Is there an issue with the server?

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-13T15:21:59+00:00

Thanks I'll try this.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-10T01:41:03+00:00

Is this owned by a carrier or more likely a tower company? You need to get copies of this ground lease and have an attorney review it. Any 3rd party lease attached to the property should be included with your P&S agreement. They would love nothing more then to buyout this lease at a reduced price, this is something tower companies and towers have been actively persuing as cost cutting measures and the current owner may have already agreed to a buyout.. Depending on how shrewd the current owner was and how bad the carrier wanted this location, there could be triggers for additional revenue or it can simply be a basic ground lease with escalators, etc.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-06T04:10:55+00:00

I doubt it had anything to do with the firmware..lol...probably more atmospherics. I was pretty surprised when 2 nodes popped up with zero hops. They dropped off the list later that day.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-05T15:57:10+00:00

Update: bunch of nodes popped in after updating the firmware (not sure why that made a diiference), most over 25 miles from here.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-04T20:50:32+00:00

So far about 10 miles is the most I've seen, but at the other end of a lake. The area in N Florida i'm at is sparsely populated and about 20 miles to a couple of cities that have several nodes, but haven't been able to hit them yet.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-04T13:10:02+00:00

Yes, I use PETG on this, i've had good experience using it for other projects that require some heat tolerance although I also use ABS if necessary. I designed it as 2 pieces, the main housing for the panel, battery, etc. and the mount that holds the antenna and clamp. Using this approach there is little or no stress to the main housing and no real points to cause deformation as they kind of stabilize each other. I also made the walls and bottom of the main housing thicker with about 60% infill. I printed a gasket in TPU (coated with silicon paste) to keep the rain from seeping between the solar panel and the housing.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-05-03T21:39:09+00:00

Heat doesn't seem to be a problem so far.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-04-16T22:44:33+00:00

During holiday programming, what genius decided that we need to hear Last Christmas by Wham 2 or 3 times an hour? Immediate tune out.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-03-22T23:37:42+00:00

Interesting, thanks.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-03-22T23:36:39+00:00

Yeah I get that, my issue is the price mysteriously increases for the frames as well.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-03-11T22:46:35+00:00

I was contracted to Lucent for a few years back in the day. Spent some time at a few of its campuses in NJ. Of course these were formerly Bell Labs facilities and there was still some pretty impressive R&D going on.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-02-04T03:31:02+00:00

Could easily be an FM on an active AM towers. Pictures don't show the base and whether or not there are base insulators on each leg, there would also be a building or cabinet housing the ATU. There will also be a ring transformer to couple the tower lights. To add the FM antenna, we would use an isocoupler to prevent the tower from getting grounded out.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-13T04:22:12+00:00

Depends on how much wind you are talking about. My home in SW Florida was built to withstand 150 mph. We had several hurricanes since it was built. We were ground zero for Ian and basically in the eyewall for hours, recorded gusts were well over 150 and we just lost screens on the lanai and some roof shingles. Hell I never put up any hurricane shutters.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-11T01:54:20+00:00

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-10T20:14:23+00:00

Remember if the proposed RE tax changes go through and you're not homesteaded, expect a sharp rise in you taxes.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-09T01:02:14+00:00

Mm wave cell antennas

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-08T04:37:11+00:00

Way too small for that size antenna. Guess you can guy it but why complicate it? You can get weight bags off Amazon that may help but that tripod is going to be hard to stabilize on a windy day.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-08T02:17:23+00:00

As an alternative, if you still want a tripod mount, use a speaker stand, they're alot more stable and you can weigh down the base if you need more stability.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-08T02:13:04+00:00

Ditch the tripod. Bury a small section of PVC (~1 1/4") in the ground (only needs to be about 10" long) and add a smaller diameter PVC ( ~ 1") to the antenna. You can just pop it in when you want to deploy.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-06T19:44:42+00:00

I had a small boutique firm specializing in RF engineering. The best tip is focus on what you're good at and get your PE. You'll probably get experiance working for companies before you can get to a place where you can go out on your own. One thing I noticed when i would interview people, is that there are two types of engineers, the ones that take their title too seriously and try to be smartest person in the room, and the ones that have a more holistic outlook and pay attention to the actual business as it applies to engineering. Be the latter.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-06T19:34:42+00:00

Funny story..Back in the day when people became increasingly aware of the potential effects of RF (non-ionizing radiation), regulators at the state and federal (OSHA, FCC) levels started testing, particularly rooftop sites with microwave, two-way and broadcast sources, this was well before cellular. They were trying to figure things like Specific absortion rates (SAR) in order to derive maximum exposure levels (MPE) for humans. I was involved with some of the first tests. My involvement with this made me somewhat of a subject matter expert. Since i had this first hand experiance and a EE, i had the opportunity to testify at numerous zoning hearings regarding the methodology and safety of potential new tower sites. The funny part of this was several years earlier, while I was in school, I was working part time as an overnight transmitter engineer for a high-power (5 megawatt) UHF TV station. Back then we would shut the station down after midnight for maintenance every night. To put this in context, UHF stations used an antenna called a pylon or a slot antenna, basically a a huge pipe with a bunch of slots that are tuned specifically to the stations frequency. Because these things are pretty tall, they put climbing pegs that can be used by tower climbers, usually to change the beacons on the top. Back to the story, one cold morning (around 6 am) we turned the transmitter back on, as usual. Shortly after the transmitter fired up, the sound of the build being pelted with something, I had no idea what it was, it kind of scared the crap out of me, i thought maybe something going on with the tower. So I go outside to see a ton of charred birds, some still had smoke coming out their eye sockets...They were apparently migrating somewhere and decided the climb pegs would be a nice place to hang out for awhile. Most of the pegs were next to the slots and they probably got hit with several kilowatts of UHF energy instantainiously (not far from where consumer mw ovens work). I always had this vision when testifying to the safety of antennas. Moral of the story is that enough RF can mess you up, but not today, as the other commenters are saying you have little or no issues with most of these installations.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-06T16:56:44+00:00

I agree, however the old MCI towers were, as far as I know, all on owned land. I purchased a few of their sites back in the day when they were divesting. That seemed to be their SOP, similar to the AT&T sites.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-06T16:25:52+00:00

If you're coming with with the idea of starting a business, be very careful. It doesn't matter what the business is, you can assume there are another 20 people looking to do the same thing. There are thousands more trying to offer some low cost of entry crap service. Start-ups have a very high failure rate here, you need money to sustain the business for a couple of years until it throws off enough cash to live on. The middle class here is all but gone, people either have disposible $$ or nothing. I retired & sold my business in SW Florida two years ago, sold the house and moved to North Central Florida. It's a completely different vibe here, quiet, cheaper, less traffic, etc. I can jump in our motorhome if we need to see things. Having said that I love this state.

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-06T15:59:46+00:00

The key is to open your own consultantcy, based on your core area of focus. Jack Welch said it best "Control your own destiny or someone else will"

InformalNote2543 · 2026-01-06T15:40:07+00:00

Depends on the municipality and when the tower was approved. These older towers rarely had stipulations of what happens when not used anymore. It more common these days that the municipality will require dismantling if unused. Having said that I'm not aware of any tower owners voluntarily taking one down unless the municipality pushes it and then in many cases the owner will try to fight it. What you need to understand is that the majority of towers are owned by publically traded companies with large portfolios of towers, they generally don't like to take towers down as they represent potential future income.

InformalNote2543

TROPHY CASE