WiFi Link from top of tower
 

Hello fellow HRO's

I've got a 50ft tower w/ rotor. Been thinking mounting a 2.4 Ghz WiFi
antenna on the rotor to see what it picks up in way of WAP / WLAN's

To get around cable loss problem was going to put a USB adapter at antenna
then run USB cable up tower. Have tested USB at ~ 5X it's spec'd range but
suspect the 60 - 70' run will be way too long.

Anyone know of a way to 'remodulate' so to speak to 802.11 wirelessly link
the output from the antenna mounted adapter back to computer?

Thanks for any thoughts

Bob

W4NNG

WiFi Link from top of tower
 

W4NNG wrote:
Hello fellow HRO's

I've got a 50ft tower w/ rotor. Been thinking mounting a 2.4 Ghz WiFi
antenna on the rotor to see what it picks up in way of WAP / WLAN's

To get around cable loss problem was going to put a USB adapter at antenna
then run USB cable up tower. Have tested USB at ~ 5X it's spec'd range but
suspect the 60 - 70' run will be way too long.

Anyone know of a way to 'remodulate' so to speak to 802.11 wirelessly link
the output from the antenna mounted adapter back to computer?
==============================
You might wish to consider a wireless router ,with detachable antenna
instead ,either with a standard antenna ,all in a wx-proof enclosure or
with an external high gain antenna.
The advantage of using a router is using a ethernet (cat5) cable of any
length. You obviously have to strap a 12V-DC power cable to the cat5
cable for 'feeding' the router.
The router produces enough heat to keep itself dry in its wx proof
enclosure.

When using a USB2 wireless adaptor you will need special amplifying 5
metres long cables (I believe up to 3 can be put in series making the
max length approx 15 metres which is short of your 20+ metres
Moreover you would have to wx-proof the joints which contain the amplifiers
When using a USB adapter you might be in a position to fit this device
in the focal point of a satellite dish which with its high gain (but
being directive) would possibly not necessitate installation on top of a
mast , enabling a shorter distance to your 'service point'
Just some ideas ..........


Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

WiFi Link from top of tower
 

W4NNG wrote:
Hello fellow HRO's

I've got a 50ft tower w/ rotor. Been thinking mounting a 2.4 Ghz WiFi
antenna on the rotor to see what it picks up in way of WAP / WLAN's

To get around cable loss problem was going to put a USB adapter at antenna
then run USB cable up tower. Have tested USB at ~ 5X it's spec'd range but
suspect the 60 - 70' run will be way too long.

Anyone know of a way to 'remodulate' so to speak to 802.11 wirelessly link
the output from the antenna mounted adapter back to computer?

Thanks for any thoughts

Bob

W4NNG




Use ethernet up the tower and PoE (Power over Ethernet). There's lots of
off the shelf solutions here.

RF interference to/from the Ethernet (or USB for that matter) would be
an issue.

You can also do fiber optics (for ethernet, you can pick up
ethernet:fiber media converters surplus quite cheaply.. Then it's just
the fiber cable with connectors already attached, which can be found
fairly inexpensively, if you scrounge. Fiber is cheaper than coax, in
general.)

Or, as someone else suggested, use a second wireless adapter with a
directional antenna to bridge it to your shack. Then all you need up
the tower is DC power.

You might be able to do it with something like a single WRT54, too.

WiFi Link from top of tower
 

Thanks for all the suggestions

Don't understand the '... second wireless adapter ...' suggestion? where's
it get power?

I've got an EUB-362EXT adapter. (has an SMA connect) Was the longest range
device I could find. Antenna will be connected directly to it, rather than
using the adapter dipole inserted inside a reflector

FWIW - The EUB adapter significantly out-performs a low cost linksys usb
adapter both using their own antenna's. Parked at same location linksys
found 2 WAP's the EUB found 8


"Jim Lux" wrote in message
...
W4NNG wrote:
Hello fellow HRO's

I've got a 50ft tower w/ rotor. Been thinking mounting a 2.4 Ghz WiFi
antenna on the rotor to see what it picks up in way of WAP / WLAN's

To get around cable loss problem was going to put a USB adapter at antenna
then run USB cable up tower. Have tested USB at ~ 5X it's spec'd range
but
suspect the 60 - 70' run will be way too long.

Anyone know of a way to 'remodulate' so to speak to 802.11 wirelessly link
the output from the antenna mounted adapter back to computer?

Thanks for any thoughts

Bob

W4NNG




Use ethernet up the tower and PoE (Power over Ethernet). There's lots of
off the shelf solutions here.

RF interference to/from the Ethernet (or USB for that matter) would be
an issue.

You can also do fiber optics (for ethernet, you can pick up
ethernet:fiber media converters surplus quite cheaply.. Then it's just
the fiber cable with connectors already attached, which can be found
fairly inexpensively, if you scrounge. Fiber is cheaper than coax, in
general.)

Or, as someone else suggested, use a second wireless adapter with a
directional antenna to bridge it to your shack. Then all you need up
the tower is DC power.

You might be able to do it with something like a single WRT54, too.

WiFi Link from top of tower
 

" W4NNG" wrote in message
...
Thanks for all the suggestions

Don't understand the '... second wireless adapter ...' suggestion?
where's
it get power?

I've got an EUB-362EXT adapter. (has an SMA connect) Was the longest
range
device I could find. Antenna will be connected directly to it, rather
than
using the adapter dipole inserted inside a reflector

FWIW - The EUB adapter significantly out-performs a low cost linksys usb
adapter both using their own antenna's. Parked at same location linksys
found 2 WAP's the EUB found 8


Hi Bob

It would seem that Frank's (KN6WH) suggestion about using a Bridge or
Router, or Switch avoids alot of the USB limitations. Have you tried using
a CAT 5 device located at the top of the tower?
I thought the CAT 5 devices were far better than USB for remote WiFi.
But, if you have data / experience that shows otherwise, I'd like to learn
more about why the USB is chosen.

Jerry KD6JDJ

WiFi Link from top of tower
 

Maybe I am missing something here, but if you put a wireless router at the
top of the tower why do you need anything else other than power up the mast?
You can can talk to the router locally over the air without the need for a
cable connection.

Jeff

WiFi Link from top of tower
 

Jeff wrote:
Maybe I am missing something here, but if you put a wireless router at the
top of the tower why do you need anything else other than power up the mast?
You can can talk to the router locally over the air without the need for a
cable connection.
========================================
In that case you need 2 routers ,R-1 in top of the mast with a
(sensitive) internal or external antenna having one of its ethernet
ports connected to an ethernet port of the second wireless router R-2
serving as a wireless bridge and fitted lower on the mast ,having a not
so sensitive antenna but sufficient for communication with any wireless
router or adapter inside the house/shack.
R-2 should be set to communicate on an 'extremity' channel say channel
13 ,which will hopefully not be needed by R-1. This to avoid that the 2
routers 'bite' each other .

A (wireless) router is a bi-directional input-output device .
When the wireless side is receiving it passes the information on to the
ethernet port serving as output and vice versa.

Hope the above makes sense


Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

WiFi Link from top of tower
 

In that case you need 2 routers ,R-1 in top of the mast with a (sensitive)
internal or external antenna having one of its ethernet ports connected to
an ethernet port of the second wireless router R-2 serving as a wireless
bridge and fitted lower on the mast ,having a not so sensitive antenna but
sufficient for communication with any wireless router or adapter inside
the house/shack.
R-2 should be set to communicate on an 'extremity' channel say channel 13
,which will hopefully not be needed by R-1. This to avoid that the 2
routers 'bite' each other .

A (wireless) router is a bi-directional input-output device .
When the wireless side is receiving it passes the information on to the
ethernet port serving as output and vice versa.

Hope the above makes sense



Surely all you need is a wireless card in the pc that you wish to connect to
the router on the mast. If you happen to have a router in the house as well
it is no different to your next door neighbour having a WiFi network. You
just connect to whichever router you wish to.

Jeff

WiFi Link from top of tower
 

W4NNG wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions

Don't understand the '... second wireless adapter ...' suggestion? where's
it get power?


if you set up two wireless to ethernet bridges back to back you can use
the second to relay the traffic on the "wide area" one back to your
shack. (e.g. the "remodulate" function asked for). You could also just
use a single 802.11 device up top, configured as an access point in
infrastructure mode, with no ethernet connected. It will repeat out all
the packets, and, so, with a directional antenna at the shack pointed at
your towertop AP you can communicate. However, managing the AP will be a
challenge, especially if there's an RFI issue.

Power would be separately supplied, but you can put a small regulated DC
supply up at the top. My own preference would be to use a quiet DC/DC
converter with wide input range, so you don't care about voltage drop on
the wires heading up.



I've got an EUB-362EXT adapter. (has an SMA connect) Was the longest range
device I could find. Antenna will be connected directly to it, rather than
using the adapter dipole inserted inside a reflector

FWIW - The EUB adapter significantly out-performs a low cost linksys usb
adapter both using their own antenna's. Parked at same location linksys
found 2 WAP's the EUB found 8


"Jim Lux" wrote in message
...
W4NNG wrote:

Hello fellow HRO's

I've got a 50ft tower w/ rotor. Been thinking mounting a 2.4 Ghz WiFi
antenna on the rotor to see what it picks up in way of WAP / WLAN's

To get around cable loss problem was going to put a USB adapter at antenna
then run USB cable up tower. Have tested USB at ~ 5X it's spec'd range

but

suspect the 60 - 70' run will be way too long.

Anyone know of a way to 'remodulate' so to speak to 802.11 wirelessly link
the output from the antenna mounted adapter back to computer?

Thanks for any thoughts

Bob

W4NNG





Use ethernet up the tower and PoE (Power over Ethernet). There's lots of
off the shelf solutions here.

RF interference to/from the Ethernet (or USB for that matter) would be
an issue.

You can also do fiber optics (for ethernet, you can pick up
ethernet:fiber media converters surplus quite cheaply.. Then it's just
the fiber cable with connectors already attached, which can be found
fairly inexpensively, if you scrounge. Fiber is cheaper than coax, in
general.)

Or, as someone else suggested, use a second wireless adapter with a
directional antenna to bridge it to your shack. Then all you need up
the tower is DC power.

You might be able to do it with something like a single WRT54, too.

WiFi Link from top of tower
 

Jeff wrote:
Maybe I am missing something here, but if you put a wireless router at the
top of the tower why do you need anything else other than power up the mast?
You can can talk to the router locally over the air without the need for a
cable connection.

Jeff



there are some practical details. For one thing, a lot of wireless
access points don't provide full control functionality over the wireless
port (for security, among other reasons). For instance, changing the
RF channel number is trickier "over the air".


The other thing has to do with available data bandwidth.. 802.11 PHY
is essentially a half duplex protocol (i.e. it doesn't Tx and Rx at the
same time). If you set up two units back to back, you can run the
second link on a different channel for your "shack to tower" link, so
those packets don't have to go over the air on the "tower top" unit.


Lots of possibilities, lots of ways to do it.