Improving a WISP signal

[TTTTVVVV]

I'm moving out to the country and I just found out that I'm 10 miles away from a WISP tower.

There is a hill between me and the tower and I was just wondering could I improve the signal by using a KU band dish and pointing it in the direction of the WISP tower and placing the receiving antenna in the place where the LNB would go.

Is that feasible and for that matter would a 10FT dish work even better?

I'm desperate for this thing to work because I really don't want to have to get satellite internet.

[grohgreg]

A satellite dish - no matter the size - is limited strictly to line of sight operation. If there's a hill in the way, you have no line of sight. You need something capable of OTH (over the horizon)

//greg//

[bradleys]

I've been working with my local WISP in Blaine on a problem with trees. I don't want to cut town trees - that's one of the reasons I'm moving to the country. We're going to have to install a tower to get over the trees. It will have to be 40-50 feet (at $30 per foot). Above 50 feet, we'll need guy wires as well. Can you get a tower high enough to see over the hill?

Also, be very careful about changing anything on the hardware. My WISP told me that their system is set up to only work with their hardware. They implied that they can check signal quality and strength, and shut off my system if something is amiss. I don't know if they really can do that, but that's what they said.

Until I can get this set up, I've been using HughesNet. It's not all that bad (unless you're trying to play online games, of course).

[iwc5893]

This depends upon several factors...such as frequency, dish size, dish focal point, fresnel zone obstructions, electrical interference, terrain types, and what manufacturer your WISP is using (especially when it comes to OFDM). Another thing to take into consideration is FCC limitations on dish sizes for various frequencies.

Your WISP may be able to relay the signal to you from an existing customer's house but this may cost you a little bit more (although not as much as as building a tower would cost you).

But to answer the original question, no, a sat dish is not designed to effectively reflect and focalize the WISP signal.

[Stargazer]

Absolutely nothing goes through dirt. WISP signals are much harder to get and have a limited reach due to them being earth based and not satellite based. If you think cell phone reception is hard to get in some places, WISP signals work off the same principal only it is even worse. Much more bandwidth is needed than what a cell phone signal would need plus most of the time they use unlicensed frequencies. That means a better signal strength is needed to overcome the higher noise factor.

The lower the frequency being used the better it can work through trees. 900 MHZ is what they use to go through trees. 2.4 GHZ is most commonly used for the subscribers and 5.8 GHZ is what is used for point to point links and sometimes used for subscribers as well.

The lower the frequency the further the signal can travel, and can travel better through trees. The disadvantage is that it can also carry less bandwidth so that is why they try to user higher frequencies if possible. That is why point to point links use 5 GHZ range most of the time, plus less interference.

If you could give me GPS plot of where you are located and where the tower is located I have software that could tell you some possibilities on how to get the signal to your place. If you are desperate enough you could create a hop or two to get to your house on a hill with electricity that can see your house and the tower as well.