va3pc

Wireless ISP Tower Install

This is a photo of the old WISP tower, which has now been replaced by a larger tower owned exclusively by NetSpectrum. I have repurposed the old tower for my weather station. I will create a page dedicated to it when I revamp my website in the coming months.

My provider (NetSpectrum) uses Mororola Canopy wireless devices, which use a proprietary protocol to connect using a microwave band. My internet connection used to slow down during the summer months with signal strength issues due to leaf blockage, as the first unit used had a passive antenna fed with LDF4-50 (half inch) heliax. The new unit has all the electronics up the tower and feeds my house with outdoor CAT5 cable. A lot nicer to work with! 

	The picture on the left shows the tower with the original amplified 26db gain flat panel antenna on the top of the refurbished Delhi DMX-68 self-support tower. It receives a great signal from the wireless feed almost 18km away. The picture on the right shows the new antenna configuration after NetSpectrum approached me to use my tower as a local relay. The lower flat panel gets its 5 G feed from a different tower 11 km away. The omni antenna on top is for NetSpectrum's 900MHz WISP distribution in my local neighbourhood. The tower was constructed in 2004 in front of my house where the bedrock peeks through the ground.
		Here are the mounts that Guy (VE3PUP) fabricated for me using 3 x 15 inch channel and a piece of quarter inch metal plate approximately 18 x 4 inches. The base was poured from industrial grade grout in two sections to accommodate the three tower legs.
	The rock anchor bolts are 12 x 1 inch.  The height of the closer grout pad is about 5 inches, which still leaves 7 inches of bolt in the bedrock.