Rick, In all fairness, we have not "often" used third party Frequency Converters, because of the cost. Additional input from those that have more experience with specific models, would likely be beneficial to hear from.
What I can tell you is that it is becoming a popular trend to implement frequency converter in manufacturer's product lines to lower cost. The first two examples that come to mind are Trango's 5580s, or Ubiquiti's 900Mhz mpci cards which are more or 2.4G chipsets with Freq Converters. It doesn't stop there... Similar concepts have been applied to some 18Ghz and 23Ghz brand radios, to make them more affordable to make, integrating them with Wifi OFDM chipsets. This approach resulted in the first 23Ghz to enter the market under $6000 per link, that I was aware of. I'd recommend that you look into the Freq Converters made by Teletronics, in general we had found them to be pretty high quality converters, with no complaints. There are a couple of considerations to deploy. 1) when converting from a device that has a wide bandwdith to a channel that has a narrower limited bandwidth, you often have to use a single defined channel for that converter model. That obviously can reduce the flexibilty of changing channels on the fly. 2) Just like Amps, the Freq Conv are designed to receive input signal at a specified gain. And likewise should be used with a Radio that can output power at that specified level, to reduce creating distortion/noise. (Specs should be disclosed by the manufacturer.) 3) There is also a difference betweem DSSS and OFDM Freq Converters. Personally, I think its more critical to have a clean quality Freq Converter for OFDM, that typically will use QAM64 modulations, that are more sensitive to noise.. I think one of the exciting uses for Freq Converters might be to use it for converting your favorate 5.8Gear to 3.650Ghz. But we have never done it yet. Nor investigated legality of it for FCC approval I think the first question to ask, is why the Freq Converter is needed. Apposed to just buying the correct freq product in the first place. The answer to that first, might define what freq converter design would be right for you. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband ----- Original Message ----- From: "RickG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 11:19 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] frequency converters >I always appreciate your input, have you tried them? I'd love to hear > from someone that has and their experience. > -RickG > > On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 12:20 AM, Tom DeReggi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: >> I'm not sure there is any significant disadvantage. Other than the >> obvious, >> such as another point of failure, another connection to add loss, mild >> loss >> of energy in the conversion, additional cost. >> >> Tom DeReggi >> RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc >> IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "RickG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> >> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 10:00 PM >> Subject: Re: [WISPA] frequency converters >> >> >>> Mike, >>> >>> Have you tried them? Anyone? >>> >>> -RickG >>> >>> On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 10:51 PM, Mike Hammett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>> wrote: >>>> Noise? >>>> >>>> >>>> ---------- >>>> Mike Hammett >>>> Intelligent Computing Solutions >>>> http://www.ics-il.com >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -------------------------------------------------- >>>> From: "RickG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 9:49 PM >>>> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> >>>> Subject: [WISPA] frequency converters >>>> >>>>> Whats the downside to using frequency converters? >>>>> -RickG >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>> WISPA Wants You! 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