wireless internet interfering with C Band

[primestar31]

Move your tv satellite dish to the back of the house. Problem solved.

 

[jmag487]

Thanks to all for responding. I think I'll try FatAir's suggestion with some mesh near the internet dish since that is the easiest for me to try, especially now with frozen ground covered with snow. I really can't do much with the location of the 2 dishes due to geographic issues. The ISP is especially difficult since I have only a couple of paths to the tower that are not obstructed.
Jim

 

[Stargazer]

There would probably be more options with the satellite dish than with the wisp since wisp's have a lot lower look angle for their signals vs. the satellite. There is a frequency band in the 3.5 ghz range that was opened up a little while back for wisps so it must be using that range. I would move the satellite dish first before having them move the wifi setup if you are very limited on line of sites. Wifi line of site is a bit more particular than satellite line of site. A dish (reflector) used in a wifi setup is going to have more of a focused beam vs. the ones that do not use a reflector.

 

[Bongu]

I'd be gettin some 'hardware cloth'. ~1/4 inch mesh and mount it right on the side of the I-Dish. Rivet or screw it to the lip. Ground is 'taken care of'.

EDIT: 'N hope there's no trouble with snow filling it up.
EDIT 2: Maybe just clamp it on to see if it works?????

I would try this with a small mesh either 1/4 inch like Fat Air recommended or a 1/8 inch mesh. You need to filter the side lobe off the transmitter antenna. The mesh would be an appropriate filter/reflector to prevent the signal from going directly into the feedhorn.

If you are in an area that is snowbound, wait until it warms up and get on the roof to install the mesh/filter on the wifi provider's dish. Make sure you extend the mesh/filter past the transmit/receive antenna aimed at the reflector.

 

[Bob2011]

Does the problem only occur in one position on the arc?

 

[wallyhts]

Did you search your address in FCC ULS? If your wisp is using 365 then they must register your address with the FCC.

 

[jmag487]

Regarding Bob2011's question: I generally only look at 3 satellites and the problem occurs on all. I have a collection of old dish network type dishes and mounts and was wondering if placing one of those as kind of a shield between the ISP dish and the c band dish would work. Or does it have to be a mesh?

 

[Bongu]

As long as you position an adequately sized reflector to keep the signal from moving towards your C-Band dish, you could use anything that will block the signal. The wire mesh would be less of an eyesore. You could even use a good sized baking sheet if nobody in your house would miss it.....

 

[waylew]

Regarding Bob2011's question: I generally only look at 3 satellites and the problem occurs on all. I have a collection of old dish network type dishes and mounts and was wondering if placing one of those as kind of a shield between the ISP dish and the c band dish would work. Or does it have to be a mesh?

You could use 3 inch thick armor plate steel if you wanted to,but to the frequencies involved the mesh appears the same as a solid piece of metal.

 

[Pixl]

That is a small dish for 3.65Ghz and is probably spraying the tx signal all over the front yard. I'd get the Wi Fi moved to a post in the back yard. It may work ok there even if you don't have perfect LOS to the tower as you don't have to go as far as hitting a sat. in orbit.

The mesh shield will be in the "near field" of the WiFi dish and the signal will probably knife edge around the shield.

 

[Titanium]

Agree with Pixl. The mesh on the WiFi dish will probably not be very effective. A larger mesh panel located between the WiFi and the satellite dish will do much better.

Relocation of one of the dishes is the best solution.

 

[FaT Air]

Don't think the OP, or the neighbors, would 'go for' a 24'x24' 'screen' out in the yard.
For the price, I'd still try the screen on the dish, to see if there's some improvement. Think I'd have the screening extend well past the feed on that dish tho- (my drawing is 'short')
In the end tho- relocating one or the other is probably the solution that proves the best.

 

[Stargazer]

A larger wifi dish could give you a stronger signal to the tower and concentrate the signal into a narrower beam which would make it more likely to avoid a signal to the satellite dish. Sometimes a more concentrated beam will not make signal better depending on the signal path and may actually make it better as a wider beam can help receive deflected signals that have scattered.

 

[Bob2011]

Can someone explain why the interference is happening even when he moves the dish to another satellite? According to the specs for the wireless dish the gain pattern is very directional with small side lobes on one side. Moving the cband dish a few degrees should remove the problem because the wireless signal would bounce off of the dish at a different angle away from the feedhorn, right?

 

[Titanium]

When terrestrial interference is flooding into an area it is already off-focus, multi-path and many, many times stronger than the weak satellite signal. The satellite dish would need to be quite a ways off-axis or shielded to attenuate the WiFi.

In severe cases of terrestrial interference we would often use the home or an outbuilding to shield the dish. Several times I have had to relocate a customers dish to a shadowed area to provide reliable reception. Much easier to identify the RF garbage watching a meter with spectrum analyzer function. Watch either spikes appear or noise level (floor/threshold) increase.

 

[jmag487]

Thanks all. Relocating any of the dishes if needed is going to have to wait for spring But I'll try to put a shield of some kind between the ISP dish and the c band dish this weekend just for grins. Hopefully it will help enough.
Jim

 

[jmag487]

Oh well. I tried the shield approach and it did absolutely nothing. It seems like the problem might be that the signals for the C Band and the ISP are crossing directly into each other's path. My options are extremely limited, but I will see if I can move the ISP dish when things thaw out. I have attached a picture with where I should be able to move it, but again, with trees, buildings, etc. I only have a couple of routes to their tower. Unfortunately both locations are physically closer to the C Band dish, but one of them will not cross. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Jim

PS: I guess I'm not alone. Found a similar link.
http://www.fridgefta.info/forums/showthread.php?tid=30219#axzz2uFSgKs7X

 

[ftageekyyc]

A couple of things to investigate in advance that might help when it comes time to try finding a new location.

Ask your ISP what is the maximum length of cable they will support from the device outside to wherever you need to terminate it at a device inside. Ethernet is 330 feet but this may not apply here where you appear to need Power Over Ethernet out to the Dish Bridge.

Also ask them if you can rent or borrow just the Dish Bridge for a couple of weeks. I am assuming that the outside components are dumb and do not require any software configuration.

If you can just swap out the antenna while you temporarily run a length of Cat-5 to the inside of the house, this would allow you to test the yard for other locations while allowing you to revert easily to working internet.

Perhaps just moving farther out along the yellow line will work.

 

[wallyhts]

I would drop a pole and run fiber or CAT5/6.

 

[Titanium]

Could you mount on the far side of the home and use the house as the RF barrier? It does not matter that the two signals cross. That will not cause interference. The WiFi antenna needs to be out of the line of sight from the C-band dish.