project for the weekend....
My project for this weekend (and probably early next week too), is getting internet access to our house. (By which I mean broadband specifically).
The ongoing search has revealed
1) despite the fact that there is AT&T Fiber buried not 500 feet from our driveway, there is no DSL, Cable, FIOS, ISDN, etc, run to our house.
2) due several hundred year old maples and numbers tall pines, there is no view of the southern sky either (eliminating satellite).
3) poor cell service eliminates that.
leaving WiFi as the only possible option. However, due to terrain and forestation issues, we get no signal, despite the fact that houses around us in every direction do.
So, I need to do three things:
1) Find the wifi transmitter that is most visible from our property. (without actually being able to see it)
2) Figure out how tall an antenna mast has to be to clear the trees to obtain a line of sight to said transmitter.
3) Figure out how to build said antenna on a budget of ~$50 or so.
I'll let you know how it goes (possibly with pictures)
In the meantime, does anyone here have experience with building antenna masts? I don't expect to be able to afford proper truss, but I also don't expect to be going much over 25 feet or so. Are there code restrictions regarding antenna construction (obviously, i know there must be), and more importantly, how tall does the antenna have to be before they apply?
The ongoing search has revealed
1) despite the fact that there is AT&T Fiber buried not 500 feet from our driveway, there is no DSL, Cable, FIOS, ISDN, etc, run to our house.
2) due several hundred year old maples and numbers tall pines, there is no view of the southern sky either (eliminating satellite).
3) poor cell service eliminates that.
leaving WiFi as the only possible option. However, due to terrain and forestation issues, we get no signal, despite the fact that houses around us in every direction do.
So, I need to do three things:
1) Find the wifi transmitter that is most visible from our property. (without actually being able to see it)
2) Figure out how tall an antenna mast has to be to clear the trees to obtain a line of sight to said transmitter.
3) Figure out how to build said antenna on a budget of ~$50 or so.
I'll let you know how it goes (possibly with pictures)
In the meantime, does anyone here have experience with building antenna masts? I don't expect to be able to afford proper truss, but I also don't expect to be going much over 25 feet or so. Are there code restrictions regarding antenna construction (obviously, i know there must be), and more importantly, how tall does the antenna have to be before they apply?