Does anyone know a good sector antenna to pair with XR9's?

[jcrites2008]

Our WISP would like to get into 900 MHz, but we haven't had very good luck with it yet. We have an XR9 in a MT routerboard with a sector antenna. For the client side we also have a XR in a MT routerboard. We've tried a yagi, a grid, and a panel antenna for the client. The signal we get isn't very good for line of site, and performance is subpar as well (high pings, low very unstable throughput).

We're thinking maybe our sector antenna isn't very good. Does anyone have any experience with 900 sector antennas and which ones are good with XR9's? Any other advice for us about 900 MHz would be great.

Thanks,

Jason

[UBNT-Mike.Ford]

Hey Jason,

There are a lot of things that can possible be wrong with the link. Can you please explain your link setup in greater detail. Also describe the type of enviroment you are in. There may be a good chance you have inteference on your link.

Thanks,

Mike

[jcrites2008]

Mike,

Thank you for your reply. We had the sector antenna about 75 feet high with an XR9, as I mentioned. It's in town, and there is one other provider using 900 MHz. That said, we tried every frequency possible and every bandwidth possible. We tested about 5 miles away, almost line of sight. -75 was the best we got on the access point. Highest throughput was 3 Mbps, but during the same test it would sometimes drop down to 100 Kbps.

I believe our sector is 12 dbi and the client antennas are close to that as well.

Thanks,

Jason

[jcrites2008]

Oh also we tested in another town that doesn't have 900 MHz internet and it didn't seem to do a whole lot better. These are small towns too btw, and we tested well out into the country, not in the town itself.

[jcrites2008]

*bump* I'd like to know what sector antenna you guys use with the XR9. I'm looking at tranzeo or pac wireless right now. Any advice on which might be better?

Thanks,

Jason

[InoX]

I think that 12dBi for 5 miles is not enough.

[jcrites2008]

12 dBi is pretty high gain for 900 MHz. I'm generally seeing 12 for horizontally polarized antennas and 13 for vertically polarized antennas.

[UBNT-Mike.Ford]

Hello,

I use PacWirless 900Mhz (the 5 footers). I have had very good success with them.

Thanks,

Mike

[jcrites2008]

Mike,

Which polarization do you use? We think maybe a competitor is using horizontal. Which would you recommend for us?

Thanks,

Jason

[thewisperer]

its obvious that if you think they are using one, go to the opposite.

look at their antennas: this can tip you off to polarity or better yet
use something like a used trango sm to determine what's in the area.

could do the same with most any 900 client and two antennas (one h one v)
check noise with each antenna

[joefarmer]

Sorry, I know it's an old thread. I have tried a few different 900 antennas and I prefer the Superpass 900mhz antennas. The Pacific Wireless antennas had some weird interference issues- one subscriber would be perfect and the next sub 500' down the road would be 18db lower. Swapped it for a Superpass antenna and the problem went away.

[jcrites2008]

Joefarmer,

Thank you for responding. Do you have the 12 dBi or the 14.3 dBi antennas? Or do you have the 10 dBi vertical.

Thanks again,

Jason