Trango is a great company and it has always been pleasurable working with them (sales, tech support, management etc.). I always like to start on a positive note.
One thing really upset me though.... fairly recently and once a year ago same thing happened. Twice, I had an APEX die within its three year warranty window. Out of the 10 I own, thats a 20% failure rate within warranty period. Now I undersatnd that Trango will insist that they cannot be responsible for a radio that got hit by lightning, and I agree with that philosophy, for the most part. I send in both APEX radios, and was told each time that the issue was lightning damage. Nevermid the fact that there was weeks of no lightning prior to them both just stop working in the middle of the day on nice clear days. Then I was shown pics of burnt PC boards and components. Sure did work great with that stuff toasted for a few weeks since the last lightning storm - is what I am thinking to myself... impossible. They still maintain it was lightning and won't budge... $600 to repair radio which is a good deal considering what was replaced is what I was told. Here's the bad deal.... Both these APEX radios that supposedly had "lightning damage" sit about 150ft up on 500ft towers, have shielded ethernet runs of less than 15ft to a stainless steel enclosure with all the high tech surge, EMI, etc protection possible. Amazing the Mikrotik radios, the Ubiquiti radios, the SAF radios etc all have no problem. Everyone on this list who owns RB411 Mikrotik radios knows they are the first out of the game with lightning anywhere close - thats fine too because they cost $40. What nobody on this list should be able to explain is how on a clear blue day, an APEX unit ceases to work due to lightning when its bolted to the 150ft height of a 500ft tower, grounded great, short shielded cat5 run (15ft) to box on tower with filtered / conditioned 120v AC that its plugged into, along with multiple other Mikrotik and Ubiquiti radios that continued to run fine both before and after the suspected lightning event (which never happened). It costs about $3000 for that individual radio it should have been $2960 more durable than the Mikrotik or Ubiquiti next to it that survived, regardless of any other details. Period. So, I'm not going to go through all the SAF / Trango advantages and disadvantages but I'll leave you with this.... SAF / 5 year warranty - never had to test. Trango 3yr, tested twice, paid $1200 to fix them twice and another $800 in overnight shipping - all while under warranty. And there never was lightning involved in the events. I've never had a lightning problem in 10 years with equipment located 300ft or more down from the top of a guyed tower with a <20ft shielded cable run. ever. regardless of what anyone claims in the rma department. my 2 cents. Why I spent the time to share my experience... because that $2000 came out of my pocket to fix those two radios under some kind of 3 year conditional warranty and it burns me up that I was told twice it was lightning when it wasn't. Sorry Trango. I'm not over it yet, not even from last years issue, not to mention this years. I'll have a ways to go before I let go of this. Trango had two opportunities to flex on this (their $600 repair charge) and chose not to. I paid about $1500 or more for each link than others reading this did. I feel they should have been more flexible. Sorry. Scott Carullo Technical Operations 855-FLSPEED x102 ---------------------------------------- From: "John Seaman" <j...@trangosys.com> Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 12:19 PM To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Subject: Re: [WISPA] SAF vs Trango Hi all, I'll chime in here to clarify the point regarding TX Power. Trango offers high power as a standard feature, and even higher power as an optional key. The "Extra" high power feature and I should also point out that we also now support adaptive power control, meaning that as ACM kicks in to downshift the modulation, it will simultaneously upshift the TX Power. 11 Ghz Trango: 256QAM +21 dBm (standard) / +24 dBm with optional key QPSK +26 dBm SAF: 256QAM +12 dBm (standard) / +18 dBm (HP Model) 4QAM +19 (standard) / +25 (HP) 18 & 23 GHz Trango: 256QAM +19 dBm / +21 dBm with optional key QPSK +25 dBm SAF: 256QAM +12 dBm (no high power option) 4QAM +19 dBm Trango receive sensitivity is also considerably higher than SAF, so when you combine TX Power and RX Sensitivity, the Trango System gain is 10 dB better (or more) in some cases. John Seaman Trango Systems, Inc. 858-248-4006 -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Gino Villarini Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 6:38 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] SAF vs Trango I beg to differ, they have a new higher power option that requires a license key. Its only compatible with latest apex plus radios.... Gino A. Villarini g...@aeronetpr.com Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. 787.273.4143 -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Travis Johnson Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 9:29 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] SAF vs Trango Feature key is NOT required on Trango for more power. All the radios are at full power regardless of the license key. Travis On 11/2/2012 6:53 AM, Gino Villarini wrote: > Having more than 20+ links on both manufactures here is my input: > > SAF Pluses > Great UI Interface, simultaneous link config changes from 1 > end/polarity indicator Lightweight Low Power consumption Great mount > No Feature keys > 5 years warranty > > SAF Minuses > Lower Tx power > Custom Antenna - ODU interface > No full poe > Fiber interface is optional - not field changeable from SM,MM No OBM > port > > Trango Pluses > More Tx Power > Remec ODU Interface > Built in Surge Suppression / POE > Field replaceable modem > OBM Port > Copper/Fiber Interfaces > > Trango Minuses > Heavy > UI interface not great, some changes require reboot Higher power > consumption Feature keys required for more BW and extra power > > Gino A. Villarini > g...@aeronetpr.com > Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. > 787.273.4143 > > -----Original Message----- > From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] > On Behalf Of Bill Gaylord > Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 8:20 AM > To: WISPA General List > Subject: [WISPA] SAF vs Trango > > Can anyone help me out? We are in the process of deciding which company to use for 6 licensed links. Both are similar in price/performance. > Trango has more tx power and rx sensitivity, thus their antennas are smaller, which is a plus. I would like to know if anyone has any experiences with either company and their products. I met both in Vegas, but there is only so much real info you can get from Salespeople. Please send any comments off list as not to pollute the list with opinions on products. If anyone would like to also learn what I learn from the list, drop me an e-mail and I will be happy to forward the opinions I get on to you as well. Thank you. > > Bill Gaylord, President > COLI Inc. > _______________________________________________ > Wireless mailing list > Wireless@wispa.org > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > _______________________________________________ > Wireless mailing list > Wireless@wispa.org > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > _______________________________________________ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless _______________________________________________ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless _______________________________________________ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
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