[TowerTalk] Snow and rain attenuation

[K8RI on Tower talk]

> Fortunately for me, my Dish TV antenna is within reach -- bolted to a post 
> below a deck -- and I periodically go out with a broom and sweep the snow 
> of it.  At least on the receiving end, that takes care of it.  Generally 
> it's the heavy wet snow that's the worst -- other types don't accumulate 
> so much.

With mine it doesn't have to be covered.  Just heavy rain or snow between me 
and the satellite and it's a dark screen.  I need a larger dish.

Roger Halstead (K8RI and ARRL 40 year Life Member)
N833R - World's oldest Debonair CD-2
www.rogerhalstead.com


>
> 73 - Rich, KE3Q
>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  From: Michael Tope<mailto:W4EF at dellroy.com>
>  To: Dan Hearn<mailto:dhearn at wwnw.net> ; 
> Towertalk at Contesting.Com<mailto:Towertalk at Contesting.Com>
>  Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 9:13 PM
>  Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Snow and rain attenuation
>
>
>
>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  From: "Dan Hearn" <dhearn at wwnw.net<mailto:dhearn at wwnw.net>>
>  To: "Towertalk at Contesting.Com<mailto:Towertalk at Contesting.Com>" 
> <towertalk at contesting.com<mailto:towertalk at contesting.com>>
>  Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 8:28 AM
>  Subject: [TowerTalk] Snow and rain attenuation
>
>
>  >I have been compelled to use dial up ISP service for some time. Recently 
> a
>  > high speed RF link service has become available. It operates on 5.7ghz.
>  > The
>  > ISP transmitter is located on a mountain top at about 15 miles distance
>  > and
>  > I have line of sight to it. The operator has recently increased power 
> and
>  > thinks an acceptable signal to my location is available. They are ready 
> to
>  > test for this.
>  >  I am concerned that our frequent snow and rain this winter might 
> result
>  > in
>  > unreliable signal levels. The receiver end uses a dish and my 
> experience
>  > with the Dish TV system is that less than an inch of snow on the 
> reflector
>  > kills the signal. The ISP antennas on the mountain top are in a snow
>  > environment all winter for sure. They may have heaters on their 
> antennas
>  > to
>  > solve this problem at that end.
>  >  Has anyone had experience in a situation like this? Should I stick 
> with
>  > my
>  > dial up?
>  >
>  > 73, Dan, N5AR
>
>  Assuming that your ISP is using proper radomes at the mountaintop 
> headend,
>  then you are probably okay. You can probably get by with a coarse mesh
>  dish for wireless at 5.8 GHz (barbecue grill) since you don't care so 
> much
>  about system temperature (you are going to be pointed at a 300 kelvin
>  target),
>  so snow collection on your antenna may not be too big a problem. The fact
>  that
>  you will be pointed close to the horizon instead of up toward the 
> equatorial
>  plane
>  like your DBS antenna should help as well. Rain fade shouldn't be too bad 
> at
>  5.8 GHz, but if it turns out that it is, you can just put up a bigger
>  receive antenna
>  to add margin to the link (doubling the diameter of your RX antenna will 
> add
>  roughly 6dB to the link fade margin).
>
>  Also see if your wireless ISP will provide dial-backup. When I lived in
>  Pasadena, Ca my cable modem provider (Charter) used Earthlink as an ISP, 
> so
>  you automatically got access to dial-backup when you subsribed to their
>  cable
>  modem service.
>
>  73 de Mike, W4EF............................................
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
>
>  See: http://www.mscomputer.com<http://www.mscomputer.com/>  for "Self 
> Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call 
> Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
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> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless 
> Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with 
> any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
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