[TowerTalk] Wireless internet antenna on ham tower

[Jim Brown]

On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 04:36:51 +0000, Rick Bullon wrote:

>The guy at the computer store said that I may in a good position for an 
>internet  node here at my QTH.  

Several issues. First, I wouldn't worry about the wind loading. These are relatively small 
antennas. But they might get in the way of your climbing the tower, so I would be 
concerned about how they are mounted. 

I would also be concerned about the HF trash that Ethernet puts out, because the RF 
electronics for these antennas are on the back of the antennas, and will be fed by Ethernet 
cable, not coax. If they are not well designed, they can radiate trash in the ham bands. If 
you do put a node on your tower, you should have an iron-clad contract with the internet 
contractor that he will kill all of that trash. 

That said, think of such a node as an alternative to BPL -- sounds like a win-win to me if it 
is done well! We are working with a local guy to host a wireless node at W6BX (see QRZ 
listing), which can serve several hundred folks in a remote valley in CA. The service is 
barely running so far, but last time I was there (two weeks ago) there were no problems. 


Jim Brown  K9YC