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Placing CPEs near power lines |
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Written by ajayr
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Tuesday, 06 March 2007 |
" Hi all,
Does placing the CPE near power lines have any deteriorative effect on the radio?
I had installed a Senao CB3 in a customer's place and the power lines line ran quite close to the radio (about 5 mts horizontal distance). For apparently no reason, the radio would reset to factory defaults every now and then.
I had then replaced the radio with a HGA sub-$100 CPE and for about a month there wasn't any problem. Today the customer couldn't associate to our AP. On checking, I noticed that the CPE couldn't see our AP at all. I replaced the radio with another HGA sub-$100 CPE and things were fine again.
Anyway I have relocated the install location to be as far away from the power lines.
Anyone have a similar experience?"
superdog:
Yes, I have. Not only was I close to the wires, I was also very close to the transformer, and it just caused all kinds of stupid results. It would drop packets, slow the speeds to a crawl and require a reboot every 3rd or 4th day. It got a little better when I used shielded CAT5 cable to the radio, but not much. The only way I could fix the issue was to put the radio at the back of the house instead of the front, which required me to use an additional 90ft of CAT5 cable. 
VariableARK:
How close is too close? We are considering putting a tower up near power lines, and if nothing is going to work I won't pursue the project.
John Galt:
If you're back 50-ish feet or so and not looking directly *at* the power lines, you should be OK.
There is also a difference between the high voltage and the secondary distribution voltage. There can be nasty transients on the power lines that radiate quite a distance. If you are near those you might see the effects such as resets, etc.
Good grounding and shielding...
Keithb:
There is a minimum distance you can be legally to any power-line, and I believe that's 15' so do beware for legality and for safety reasons. We have mounted Satellite arms on our own lift poles right next to secondary service (240v) without any problems.
If the wire is covered, it's more than likely =277/480
Anything not covered with insulation is more than likely primary at 7.2kv on up.
public:
If there are bad effects resetting the radios, it is probably magnetically induced common mode voltage.
At 150 ft the effect should be negligible.
HV lines do not radiate much beyond 50 MHz.
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