On Thu, May 09, 2002 at 09:52:59AM -0500, Austad, Jay wrote: > > I do actually have an 80-foot tower that I have free > > access to and use of. however, it's a silo on a farm in Mayer > > (40 mi. west of the 'Cities); so the utility of it is a bit > > limited at the moment. ;) > > Well, the guy that runs ingenious-nets.com(or .net, forget which) told me > that he has a 23 mile 802.11b link, using only a 24db directional on each > end, no amplifiers. After 23 miles, you start running into curvature of the > earth issues, but with an antenna that is 80 feet high, you might be able to > squeeze some more range out of it. Plus, you can toss an amp on each end > also. I'll have to climb up to the top of it sometime; but I don't think I have LOS (to the east) much beyond Waconia, and maybe not even that far.. (hills in that direction). to the north there's hills as well, so maybe I could hit a tall mast in Montrose or Watertown; but I don't know. my parents' house is about 2 miles away (far side of town... which gives you some idea of how small Mayer is, considering that the town is a mile from the farm), and in the winter we used to have LOS; but there's a development of houses in the way now, so we'd have to put up a mast in the yard there too. still, there's sort-of flat ground for several miles around it, so if anyone wants to do range testing with their gear in an environment fairly free of other wireless noise, it might be a useful spot. Carl Soderstrom. -- Network Engineer Real-Time Enterprises www.real-time.com