Telkom Installer Course

Presented by
Poynting Antennas
Andre Fourie
Welcome

▪ Introductions
▪ What we hope to achieve
▪ Theory and Fundementals
▪ Practical Experience
▪ Have fun while doing so
Easy, once you know how
Overview of the Course
▪ Fundementals
▪ Antennas
▪ Radio waves
▪ Cables and Connectors
▪ Modulation and Throughput
▪ Lightning and Earthing
▪ Signal Testing and Surveys
Overview of the Course
▪ Practical Considerations
▪ Waterproofing
▪ Obstructions
▪ Aligning antennas
▪ Mounting antennas
▪ Etiquette
Day 2 : Practical Installation
▪ Hooking up Poynting with WiMAX
Communications Technologies
▪ Move information from one point to another

▪ Progress of communications technologies

▪ Voice - sound (short range, med data rate)

▪ Smoke signals - visual (med range, low data rate)
▪ Drums - sound (med range, low data rate)
▪ Written word - text (long range, v low data rate)
▪ Carrier pigeon - text (long range, low data rate)
▪ Called TCP – Transfer by Carrier Pigeon
▪ Telegraph - wires (long range, high data rate)
▪ Radio - radio waves (v long range, v high data
rates)
History of Radio
▪ James Clark Maxwell – 1873
▪ Predicted the existance of EM waves
▪ Heinrich Rudolf Hertz - 1887
▪ First person to intentionally transmit and
receive EM waves.
▪ Guglielmo Marconi – 1902
▪ First transatlantic transmission
Hertz said…
▪ "It's of no use whatsoever ... this is just an
experiment that proves Maestro Maxwell was
right - we just have these mysterious
electromagnetic waves that we cannot see
with the naked eye. But they are there.”
▪ "I do not think that the wireless waves I
have discovered will have any practical
application."
Fundamentals
▪ Radio Waves
▪ Decibels
▪ Antennas
▪ Cables
▪ Transmitters
▪ Receivers
▪ Transmission of Information
Radio Waves
▪ Introduction/brief history of radio waves

▪ E and H Fields
▪ E – electric field
▪ H – magnetic field

▪ Propagation
▪ Transfer of energy
▪ E and H field are always perpendicular
▪ Poynting vector

▪ Frequency
▪ The number of times an electromagnetic field cycles per
second
▪ Measured in Hertz (Hz)
Radio Waves (cont…)
▪ Wavelength

c 300
 ( m) = =
f f ( MHz )
c = speed of light = 300 000 000 meters per second
 = wavelength (meters)
f = frequency (Hertz)

▪ Power
▪ Flow of energy over time
▪ Electromagnetic field intensity
Some questions
▪ Why does 220VAC not create radio
waves?
▪ Does lightning create radio waves?
Decibels

dB = 10 log10 ( x)
 dB 
 
x = 10  10 
Decibels, why bother?
▪ Two advantages
▪ Compress large and expand small numbers
▪ All multiplication via summation
▪ Example
▪ Decibels relative to a metre
▪ 1m = 0 decibels [dB] relative to a metre [m] OR [dBm]
▪ Oxygen atom = 0.00000000014m OR -98.5 dBm
▪ Sun = 1400000000m OR 91.5 dBm
▪ Man = 1.8m OR 2.6 dBm
Decibels without Calculators
▪ Three rules of dB’s
▪ Rule of 0
▪ Any number compared to itself is 0dB
▪ Rule of 3
▪ Add 3 dB = Multiply by 2
▪ Subtract 3 dB = Divide by 2
▪ Rule of 10
▪ Add 10 dB = Multiply by 10
▪ Subtract 10 dB = Divide by 10
Decibels (cont…)
▪ Example
▪ How many dBm in 50W?
▪ How many watts in 17dBm?
▪ If I have a 12.5dBm signal and I amplify the signal 500 times, what is the
new signal strength in dBm?
▪ How much stronger is the signal from a 24dBi antenna compared to a
14dBi antenna?

▪ Decibels relative to one watt dBW

▪ Decibels relative to one milliwatt dBm
▪ Decibels relative to the gain of an isotropic antenna dBi
Antennas
▪ What is an antenna?
Antennas (cont…)
▪ Do not create energy
▪ Do not amplify signal

▪ Do focus energy

▪ Most important properties

▪ Radiation pattern (focus pattern)
▪ Willingness to accept energy
Radiation pattern
Gain
▪ Derived from the pattern
▪ Amount of power focusing relative to
uniform (isotropic) source at direction
of maximum focusing
▪ e.g. 4 times more focused than isotropic
source at ‘boresight’ is 6 dBi gain
▪ We can also talk about gain in a
specific direction
▪ Gain changes with direction
Beamwidth
▪ ‘Half power’ or ‘-3dB’ beamwidth

40o
Polarisation
▪ Linear
▪ Vertical
▪ Horizontal
▪ Circular
Willingness to accept energy
▪ AKA: Matching, VSWR, Return loss
▪ Antennas will generally accept only a certain
percentage of incoming energy, the rest will be
rejected and sent back!
▪ VSWR is the most common
indicator of this.

VSWR = 1 means accepts everything

VSWR = 2 means accepts 90% power
VSWR = 10 means accepts 2% power
VSWR and frequency
Gain and frequency
▪ Patterns and therefore gain ALSO change with
frequency!
Antenna specifications
▪ Frequency
▪ Always look at pattern, not gain
▪ Type of antenna
▪ Make sure gain is consistent over your required
frequency
▪ Check for inconsistencies between beamwidth and
gain
▪ VSWR is almost always good enough
▪ Check if below 2.5
▪ Beware of ‘specmanship’
WLAN-A0038
▪ Let’s check out the brochure…
Good news!
▪ Reciprocity
Types of antennas
▪ Classified by the type of pattern
▪ Classified by design

▪ Omni’s
▪ Sectors
▪ Patches/Panels
▪ Dishes
▪ Yagi’s
▪ Helicals
▪ Enclosures with integrated antennas
 Omni directional antennas
11
5 dBiIndoor
88 dBi
dBi outdoor
outdoor
outdoor omni
omni
omni pattern
pattern
pattern
downtilt pattern
 Sectors
16 dBi 90 degree sector pattern
 Patches and panels
8dBi
High
Quadsingle
gain patch
panel
patch pattern
pattern
pattern
 Dishes
75cm grid dish pattern
Yagi antennas
Helicals
Enclosures with integrated antennas
Cables
▪ Transmission Lines
▪ Co-axial cable
▪ Impedance
▪ Matching
▪ Losses
Cables (cont…)
Loss in dB/m Loss in dB/m
Name Size in mm Cost R/m
at 2.4 GHz at 5.8 GHz

LMR-400 0.20 0.45 10.30 30

LMR-600 0.13 0.31 15.00 60

RG-58 1.00 2.10 5.00 5

LMR-195 0.55 1.30 4.95 13

RG174 ~2.00 ~5.00 3.00 3

Connectors
▪ Connectors
▪ Establishing sex
▪ Reverse Polarity
▪ Reverse Thread
Radios
▪ Transmitters
▪ Transmitted power [dBm]
▪ Receivers
▪ Receiver sensitivity [dBm]
▪ Transceivers
▪ Cannot RX and TX simultaneously
▪ 2-way Radio
▪ Transceiver and interface
Bits and Bytes on a Radio
▪ Modulation
▪ Digital encoding (symbols, bits and baud rate)
▪ The flag analogy
Signal to Noise Ratio
▪ SNR : Signal to Noise Ratio
▪ RSSI : Received Signal Strength
Indicator
▪ CINR : Carrier to Interference + Noise
Ratio
Signal to Noise Ratio
Demonstration : Signal strength

▪ Symbol Rates and Data Rates

▪ Is it possible to have too much signal
strength?
Outdoor propagation
Outdoor propagation (cont…)
▪ The Link Equation

Gt Gr 2
Pr = Pt
(4r ) 2
Demonstration
▪ The Link Planning Tool
▪ Reality check : Actual radio link
 Outdoor propagation (cont…)

▪ Obstructions
▪ Fresnel Zones

Link distance r1 in meters

(km)

1 5.6

2 7.9

3 9.7

4 11.2

5 12.5
Outdoor propagation (cont…)

▪ Trees and rain

Lightning and surge
Lightning and surge
▪ The Rolling Ball Model
Lightning and surge
▪ Inline Surge Protection
Lightning and surge
▪ Earthing
▪ Voltage Gradients
The end