Motorola's Canopy Backhaul 'system' claims "up to" 35 mile range with 'reflector' antennas. OK that's a 23-24dbi dish - fine. Crunching numbers and using a radio coverage program to model a 12 mile path...
30dbm power out + 23 dbi antenna gain = 53 dbm ERP
The coverage program tells me the 12 mile path has -133 db path loss = -80 db at the receive antenna.
Add +23 dbi Rx antenna gain I've got -57db to the receiver, whose specs indicate -79 or -83 sensitivity depending on the sheet you read.
That leaves at most a 26 db fade margin/margin of error for atmospherics, weather, etc. That's NOT much at 5.8 GHz, especially going from a 3700 foot coastal range hilltop, pointing NNW down onto a valley building top.
Questions:
1. Has anyone used Canopy or equivalent 5.8GHz gear, legal power, etc. for point-to-point hops?
2. If so, at what ranges under what site conditions?
3. Has anyone got a preference for/experience with licensed backhaul (20-50-100Mbps) RF equipment? Recommendations?
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