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24 June 2016, Juraj Taptic

#WeHaveHorns

Why Good Guys Have Horns ..and the bad guys sell you "dBi dream".

Despite my young age - I turned 43 this year :) - I clearly remember the times before this industry had really started. There was no Wi-Fi, almost no internet, my weight was well below 200 pounds and a man could attract a girl with a sense of humor. What a wonderful world it was! Well.. except the fashion! :)

Times change. Over the last ten years, this industry has grown in the measure that is difficult to describe or imagine. Well over 100 million radios are deployed outdoors, and counting. At the same time, this industry was also abused in many ways. The abuse was - surprisingly - created by WISPs themselves. By using incorrect gear for building out wireless networks. By accepting the naive assumption, that every vendor knows best. By creating excessive levels of noise everywhere they built their networks. By not respecting the simple rules of sustainable growth.

Let me explain this in a little more detail. Over the years, WISPs have screamed for more and more antenna gain for less and less money, and vendors provided the gear. The reason? They believed that it is the right solution for their growing noise issue. If, and I emphasize this, IF THEY CORRECTLY UNDERSTOOD THE SIMPLE RULES OF PHYSICS, they would know, that INCREASING ANTENNA GAIN ACTUALLY IS THE LAST THING THEY SHOULD DO. Watch this video to understand WHY before reading further.

You guys were simply using the wrong gear in way too many cases. Probably, because nobody told you that this is not the best way. So now we do. Let´s hope this will help open more and more WISPs eyes and that WISPs will start thinking about the sustainability of their business. Because a majority of the wireless vendors don´t. WISPs should focus on how to #PreserveSpectrum and use the right gear!

We do care about your future. Our solution to the noise issue is essentially about solving the problem at its roots. The less noise you create, the less noise you have to deal with later. It may have sounded like sci-fi a few years ago, but with RF elements products, this is now possible!

Let me show the three simple rules of sustainability in the 5GHz unlicensed WISP environment:

1. USE ANTENNAS WITH THE RADIATION PROPERTIES YOU NEED. Make no compromises here. Use the radiation pattern that you really need for the coverage area you serve - with our Symmetrical Horns this is actually possible! Only propagate signals where you need it, and vice versa. Use narrow sectors rather than wide ones every time you can. Do you need to cover about 40°? Use a 40° Sector antenna! So simple! Break your habits of using 90° or 120°, or multiples of 30° or fractions of 360°. People deploy wide sectors because they think it has to be this way. This approach is obsolete now, it actually hurts you! It limits your network from performing at its best!

2. USE HORN ANTENNAS BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO SIDE LOBES! Again - you can not afford any compromises here. This is where most of the witchcraft comes from. Horns have no side lobes, but other mainstream antennas have huge and usually complex side lobes. Side lobes are the most vicious thing when dealing with noise! Even dish antennas have pretty strong side lobes! Long story short: The best side lobes are no side lobes.

3. USE ANTENNAS WITH APPROPRIATE GAIN. This means, use the lowest possible antenna gain that works or that you can get. If you´ve skipped Rule Nr. 1 and you are using high gain and wide radiation beam width sector antennas, then radios will collect noise from a very wide area despite radios being set to low transmit power (because the antenna gain remains the same and radio listens with full antenna gain!). If you´ve also skipped Rule Nr.2, and you are using antennas that have side lobes, then they will pick up tons of noise through these side lobes as well! And this works both ways! Simply use the lowest antenna gain you can afford, and be sane with transmit power.

We believe, that the perfect WISP antenna is a Symmetrical Horn, because it solves multiple problems at the same time: Horns can provide precise radiation properties, low to mid gain, and have no side lobes. This is why our Symmetrical Horns perform so well. In the WISP industry, the good guys have horns. Be a good guy and join us! Because #WeHaveHorns.

-JT-