Long Distance WiFi

[matad3000]

Hi. After watching the Long Distance WiFi episode it got me thinking. I live exactly 25km away from a friend. And the Internet service in my country is very poor and expensive. The most affordable is the broadband but the isp don't cover my area. So after watching the YouTube episode, I had hope. But what I want to know now is, do I need to mount the dish very high? And also, do the two dishes have to be in direct alignment with no obstacles between them? Because from the looks of the topography of the land separating my friend and I,  it doesn't look too flat. It's quite hilly and has a lot of buildings and trees. So if I even have to go high, how high should my pole mount be for both dishes. Thank you.

[Guest]

Height will depend on the restrictions in your area. Most often you need approval for tall structures like antennas due to regulations regarding aviation safety.

 

As for line of sight, yes you will require line of site between the two radios. The higher you can get them the better however keep in mind my above comment. 

[matad3000]

Ohkkk. But is there a required minimum height? Maybe 10m.....?

[Blake]

53 minutes ago, matad3000 said:

Ohkkk. But is there a required minimum height? Maybe 10m.....?

line of site. if your 25km away but live on opposite sides of mt Everest you going to have a minimum height of a few km's each side. if one goes higher the other doesn't need to.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, matad3000 said:

Ohkkk. But is there a required minimum height? Maybe 10m.....?

 

57 minutes ago, Blake said:

line of site. if your 25km away but live on opposite sides of mt Everest you going to have a minimum height of a few km's each side. if one goes higher the other doesn't need to.

If you can see the dish then that is high enough, or if you were to point a laser and it would hit the dish your high enough.

 

There is no minimum height other than what will work and is higher than anything could get in the way of, like a truck driving past.

 

Edit: Oh and the curvature of the earth, but that only matters if your going REALLY far

[System Error Message]

height doesnt matter but clear line of sight is important. So you only need to raise the dish high enough for clear line of sight. You do need to take into account the earth's curvature too so you may need some height and to point down a bit.

 

at 25KM the curvature of the earth matters a bit as in ww2 as some battleships had a range further than they could see because of the curvature.

[dzonidev]

https://airlink.ubnt.com/

 

This will give you an idea of what to expect. You need to have a clear line of sight and you need to carefully align the antennas. This is a serious distance to be honest, from my experience on paper and in practice are two different worlds when it comes to wireless. As for the mounting height, the higher the better. For the equipment, in total you need about $600 USD.

 

Ubiquiti recommends Rocket 5AC + RocketDish LW for PtP links that go over 15km. And the speeds that you can expect are from 50 to 100Mbps if you have a decent setup. All in all, this is a big step to take and you should plan it very carefuly.

[matad3000]

Thanks for your feedback guys. It was quite..... encouraging. I guess the best solution is for me is to move out of my area.