Topic: Long range transmitter

[ValentineWeather]

I'm moving across town to a new location. the house has huge trees, having a weather station with any accuracy is out of the question without removing multiple trees and even then I have the neighbors trees to deal with. My solution long-range transmitter will be here tomorrow. Omni antenna for the local reception from ISS and 12 dB gain Yagi pointed to the house. I would like the WX new to be the primary station for the website. Yagi will be mounted on Tele-pole I've already relocated.

The backup plan is transmitting to a friends house red line and using his internet to upload files to website. I would rather have direct control with the console receiving signal, plus the internet in town is more reliable. He is on a wireless system vs ADSL.

Anyway, this is the plan when closing on the house completes. I'll report back if this works. Fingers crossed
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[PaulMy]

I'm moving across town to a new location..., you too Randy?


Luckily the new location has no big trees yet , so won't need the transmitter for me.


Good luck and enjoy,
Paul

[ValentineWeather]

I'm moving across town to a new location..., you too Randy?


Luckily the new location has no big trees yet , so won't need the transmitter for me.


Good luck and enjoy,
Paul

Funny we are both in the process of moving this year. Good luck with your new home too. I'm excited about it.

[PaulMy]

I'll need to change my forum avator but not sure yet about changing WU, CWOP, etc., or starting a new station.  New place will be less than half a mile away. 


My wife is excited, but I am less, thinking about station siting, CoCoRaHS, sun recorder, Blitzortung, computer, wifi, webcams 


Paul

[ValentineWeather]

I'm planning on just absorbing data from the old site. Have no plans of starting over, I'll just do a CWOP and Cocorahs move and call it good. CWOP move can be done on Gladstone site.

[miraculon]

If you search for "long range repeater" using my username of "miraculon", you will find several posts about my experiences regarding a very similar situation.

The trees are indeed a concern, especially when the leaves are wet. You also have houses in the signal path, the same as I do.

I suspect that you are going to have problems at that distance. You can look at my setup at the bottom of this page. I have a 3rd party Yagi with 17dBi gain, a mini-circuits preamp and band-pass filter for the 902-928MHz range.

My situation did not allow for a 2nd long-range repeater, but since both ends will be under your control, you could put repeaters at both the sending and receiving side.

I have had reasonably good luck with my current configuration using the 17dBi Yagi, preamp and BPF. (I do get an unexplained interference that reduces my "good packet" rate, but I have never lost signal with the current setup). This took several iterations and a lot of experimentation to get it to work.

If you need/want more details about what I did, I would be more than happy to send information. Just PM me and I'll send info.

Greg H.

[ValentineWeather]

Thanks for that info. So my thought if the signal is weak or unobtainable with single LRT antenna setup if I installed another LRT at the house with double Omni setup which goes for 1500' all directions instead of trying to connect with another yagi odds would be better vs connecting yagi to yagi where alignment mismatch come into play.   

I do want to give the single LRT a chance. I sent Davis an image and they thought it would work but by your experiece, with similiar, it may not. 
I'll be broadcasting from yagi about 20' above ground located at wx station shooting back toward the house which is about 10' higher elevation vs base elevation at wx site.  This may avoid enough dense obstacles I'm hoping.   

I'll find out more today, LRT and antennas should get here this afternoon. I'll just take a console to house and see if I receive a signal.

[Old Tele man]

FWIW -- Davis adheres to the "directional" antenna and "repeater" stations rather than higher output power approach (due to FCC constraints)...could they work for you?

[ValentineWeather]

FWIW -- Davis adheres to the "directional" antenna and "repeater" stations rather than higher output power approach (due to FCC constraints)...could they work for you?

Possibly If I had a higher gain yagi like Greg it may solve the problem If this doesn't work. I really didn't want to spend more with this move pending and all the expenses involved.

Can someone point me in the right direction for connectors needed for the higher gain antennas that work with Davis high range repeater? Are they the N-Female Connector?
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Here is a high gain Omni cheaper than SI if connectors are correct. Sure I can get higher gain Yagi too.

[Old Tele man]

"Omni" is short for "omni-directional" (ie: all directions) and NOT a "directional" (beam) antenna, which is what you need.

An omni antenna transmits & receives everything in a 360-degree hemisphere, while a beam (Yagi) antenna only transmits & receives in a narrow directional cone, like a flashlight beam in the night.

[ValentineWeather]

Thanks, yes aware of this the Omni would be in the event I needed a second repeater at the house to catch the yagi signal. I was thinking odds were better if the signal from yagi gets splintered to spread out a little instead of trying to connect 2 narrow beam yag's through tree's and houses. My thinking might be wrong. 

[txweather.org]

Thanks, yes aware of this the Omni would be in the event I needed a second repeater at the house to catch the yagi signal. I was thinking odds were better if the signal from yagi gets splintered to spread out a little instead of trying to connect 2 narrow beam yag's through tree's and houses. My thinking might be wrong. 

It is. You want two directional antennas... In cases like this it brings no help and if anything it hurts your signal

[johnd]

FWIW My rules for repeaters:

1. Remember that you can monitor the signal strength via the RSSI parameter of the console's 2nd wireless diagnostic screen. If at all possible aim for an RSSI of 30+, or at least high 20's (on a VP2 - the Vue scale is different).

2. Remember also that you monitor the RSSI of the signal reaching the penultimate repeater in the chain by putting repeater DIP switch 4 on and checking the wind direction parameter within the console wind rose (yes really).

3. If at all possible, avoid repeaters  . They can be more tricky to configure and troubleshoot if there's a LOS event than you might expect.

4. If a repeater is unavoidable then never use 2 where one might suffice - the problems in [3] can be squared.

5. Use one LR repeater (7654) in preference to 2 regular (7627) repeaters.

6. Remember the larger the number of elements in a Yagi the greater the  directionality. Lots of elements can maximise range but can also make optimal alignment more tricky. A Yagi with just a few elements can often be a good compromise between range & ease of configuration.

7. Repeaters often seem to take a while to sync up. Always worth leaving a new configuration eg overnight if it doesn't appear to be working at first.

[ValentineWeather]

Thanks John for the tips.  I may have questions later.

[ValentineWeather]

WElP no install today. Maybe 9 days will be the charm, USPS is crazy slow coming from Florida. 

[CW2274]

Phfft, just get something like this and be done with it.

https://www.smeter.net/ew8dq/images/vladimir-ew8dq.jpg

[Old Tele man]

Phfft, just get something like this and be done with it.

https://www.smeter.net/ew8dq/images/vladimir-ew8dq.jpg

Or, use a huge (illegal) "foot-warmer" RF power amplifier that "fries" any birds that fly through its signal path (wink,wink)!

[CW2274]

Phfft, just get something like this and be done with it.

https://www.smeter.net/ew8dq/images/vladimir-ew8dq.jpg

Or, use a huge (illegal) "foot-warmer" RF power amplifier that "fries" any birds that fly through its signal path (wink,wink)!

Back in my CB days, one of my acquaintances had a slightly illegal linear amp that pushed over 1000 watts, it would dim the house lights when he'd key up. Probably jacked up every TV within a city block.

[txweather.org]

Phfft, just get something like this and be done with it.

https://www.smeter.net/ew8dq/images/vladimir-ew8dq.jpg

Or, use a huge (illegal) "foot-warmer" RF power amplifier that "fries" any birds that fly through its signal path (wink,wink)!

ROFL!

[Mattk]

Probably doesn't matter now since the parts are in transit, but with the planned station/repeater configuration is/was the power requirements a controlling factors in deciding to use LR repeaters? Did you consider installing the complete system in the paddock complete with Envoy/WLIP etc and run something like a Ubiquiti link which would be a lot more powerful and robust than a LR repeater? Having at least 1 logger with the ISS at least means there is a data trace if the connection goes down.     

[ValentineWeather]

Probably doesn't matter now since the parts are in transit, but with the planned station/repeater configuration is/was the power requirements a controlling factors in deciding to use LR repeaters? Did you consider installing the complete system in the paddock complete with Envoy/WLIP etc and run something like a Ubiquiti link which would be a lot more powerful and robust than a LR repeater? Having at least 1 logger with the ISS at least means there is a data trace if the connection goes down.     

No didn't think of any of this.

[ValentineWeather]

Still waiting, could have received a package from China by now.
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[miraculon]

In addition to johnd's advice, I would suggest that the LEDs used in the diagnostic mode will be of help in getting running once you install everything.

To help aim the Yagi, you could use Google Earth to identify a landmark to aim at that is in the path between the ISS and Repeater antennas. I use the corner of a neighbor's house.

If you ultimately use a non-Davis antenna, you will need a N to RP-TNC cable to connect to the repeater. I recommend low-loss cable of the shortest length that will work. The cable losses can add up at 900+ MHz.

Greg H.

[johnd]

I would suggest that the LEDs used in the diagnostic mode will be of help in getting running once you install everything.

Yes agreed, definitely. Hopefully you will have a set-up that will sync quickly but if it doesn't then refer to the LED guide inside the repeater door (or IIRC in a bit more detail in the repeater manual/addendum.)

[miraculon]

Randy,

Did you get the repeater? Having any luck with it?

Greg H.