Any views on this from wuggers?
Anyone with experience to share of before and after they added a shield to their dish?
Where specifically did you get improvements? CCQ, noise floor, etc
It will help with interference (not saying it will totally improve your link to its maximum capability if frequency is an issue in the area) but it will help minimize it by small amount which will lead to better CCQ.
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Thanks, I was thinking of one of these:
https://scoop.co.za/60cm-parabolic-dish-rf-shield.html
I believe I am getting interference, as all the classic signs are there (fluctuating CCQ during the day, better at night, CCQ different on RX vs TX, link drops etc)
What about the enclosure and the cabling to the antenna dish? Should that not also be a part of the equation?
The shorter the cables the better minimal signal loss and for the enclosure a aluminium one will work it helps to reduce the noise/interference from the radio card but that all depends on what u have currently
Got one of those universal hard plastic enclosures with a RB433 inside. Cabling I made as efficient as possible but it’s still ~1m.
Had 99 CCQ but this seems to be getting eroded … I have checked alignment, cables, crimping etc
Really, I’m just checking that a RF shield would be worth it - would not feel good to buy it, then bolt it onto a dish 14m in the air and see little difference haha!
As Razor said, short LMR’s make a difference and shields in my experience make a huge difference in noisy environments. Even if your area itself doesn’t have a lot of interference from other devices the shield will still help.
https://www.miro.co.za/product/routerboard-sleeve30-kit-700x700x220mm/
That is a nice shield/dome cover for Mikrotik 30db dishes, unfortunately Scoop don’t stock them.
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Shielding does definitely help. Not only does is shield you from noise, but also acts as a reflector to boost your signal. As for how much you could expect, that depends on where the major source of your noise is. If it is roundabout in line where the other end of you link is, most probably not too much.
A whole discussion ensued some time ago about shielding, albeit it the shielding of an SXT (SXT Noise Shield). This has some bearing on your topic although improvements may not be close to the improvements experienced in that thread because you may be using different equipment (SXT’s radiation pattern is all over the place), as well as 5GHz reacts differently (different wavelength.
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Thank you gents, that’s 2 experienced people vouching for shielding on 60cm dishes - I will look into it as there are several radiation sources from different directions here.
Must say that Sleeve30 kit does look like a great option…really sorry that Scoop does not carry it…eish