Sector self-interference rough results
Hello, I setup 2 similar sectors (in terms of their +/- 120 deg attenuation characteristics) on a section of Rohn 25, angled at 120 deg away from each other. The Laird and the 19dBi Ubiquiti were the specific sectors used. I was able to measure the path loss between them as -65dB. This seems pretty good! But maybe it's not enough. With +31dBm @ full power on one sector, 65dB of attenuation results in -34dBm out-of-band power at the adjacent receiver. The attenuation of this remaining -34dBm is left up to the receiver filter skirts. By transmitting low-power in-band packets into this same receiver, a throughput slow-down was observed. Shifting the interfering RF 30MHz further away from the channel being measured paradoxically resulted in a FURTHER slow-down. This is not consistent with filter skirt behavior. Something else must be at play. These are pretty rough results, since the setup is entirely in my garage and is subject to tight confinement which means lots of reflections. I need to test the path loss when the sectors are spaced further apart, to simulate a larger tower structure, or the presence of an intentional separation system. In a real-world deploy the sectors may also be staggered vertically to minimize coupling. I should also try building shields to see if that improves isolation. As Rob pointed out, gotta be really careful about destructive interference bouncing off these shields. Which means measuring FR over several angles. Good thing a 2-axis positioning rig is on the way to facilitate this kind of testing. :) RF is hard. --Bart
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Bart Kus