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View from a Water Tower
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Cambium Install in Northern Indiana
Small install to a 90 foot tower. Tower was utilizing epmp with a netonix switch at the bottom. Tower was fed with an integrated Cambium 550.
#routingrf #wirelesswithwires #j2sw
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Cambium ePMP photos
Some ePMP 550 and sectors.
One of our climbers took this picture while climbing to do an install for a WISP client inside a “golf ball” water tower.
This will be a fairly short post. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. If you have wondered a good way to support your cable when you are hoisting a radio with cable on it this picture is for you. The cable could be fiber,cat-5, or a larger hardline.
As the number of WISP LTE deployments increase, there are many things WISPs will need to be mindful of. One such item is properly supporting antenna cables. LTE systems are more sensitive to cable issues. In a previous blog post, I talked about pim and low-pim cables. One of the things that can cause low pim is improperly mated cables. If cables are not supported they can become loose over time. Vibration from equipment or even the wind can loosen connections.
How do we support cables?
We can take a cue from the cellular industry. The following are some examples of proper cable support. Thanks to Joshua Powell for these pics.
Where can you get these?
A good place to start are sites like sitepro1 or Tessco has a selection.
So the next time you are planning your LTE deployment think about cable support.
As more and more Wireless ISPs (WISPS) get into licensed microwaves, bigger antennas, and fiber up the tower (FUTT) they are getting into an arena typically reserved just for the Cellular and broadcast folks. This can result in an overwhelming amount of things to deal with.
If you are renting space on a commercial tower managed by a regional or national company such as American Tower (ATC) you will run into things like application fees, engineering studies, and closeout documents to just name a few. Once you have your notice to proceed (NTP), the real work begins.
During your negotiation phase, and in your contract, you should have a center line on the tower. This states the center line on the tower where your equipment is mounted. An example is if your centerline states 200, on most contracts that means you have something like 5 feet above that and 5 feet below that. Think of it as a window. You have a window of 195-205′ on the tower for your equipment to fit in.
The equipment you put on the tower was specified in the engineering phase of the paperwork. Model numbers of mounts, antenna models, and all that are decided before the first piece of equipment is ever put on the tower. This is very important to adhere to because many tower companies will require a closeout procedure. This normally includes pictures of your equipment and how it’s mounted, pictures of what is called a tape drop, and other things.
The sheer amount of things to think about on a commercial tower with multiple tenants could extend this blog post on for a long time. But, one of the biggest things to consider is when you are installing how your cable runs, antennas, etc. are in relationship to other equipment. Are your cables somewhere they might be stepped on by someone passing your equipment to get to theirs? Does your equipment cross mounts which may be removed later or modified?
In the second part of this series we will talk about some of the higher-end tools which may save you tons of time, thus paying for themselves rather quickly.
If you are like me and enjoy technical manuals here is a good one from Commscope for you installers out there. It is a good overall manual, with some Commscope specific products thrown in.
From the manual
The Drop Cable Applications and Construction Guide is written for the cable installation professional who, due to the diverse services offered by CATV and telecommunication service providers, needs a quick and handy reference to practical installation information, especially in the case of retrofitting.
We’ve tried to simplify the decision-making process as to which cables to choose for what installation, taking into account factors such as performance over distance, preventing RF interference and fire/safety codes.
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