Tag: mounting
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Tower Suppliers
One of the more common questions we get asked about is towers, tower mounts, and where to get them. If you are looking to mount to Rohn towers check out our friends over at ISP supplies. They have many of the mounts you would need for Rohn 25-65 and some of the other Rohn series towers. They will also be an exhibitor at the Upcoming WISPAMERICA in booth 700.
If you have larger towers or larger requirements check out companies such as SitePro1 or Tessco. Both of these companies carrier mounts designed for monopoles and larger carrier style towers.
Recently, we had a client question why we didn’t mount antennas higher up on a tower with an FM repeater on it. The top of the tower has an FM repeater on it so we mounted the equipment about 25 feet below that.
When you are talking about antennas and transmitters the basic thing to remember is it’s all radiation. Good antennas have predictable drop off patterns and, when paired with a good transmitter, have crisp frequency drop offs. However, there is still radiation emitting from feedline and the antenna on the tower. Many FM repeaters use a dipole design. Some are folded, others are different types. Below is an antenna pattern from a Dipole antenna.
As you can see there are a few patterns radiating from the antenna. These patterns should be taken into consideration when mounting your equipment near FM, UHF, or VHF systems. Radiation may interfere with things such as your cat-5, or your PIM. In an earlier article, I talk about low-pim cables and what affects PIM. This is very important when you are deploying LTE gear. RF radiation from high power transmitters can cause PIM issues if the wavelength happens to coincide with the wavelength of the other transmitter. This does not mean they are on the same frequency. Remember, in RF you have full wave, 3/4,1/2, and 1/4 wavelengths to deal with.
Other things to consider are near and far field patterns. If you want some heavy reading you can read about it on Wikipedia.
Our next issue and the most common issue is the radiation getting into our Ethernet cables as well as our radios on the tower. Below illustrates the propagation of signals coming out of an antenna on the top of the tower. If you notice, some of the radiation is directed underneath of the antenna. Any equipment mounted too close underneath will be bombarded with radiation.
Too much radiation can cause link negotiation issues, signal degradation, and other issues. By moving our antennas out of the patterns of other antennas we can make for a more reliable system. This is one case where higher on the tower is not always better. Just because another antenna is not mounted in front of another it does not mean they are in each other’s radiated patterns.
Several clients have asked how to mount 1/2-1″ pipe to handrails or other such surfaces. Below are some beam clamps and conduit hangers. Our tip is to “pin” them by drilling some self-tapping screws to hold the pipe from spinning.
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