gavifer
Newbie
I am NOT a radio expert. I come from a digital background. I'm easily befuddled by anything rounder than a square wave. I have what I hope is a simple question about a simple problem.
I'm trying to correct a fault in a neighborhood WiFi tower whose short-haul point-to-point feed went bad. The usual fix is to replace the sour radio card, but this time the card was not the culprit. We also replaced the pigtail, since it was easily accessible, but no joy.
The symptom is that neither the old nor the new card can see any access points in the 5GHz WiFi band (there are several strong ones within 100 yards, including the one it should be using). Both cards do detect several local APs in the 2.4GHz WiFi band, so we know they're not both broken. (The 2.4GHz APs share the tower, so I suspect the card would would pick them up with no antenna at all.)
Ruling out the these components leaves only the directional 5GHz antenna or the (long) connecting LMR-400 coax. We had rain recently (it's rare here), so the coax could be the culprit (we do goop up the connectors, but stuff happens). I've never had an antenna just stop working before, but I suppose I can't rule that out either.
Getting someone up on this tower is particularly troublesome. I don't have specialized RF test equipment, but I'm not averse to investing in some if our budget allows.
I'd like to be able to determine which component is at fault so I can do something smarter than just a shotgun whole-blood transfusion. Plus it would be nice to have on hand whatever equipment is necessary to test new and used antennas and cables as they rotate in and out of the shop.
Can someone explain to me how to go about such testing and what equipment I will need?
Thank you so much.
I'm trying to correct a fault in a neighborhood WiFi tower whose short-haul point-to-point feed went bad. The usual fix is to replace the sour radio card, but this time the card was not the culprit. We also replaced the pigtail, since it was easily accessible, but no joy.
The symptom is that neither the old nor the new card can see any access points in the 5GHz WiFi band (there are several strong ones within 100 yards, including the one it should be using). Both cards do detect several local APs in the 2.4GHz WiFi band, so we know they're not both broken. (The 2.4GHz APs share the tower, so I suspect the card would would pick them up with no antenna at all.)
Ruling out the these components leaves only the directional 5GHz antenna or the (long) connecting LMR-400 coax. We had rain recently (it's rare here), so the coax could be the culprit (we do goop up the connectors, but stuff happens). I've never had an antenna just stop working before, but I suppose I can't rule that out either.
Getting someone up on this tower is particularly troublesome. I don't have specialized RF test equipment, but I'm not averse to investing in some if our budget allows.
I'd like to be able to determine which component is at fault so I can do something smarter than just a shotgun whole-blood transfusion. Plus it would be nice to have on hand whatever equipment is necessary to test new and used antennas and cables as they rotate in and out of the shop.
Can someone explain to me how to go about such testing and what equipment I will need?
Thank you so much.