomorrow I'll provide some images and stuff.. But.. um,
noob question time.

-58 is a good connection right?
rx 65/65 tx sounds right?

I have not done more then a ping test
which after 100 pings,
average was like 1 ms.. no lost packets.
I did try a quick web browsing session, and it worked flawless.

tomorrow i'll try a local FTP xfer by placing a machine on one side of the link with and ftp server, and a machine on the other side to see what type of throughput I get..

I'll post some images tomorrow of the install so you guys get a better idea of the distance

So after all that big long post: I was just wondering.. um.. is -58 at 11 miles LOS Good?

I haven't even done much find tuning yet, it was raining pretty bad near the end. Um, anything I should change / try?

Also Thanks to Dave.D for his purchasing advice.. Looks like it was very sound advice!

[Dave-D]

Good work! Glad this all came together
for you. You can thank those great
Poynting antennas for some of this.

Holy cripes! You have a 130ft. mast
as on a sailing vessel? Somebody has
money to burn....

A -58dBi signal is fine; gives you a
good fade margin. And it appears you
made your 25Mbps goal.

What a surprise: rain stopped the show.:icon_eek:

Have fun. Dave

[dmck]

Good work! Glad this all came together
for you. You can thank those great
Poynting antennas for some of this.

Holy cripes! You have a 130ft. mast
as on a sailing vessel? Somebody has
money to burn....

A -58dBi signal is fine; gives you a
good fade margin. And it appears you
made your 25Mbps goal.

What a surprise: rain stopped the show.:icon_eek:

Have fun. Dave

Im so suprised how well it worked.. considering i could barely see 17 KM today to the other side of the link.. good guess/aiming!

Tomrrow i'll post all ths screenshots with numbers and xfer rates so we can see what we got all said and done.. but ya, this install was super easy..and other then the rain, kinda fun too!

[WHT]

As someone deathly afraid of heights<cough>...Wanna know what it feels like when yer 300 ft. up a tower and there's a nearby earth tremor? When a horse hits a guy wire? When you watch a tornado 15 miles away coming towards you? When a 500 ft tower gets twice while erecting it? When lightning hit a 1,000 ft tower and a fireball comes down the tower between yer legs? When a military fighter passes a thousand feet from you because the pilots already ejected?

[sxpert]

care to share some pics ? ;)

[Griminal]

I'm winded going up 80 feet. I couldn't fathom going higher. Do you pack a lunch to stop on the way up? ;)

[WHT]

I couldn't fathom going higher. Do you pack a lunch to stop on the way up? ;)Nah..it only takes thirty minutes to climb 1,000 feet. But that was before all the safety regulations and all we did was free climb the face of the tower. Oddly, the fatality rate appears to have increased after all the regulations.