Max Antenna Length ?? And a few other questions

moejama · EVDO Newbie Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 5

How high up can I realistically raise my antenna without getting too much loss from the cable length. I found up to 50' telescoping antenna's cheap.
Right now I have it up about 12 feet with a role of 20' ultra low loss cable.
Since I'm surrounded with trees I'm thinking of going OMNI instead of YAGI and boosting the antenna up as high as I can. Also thinking of getting an amp, but really the antenna think is a lot cheaper and antenna mast will be useful for G4 while none of this stuff I have now will be worth anything.

I am in a bad spot in several ways. On the edge of EVDO access and we have a KR1 router with a u720 and 20' of loss loss cable. The wilson Yagi is mounted on an antenna pole for standard TV which current has an old TV antenna yagi mounted on it also. We are also surrounded by 80'+ trees and usually come spring time our reception becomes very unstable and I'll have to reboot it to get it back.

So, our reception still drops quite a lot, and the upload is pretty horrible even with the leaves off. I get a good download around 120 KB/s bursts and about 6 k/s upload. Usually the down is more like 60 KB/s. So that's pretty ok because out here the only other options are SAT with it's high latency and 56k modems that connect at 28.8. To make matter worse they have WIFI broadband across the street in the backyards of the houses that line the field, but they won't even do a site survey on houses right across the street.

Anyway in the todays world of domestic spying and Patriot Act rights I can't get my neighbors to let me BUY THEM internet with the agreement we share a 12 mbps connect. grrr

So instead I'm sucking internet through a straw at low end EVDO rates.

So whats the max cable length I should run. I'm on a 30' roof so with 50' of ultra low loss or so I can hit 80'.

Should I consider installing the router in a weatherproof box on the pole instead of running longer cable length ?

Should I replace my router first since it freezes up and fails to respond to the web browser management request. Though it sometimes provides internet while doing this ?

Can I build a cheap PC router instead using a PCMCIA slot ? Since my KR1 has already been sent back once I don't have faith in them. Should have gotten the ZyXEL for 100 bucks more with a lot more features and likely better lan performance. I really don't want to buy another router since this one never even really worked right AND they cost a lot AND g4 may not be that far away.

How much good do you think an AMP will do ? I'll get one if I HAVE to, but it's mostly a giant waste of money unless it really helps.

Will going OMNI help ? I went YAGI because I'm on the edge of the EVDO zone. My cell phone reception sucks also, but I use verizon phones.

I am planning to setup the PC router using the PCMCIA slot card. Though it costs a lot more electric to run I can make it much more secure and perhaps even use Linux of pfsense. Once I have that tested and working at least as well as the KR1 suck router I think I'll just buy the omni and amp and mix and match and send back what I don't need, if anything.

Also... any suggestions on the most cost effect amp ? I don't really need the repeater function unless I supposed I'm forced to switch to Verizon in hopes the 800 mhz works better our here. I'd greatly prefer not to be capped as this is not a mobile setup but an entire house.

Is there any other way to run two accounts other than buying the repeater or can direct amps not do that ?

Also could the TV Yagi cause significant interference ?

OK thats enough questions huh.