If you are trying to go point to point over a long distance, I would consider something like the unifi air fiber products. They've got a 60ghz model that is basically like a direct optical link. 15km+ no problem.
Long Range Wi-Fi – Pushing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to the limits (2019)
31–40 of 67 posts
Re: Long Range Wi-Fi – Pushing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to the limits (2019)
#32As a layman, is this supposed to be impressive when any phone can connect to Starlink direct to cell service for messaging, light browsing and even audio?
Re: Long Range Wi-Fi – Pushing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to the limits (2019)
#33There is sub-GHz WiFi HaLow now which gets you to km distance without outrageously large antennas.
Re: Long Range Wi-Fi – Pushing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to the limits (2019)
#34I was hoping for a test of the old Pringles can antenna.
Re: Long Range Wi-Fi – Pushing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to the limits (2019)
#35Wi-Fi with directional antennas can make long distance links easily.
Just have a look at the European Hamnet network: https://hamnetdb.net/map.cgi - There are a lot of hill-to-hill connections with 60-100km range and plenty of SNR left. Even a few links around 150km.
In professional context these super long links need a very very precise link budget planing to get enough 'nines' in their reliability rating. One of the reasons why you are not seeing them too often.
Re: Long Range Wi-Fi – Pushing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to the limits (2019)
#36As a layman, is this supposed to be impressive when any phone can connect to Starlink direct to cell service for messaging, light browsing and even audio?
Depends: long distance links with a lot of reliable bandwidth is still very demanding.
Long distance links with only a few bps or kbit/s are a solved problem (LoRa).
Re: Long Range Wi-Fi – Pushing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to the limits (2019)
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In HAM circles some people do use WiFi in an arguably legal manner by making the SSID their callsign and either making the network open or putting the password somewhere public. And presumably also no SSL when browsing? Part of why I never really understood the appeal to getting a ham license. Things like no encrypted communications really limits the utility. Anything outside of talking to randoms on the open air,…
Well, ham radio is an EXTREMELY diverse field. I mean, some people are using kilowatts and arrays of yagi antenna to transmit earth-moon-earth. Others are using minimal power (e.g. less than a typical bicycle lamp) to reach someone at the other side of the earth. Some are designing nice sound compression algorithms or algorithms for software designed radio in FPGAs on their self-designed board. Other try to build a f…
The only two types of communications I have ever experienced in ham radio are (a) about ham radio or (b) extreme right-wing nutjobbery.
Re: Long Range Wi-Fi – Pushing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to the limits (2019)
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been running a 1.1km 5Ghz 802.11ac wifi link between two highly directional antennas for three years now. They have line-of-sight, albeit just barely. The kit I got cost $100 at the time. It was quite easy to setup even and supposedly can go much further than I'm using them for. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083JRFQ24
With so much benefit we’re getting from wireless connectivity, one hopes that more frequency bands would be opened up, especially in the sub-1GHz range, to enable long distance connections. And it should be open to public use. Not yet another carrier frequency they will charge us an arm and a leg to use, some of the cell phone connectivity charges are insane, hundreds of dollars for low bandwidth iot sims.
It is immensely frustrating that there is so little unlicensed spectrum available vs the massive amounts of spectrum available to militaries and very rich network operators.
Worse is that the unlicenced spectrum that is available is often so heavily encumbered with restrictions in many parts of the world. Wi-Fi HaLow for example, in ETSI regions, is limited to a paltry 14dBm EIRP in no wider than 2MHz channels and an unacceptably punishing duty cycle restriction in most cases that render it barely able to make a TCP connection (some mitigations exist that involve channel hopping on some products but nothing that works for things that require fixed channels, e.g. IBSS or 802.11s).
Re: Long Range Wi-Fi – Pushing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to the limits (2019)
#39aren't devices in north-america also allowed 1 watt on 900mhz?
I wonder how far that can go
I think I have an ancient wireless phone on 900mhz and all my weather sensors are on 900mhz
https://www.digikey.com/en/articles/unlicensed-915-mhz-band-...
Re: Long Range Wi-Fi – Pushing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to the limits (2019)
#40Operate under an amateur radio license (which overlaps with the WiFi bands) and you could run up to 1,500 watts. Couldn’t be used much for an actual network but if it was just an experiment to prove art if the possible with proper station ID could be fun.