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I was wondering if anybody give me any advice on how a microwave link works? I have the auriga sirius data despatch system i have one voice channel and 2 data channels my problem is that i bought another firm out 6 months ago which are 15 miles away from our office to get in contact with those drivers by voice i am struggling as my voice mast is on our office can i put a another mast up at the new place and bounce the voice from our office to that mast by microwave link & can someone tell me wud that work also does anyone knw what the costs are any advice on how i wud get it installed any advice welcome

Hi
Rather than look at the idea of a microwave link etc, I would spend the money on your main base station antenna system. Just to give you an idea, if you have 100ft of the so called LOW LOSS coax (normal thick black cable) you will loose HALF of your outgoing signal and HALF of your incoming signal.

You can sort out the outgoing signal by turning the power up on the base station to compensate for the loss but you cant do anything to compensate for the incoming signal loss.

Replace the antenna system with something that is more efficent can improve radio coverage for both tx and rx.

The one thing that a lot of companies do is spend a bucket load of money on buying a data system them try and use it with some clapped out antenna system which the supplier has not suggested that you change as it will cost you money and they dont want to get involved in it.

Your radio ANTNNEA systems is one of the most important parts of your system no matter what anyone else says, they are talking garbage.

If you dont have the radio coverage then you have just wasted lots of money.

There are also other ways of coverin into areas of poor reception by engineering the antenan system.

regards

Fifteen miles may push a microwave link especially if there’s not a good line of sight. You could of course use a landline and remote base similar to what you probably have for your data but that has ongoing costs unlike the microwave option.

I assume that the distant company is on a different voice channel than the rest otherwise if you tried to run two transmitters even 15 miles apart you would get problems. It’s a stretch but if all the cars are all in one direction, you may even get away with using a highly direction antenna that would give better range on both transmit and receive.

There may also be the possibility of using a repeater-based system that would at least cut out the telephone line costs? Radioman could probably advise you better on this one.

Bill

Bill we have only one voice channel as with auriga u can only have 1 voice channel so we broadcast to the distant company drivers from our aerial site from our office which is 15 miles away & its poor

Whoops!

Just realised, I took that long replying there that Radioman had already answered

It's very true that the Achilles heel of many offices is often the antenna. All too often the antenna and coax have seen better days and while it all still works, it becomes lossy with age (a bit like my brain )

The "normal" collinear pole type antenna used by most companies, tends to spread the signal in all directions but you need it all one way so a new directional antenna may be worth a shot. If you contact Ofcom and explain your problem, they have computer models that in theory will predict the sort of coverage you might expect with differing antennas and power levels.

Bill

I dont believe it I've doubled again!

Right I think I understand you now. Well you can still use a directional antenna but one not too directive if you get my meaning. Something like a two or three element Yagi pointed at your distant company will give a significant boost to signals in that area but at the expense on some loss in local coverage. It's a trade off but if you have more than enough locally then just send a bit extra towards your more distant company.

Bill

we have tried a directional antenna but it still did not solve the problem hence thats why i am looking at other ways of trying to improve the voice i dont know much about repeaters and how they work thats why i was asking abt microwave links but i dont think that wud work if it needs a clear sight between the 2 antennas i am bit lost

Are there no limits on power output i.e. 5 or 25 watts?

Labrais

I see. That blows that theory!

Well if they can receive data well enough from your current transmitter then they should be able to get through with voice provided you locate the voice transmitter at the same site rather than on the roof of your building. I'm assuming here that your using a landline to connected to your data base station and that it's up on a hill somewhere???

If that's the case, the simplest and most cost effective method is a repeater base. This works by having a normal two-way radio in the office, which transmits up to the repeater. The repeater then simply rebroadcasts your signal but from a greater height. Alternatively you could connect via microwave link if the distance between your office and the remote base is not that far or you could even use landlines.

Hope that helps.

Bill

Hi

I think your talking about the fact that I said if the antenna cable is 100ft of say the standard thick low loss (joke actually) coax then if you put 10 watts of power into it from the base station by the time it comes out the other end it will drop to 5 watts.

So if your licence is for 10watts then I would have to turn the base station power upto 20watts in order for you to get 10watts to the antenna.

There are other things that come into play as well and this includes the type of antenna that you use.

Also if you need to put out more power then a request can be made to Ofcom for this.

regards

Bill i have 2 remote landlines for data the first landline is for the 1st data channel which is fine for the drivers who work at the original company also their voice is fine the problem is the second company i bought if i put those drivers on this data channel i struggle to get the jobs thru to them cuz of the distance. I also have a second data channel which is located at the heart of where the second company drivers work so their data is fine aswell but the problem is the voice if i put another voice mast by the 2nd company for voice we struggle to grt thru to the original company vice versa where we are broadcasting voice now from we struggle to get thru to the 2nd company as regards to the antenna we had a new one put up for voice which is 80ft and its a 3db (i think) aerial also our power is to full 25 watts i hope u understand what ive posted cuz even im confused

Labrais

Right the pictures clear now. Given you’ve tried all of the things we’ve suggested it looks like you may have no option but to run two separate voice channels just like you do for the data. You will need to connect the second voice base station via landlines as I doubt a microwave link will do the business over that sort of distance.

Secondly, if the cars of both companies are on the same voice frequency, running two transmitters on the same frequency at the same time will cause problems (aside from the fact your not allowed to do it). So if you want to keep just the one frequencyfor voice, you will need two mikes, one to talk to your local cars and one for the distant company. IE only talk to one group at a time.

Failing that, you could I suppose somehow link the remote and local systems together to use one mike but then you would need to use different frequencies. This may also break the rules of your licence???

Well that’ll either help or confuse

Bill

Hi

Its very easy to run two voice transmitters at the same time and controlled from the same M81 Voice control box. You would still need two landlines, one for each site and but it can be setup that when the car comes over to the voice channel he/she will not know they are on a differant channel from the other cars.

The operator would only have one control box on the desk and will not have a clue either. I have completed this sort of unit for customers in Birmingham with 500 cars and also starting work on a project with a 750 car fleet but we will run 3 voice channels but as far as operators go its only one control box.

For Laz, I will phone you tomorrow once I leave the site I am on just now.

Also I still say that if the voice is marginal in the area then we can improve on it by engineering means that would be cheaper than an additional landline and also site rental cost.

regards