Moving from a big city with a myriad of internet access options to a rural area with only 24 Kb dial-up is a challenging task. I tried living off of dial-up for a few months, but could not stand how slow it was. I undertook the challenge of designing and installing a wireless network that could serve high speed internet from a location that could receive it to my home.
I discovered that my brother could get DSL at his house. I now had a basis with which I could start planning a network. Because we both live in an area that is 100% farmland there are no homes or trees to obstruct the line-of-sight between our antennas, but there was a potential concern with a small knoll that sloped down into our line-of-sight. I used a program called Radio Mobile to download topographic terrain data and run line-of-sight scenarios that would tell me how high to place my antennas and whether my selected hardware would provide an adequate signal. The modeling program suggested that the knoll would not be a problem and that I should be able to receive a signal. Follows is a description of my final setup:
DSL Site
- 35 foot antenna tower
- 2 x 24 dBi parabolic grid antennas
- I decided to put my dad on the network also and needed two antennas to cover both of our locations
- 2-way 2.4 Ghz antenna splitter
- 50 foot of low loss antenna cable
- Linksys WRT54G router
My Home (2.69 miles away from DSL) - Satellite dish mounting pole and bracket
- 24 dBi parabolic grid antenna
- 50 foot of low loss antenna cable
- Linksys WRT54G router
Dad's Home (6.9 miles away from DSL) - 35 foot antenna tower
- 24 dBi parabolic grid antenna
- 50 foot of low loss atenna cable
- Linksys WRT54G router
The installation went as planned and I now have a working high speed internet connection. My network runs at approximately 2 Mbps. The link to my dad's home is around 512 Kbps.
Pictures
Here is a picture that shows the type of terrain that my signal is crossing. Notice a red circle on the picture that shows where the antenna tower at the DSL site is located. The view of the tower is as seen from my home. The view and type of terrain from my dad's home is the same.
The next photos show the antenna tower at the DSL site and the installed antennas
This photo is a closeup of the antenna splitter at the DSL site and how I waterproofed the connection. I used standard heat shrink around each of the connections. I then placed industrial heat shrink on each connection. This type of heat shrink has a glue in it that creates a waterproof seal. The heat shrink is typically used in direct-bury electrical applications.
Here is a photo of the antenna at my home and how it is mounted. It is placed on a standard satellite dish mounting pole and then anchored to the roof.
The final photo is a view the waterproofing of the connection on the antenna at my home. I used Scotch 88T tape as a base layer around the connection. I then applied contractor grade rubber tape to provide the watertight seal. Finally I finished it off with another layer of 88T. Warning, the rubber tape becomes very gummy and will ruin your cables if you do not put a layer of Scotch 88T underneath it.
