[PLUG] Wireless ISP

Chuck Hast wchast at gmail.com
Wed Sep 6 05:08:39 UTC 2017


While I lived in Kelso, I tried to get Cascade to put a radio up on a tower
above
the place I lived, down in the valley where the house was there was no
coverage,
but up on the top of the ridge at the SW end of the property, there was
signal
above the trees, I was going to put up a tower, but they told me that they
only
installed on towers THEY put up, and they were not interested in going up a
hill to do so. I ended up with Hughesnet which sucks and blows at the same
time.

That said there are many possible options if you can find someone to work
with
up on the hillside above Kalama, perhaps paying for a larger pipe to
someone's
home and then adding a radio link from there out to where you are. I use
Ubiquiti equipment, you can start out with a lower speed link if it works
well you
can move to the high speed FDX systems they offer that are good out to at
least 200kM, line of sight, I would look at the airfibre5 as I am not sure
the
airfibre24 would do so well when there is a lot of water in the air. For
starters
you might want to look at the AirfibreX as that will be a lot less costly
than the
previous two and it will let you do some experimenting with the gear prior
to
putting down the higher cost of the AriFibre5. Indeed you may find that the
AirfibreX is all you need. The direct line distance from Kalama to Deer
Island
is between 5 and 6 miles depending on where the two ends are located. Indeed
a couple of bullets would certainly let you test the path, and it maybe all
you
need. Being half duplex you might have some issues with VoIP and video, but
sure would be a low cost way to pilot the path.

Be sure and do your coverage work and make sure your paths are well outside
of the first Fresnel zone and you should be good. Obviously no vegetation
in the
path either, that is a deal killer as is anything that protrudes into the
first Fresnel
zone. There are online tools that will do the path study work for you, you
may
have to add any new construction in the path.

Up at the east end of Taylor Road there is a tower, I am not sure who is on
it
but if you can get cable up to there that would be a great jumpoff point,
but
anywhere along the route up to there should have a great path to Deer
Island.

I know that the cable goes to within about 500ft of the tower, and maybe it
now
goes all the way up Taylor road, if not you can probably scavenge some fibre
and run fibre up there alongside the road. But I would try to see what I
could
negotiate anywhere there is a good view from Kalama to your Deer Island end
point.

On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 9:58 PM, Michael Barnes <barnmichael at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Not exactly Linux related, but I need local advice. I have a location down
> river, up in the hills behind the Deer Island/Goble area that needs decent
> Internet access. We have gone round and round with the DSL provider up
> there with terrible results. We have also tried a couple satellite
> providers with unsatisfactory service. We do have a good view of the Kalama
> area and the hills above it in Washington. We might have to put up a tower
> of about 20 feet or so to shoot above the trees. We have a fair view of the
> former Trojan power plant site.
>
> The only wireless ISP I can find over there is Cascade Networks. They say
> in their advertising that they cover up and down the Oregon side from St.
> Helens to Rainier. I have seen some reviews of their service. They either
> run 5+ or <1. Some customers really love them and sing their praises, while
> others want them tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail. At this
> point, I'd even consider finding a business in the Kalama area that has a
> really fat pipe of Enterprise Metro Ethernet, sub-lease some bandwidth, and
> put up some dishes and Ubiquity bullets to shoot across the river.
>
> Suggestions, comments, and recommendations appreciated.
>
> Michael
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG mailing list
> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>



-- 

Chuck Hast  -- KP4DJT --
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Ph 4:13 KJV
Todo lo puedo en Cristo que me fortalece.
Fil 4:13 RVR1960



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