NEW RF Armor Kit

[sirhc]

This new radio cover fits the UBNT AF-5G23-S45 dish and will fit any of the Rockets and the AF5X radio.

Made from powder coated white aluminum.

https://www.rfarmor.com/index.php/dish- ... 3-s45.html

[mike99]

Nice, we like those dish for tower with several AF5X link (not much wind loading) and interferance is clearly affecting AF radio so I'm sur those will be usefull.

[Kingsley]

Hi Chris,

Based on this new product, are you advising you have done plenty of testing with the af5x interference and your shield boxes?

Have you 100% confirmed your shield boxes really help the af5x? I have read a lot around the af5x being a really clean radio with pretty good filtering?

We have a number of af5x links up and providing there is nothing on channel we don't seem to be having a problem with the af5x with colo interference.

I would really like to hear your results here.

Thanks,
Kingsley

[sirhc]

I have not personally tested "this" kit at my WISP as we do not use that antenna but we have replaced several Rocket M5 radios on 30dB and 34dB dishes that were in close proximity of other airMAX radios on my towers. The airMAX radios actually are more apt to knock the AF5X radios off line not the other way around. I think the reason this happens is because the AF5X radios use a LNA (low noise amplifier) that picks up the side band noise of the airMAX radios.

The AF5X radios did not seem to bother the airMAX radios which my guess is because they were shielded and they do not use an LNA so the side band noise coming from the AF5X radios which is low was not penetrating the shields on the airMAX radios and not bothering them?

I now have an AF5X radio on a 34dB dish that recently replaced a Rocket M5 that is 15 feet away from a shielded NanoBridge facing 90 degrees off and the channels were originally overlapping by 10 MHz and worked fine for years at full modulation and good speeds. But when we put the AF5X in even with the shield kits the AF5X radio was knocked off line. I then moved the channels so they are close to each other but not overlapping. The airMAX radio was still fine but if I open up the Radio cover on the back of the AF5X radio the AF5X radio modulation drops and sometimes drops the link. So yea, I think in this environment it saved my butt. With the shield kit on both links are working fine.

So I am not forcing anyone to purchase the shield kits but if they want to buy them there they are.

In the WISP industry we rely on open spectrum and the spectrum is getting more and more cluttered everyday so in my opinion any extra protection is what "I" want. And speaking of protection the kits also do that as well. I have Rockets that have been in service for going on 8 years now and when I open the RF Armor cover they look brand new still, no sun fading, or dry and possibly cracked plastics.

So if you want them here they are, if you need them here they are, but if you're happy without them or do not need them they are not hurting being here for those that do want them rather for an immediate need or additional protection/piece of mind for the future.

[Kingsley]

Thank you for the detailed response. Everyone really appreciates the amount of time you put into explaining things in detail. Your post above is shore to answer most questions anyone might have.

We certainly will look at using the kits, how ever our supplier still hasn't got the new afx box in stock for the RD30/34 yet.

Thanks,
Kingsley

[jjonsson]

I'm using an AF5X on a 30 dBi Rocket dish with shielding. It's very hard to see the AF5X radio with the shield on. I think the AF5X bleeds a little from the pigtails, not that much from the radio itself.

So on the contrary, using the shield won't do any harm in my opinion....

[jjonsson]

What about shield box for the UBNT AF-5G30/34-S45 dish ?

[sirhc]

What about shield box for the UBNT AF-5G30/34-S45 dish ?

The 34-S45 is the same kit as the older 34dB dish, they just changed the stem.

We have a box coming out in a few weeks for the AF-5G30

[Texwire]

We see the difference on 2 towers with AF5's. I have one pointing east to a tower 20 miles away. I also have a sectional angled the same direction. If the sectional is on 5.2 freq all is good. If that sectional is anywhere on the 5.8 freq that AF5 gets knocked out, massive modulation bouncing and lower throughput depending upon what freq.

(Edited) With the shields on that sectional we can use the 5.8 and all does work. There is a bit of noise on the AF5 if the frequencies are side by side with the sectional and a lot of power. If you run the sectional radio with 17db for the customers in that area the AF5 doesn't notice it. We just keep that PtMP direction on the 5.2.

I do think they work wonders for a lot of reasons.

Question here that I have is, do they also create a type of faraday cage from all but the face?

Kevin

Edited (Clarification needed)