John Galt
Forward, March
Premium
join:2004-09-30
Happy Camp
 ·CenturyLink
| TRANGO - FOX5800 Unit Comments?
I am interested in the comments of those who have deployed the Trango FOX units...
Construction? Reliability? Functionality? Other?
Thanks!
--
A is A |
|
IntraLink
Premium,MVM
join:2002-08-14
Utah Valley | I would go to part-15.org and look at the trango list archives. There is a lot of real world experience and commentary on the fox series. |
|
John Galt
Forward, March
Premium
join:2004-09-30
Happy Camp
·CenturyLink
| said by IntraLink  :I would go to part-15.org and look at the trango list archives. There is a lot of real world experience and commentary on the fox series. Thanks!
But everyone feel free to comment here, nonetheless!
--
A is A |
|
polk5
join:2001-12-29
New Orleans, LA
1 edit | I have a fox with a dish doing 7.5 miles and it has been up without a hickup for 7 months now. Imagine that huh.:) No reboots or anything out of the ordinary. |
|
superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| Off topic, But funny!
said by polk5 :I have a fox with a dish doing 7.5 miles and it has been up without a hickup for 7 months now. Imagine that huh.:) No reboots or anything out of the ordinary. I have Raylink units that have been up for over a year?. I guess that means something?, But I know others that have cursed at the Fox units. It is really hard to tell, as each user has different experiences. Polk5 and Raylink just never got along . I think Viperm may have a few words to say about the Fox units if I remember correctly?
--
»www.wavecrazy.net Join WISPA today! »www.wispa.org/ |
|
cmaenginsb
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-19
Palmdale, CA
| reply to John Galt
Re: TRANGO - FOX5800 Unit Comments?
We deployed quite a few of these. I feel that they're on par with Canopy or any of the other proprietary gear.
There are some issues with Trango's 5.8 stuff in general, like the interference problem (it doesn't like it very much).
As to the units, they're ok. I always found it funny that the Trango guys used to make fun of the plastic Canopy suddenly stopped when Trango released the Fox. |
|
polk5
join:2001-12-29
New Orleans, LA
| Trango/Interference. Yes, they are extremly prone to interference. I learned that downtown. This link I have here is clear as a bell. Thats why I used the trango. You would think that trango would have improved the interference rejection on its radios after all this time. |
|
Believer
join:2002-07-04
Baltimore, MD
| reply to John Galt
We use a lot of Trango and were very excited upon the announcement of the Fox release. Everything went down hill from there. We are in an urban environment and the Fox radios lack the range of the older 5830 radios and their antenna beamwidth is twice as broad.. meaning they receive more interference. We haven't been able to successfully deploy these at more than 2.5 miles due to interference. The signal is still good but the link drops a ton of packets. If you use the dish, you can extend the range much further.
Right now Canopy is looking like the winner. More bandwidth with the new Advantage line, external antenna options from Last Mile Gear and FDDI Systems, GPS synced radios, FEC and ARQ and lower cost SUs.
Once Trango raised the price of their 5830, we moved to Aperto and Alvarion VL. The Alvarion VL is what the Fox should have been. We still have our Trango radios in operation and they do work well and deliver the bandwidth promised. We've never had a Trango radio die once it was installed. The mounting brackets on the Fox are much better than the old 5830 brackets and better than Canopy and Alvarion or Aperto. |
|
cmaenginsb
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-19
Palmdale, CA
| reply to John Galt
Trango played with the recieve sense to allow them to increase the range of the Fox while reducing antenna gain. Of course by doing so they brought the recieve sense close to what the noise floor is in most areas thereby effectively reducing the range of the Fox.
I don't use Trango or recommend them due to other issues but in general their system isn't bad. |
|
wolfcreek
join:2003-12-02
Pagosa Springs, CO
| reply to John Galt
We run the 10 mile units over 15 miles with no problems. We have a couple of 4 mile units running over 6 miles away without missing a beat. We have many of these units deployed with no equipment failures to speak of. I wish they had ARQ but other than that they are great. |
|
cmaenginsb
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-19
Palmdale, CA
| reply to John Galt
Our longest fox shot was right at 15 miles, from the south side of San Fernando Valley to the North side of the valley. Eventually this link had to be replaced due to (drum roll please) you guessed it interference.
We have an original 5800 going 20 miles using a 4 foot dish at the subscriber end.
We also have Canopys running 15 miles, nary a hickup and they tolerate the interference better. Depending on your bandwidth needs the Canopy is a worthy competitor to the Fox, and with the slightly more expensive Advantage line you get the same BW as Trango. |
|
superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| said by cmaenginsb :Our longest fox shot was right at 15 miles, from the south side of San Fernando Valley to the North side of the valley. Eventually this link had to be replaced due to (drum roll please) you guessed it interference. While I am happy for wolfcreek that the Trango gear works as well as it does(I want every WISP to have a simple trouble free life:D ). I agree with cmaenginsb in the respect that one day, wolfcreek will wake up and start to consume large bottles of Tums and Aspirin, as the links will be down due to interference and You will spend the next few days running around like an idiot trying to bring Your network back online. If there is one thing that I have learned the hard way, it is the fact that You should never, and I mean NEVER S-T-R-E-T-C-H the capabilities of any radio to do something it wasn't designed for. If You do this?, it is only a matter of time before that link or radios comes back to bite You in the proverbial "A$$"!!. If anything, I would be running those links with some major insurance, like using antennas with a LOT more gain then needed to complete the link, and then choking back the power to be legal. That way I can sleep at night . Wolfcreek, I am not putting You down or harassing You in any way, nor was I trying to make You look dumb('Cause I know You're not:) ). I have just "Been there and done that", and I wanted to teach others this very important lesson.:p
--
»www.wavecrazy.net Join WISPA today! »www.wispa.org/ |
|
pmurdock
Paul Murdock
join:2001-09-13
Riverton, UT
| Personally I'm extremely happy with these trango units. I deploy the fox5800-d dish exclusively. i don't even bother with the short range units due to the wide beam width.
the forthcoming atlas line from trango will add fec,arq, etc and what I plan to do is add an atlas AP and if interference for individual clients occurs then I can switch them over to the atlas AP which I might add will be a 45mbps PtMP.  sure beats canopy's advantage... hehe
Granted ... It is NOT released YET, but 45Mbps is going to be needed and will allow alot more future growth - plus with the ARQ and FEC it makes it a powerful tool. Also, supposed to be backwards compatible with existing SU's. That will be the GREATEST benefit in my opinion.
cheers,
Paul |
|
wolfcreek
join:2003-12-02
Pagosa Springs, CO
| reply to John Galt
Actually the 15 mile links have about a 10+ db fade margin. One of them is to my house and it has been rock solid for 18 months with no downtime. I am planning to use a larger dish on the one to my house so I can have a higher fade margin--mostly for testing.
Granted, in a more urban area interference would probably be a problem--here we have none YET. We generally do not do these super long links except in special cases(mainly while waiting for other equipment). All I wanted to point out is that the Foxes work quite well. It also helps that our 150 ft tower is over 1000 ft above the area on a ridge.
Most of our long links are in the 900 mhz band with yagis.
Actually the Atlas units are available for sale right now and have talked to some people who have deployed and they are quite happy with them. |
|
robbin
Premium,MVM
join:2000-09-21
Leander, TX
| said by wolfcreek :Actually the Atlas units are available for sale right now and have talked to some people who have deployed and they are quite happy with them. Word is that the Atlas is the beginning of the new line of equipment. Now available is the 5 GHz PtP. Next to be released is HOPEFULLY the Atlas 5GHz PtMP!
I haven't contributed to this thread as almost all of my experiences are with the 5800/5830 equipment (I bought a bunch before the price went up). Trango has been great for me. Once it is set up, it works! |
|
cmaenginsb
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-19
Palmdale, CA
| reply to John Galt
I'll agree with Paul, basically don't use the Fox units without a dish (and unlike Canopy you cannot use the dish units without a dish and vice versa.)
As to the Atlas it sounds like a neat radio, but after being screwed too many times by Trango I'll have to pass on them. |
|
