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How to put strong WiFi signal on 5KM Radius

Farukh Khan

Jun 12, 2015
160
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Jun 12, 2015
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160
Hello,

I have been trying to plan for a free Internet supply project on my village. I have a dedicated fiber optic line to my rural home specially taken there by my ISP. But unfortunately not everyone in the rural area has access to stable internet thus I want to come up with this project.

Suppose I setup a base station at my place where I have the dedicated fibre optic connection. And I want to cover 5KM radius for line of sight so that my repeater stations which are located along that radius can capture the wifi signal through another line of sight antenna facing towards the base station antenna. I want to put up the antennas as high as needed for clear line of sight.

Now my question, is it possible to transmit the 2.4Ghz frequency wifi signal over 5KM distance(LOS)? will the signal get very weak that I will have packet loss on the other end? Should I use any sort of 2.4Ghz to 433Mhz modulation and demodulation technique for this setup? If so, how?

I am really looking for some DIY solutions on this project because it is impossible to ship high quality antennas and other wifi transmitting equipments to the rural area at this moemnt.

Please help me guys on how to proceed with this. Thank You.
 

Audioguru

Sep 24, 2016
3,656
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Sep 24, 2016
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3,656
Wifi is low power two directions. Look in Google about it. If the wifi receiver cannot transmit back to the transmitter then the connection fails.
A router transmits with 0.1W and wifi products transmit back with 0.1W.
Yesterday I got a new cable TV/Internet provider and the low power wifi transmitter uses "pods" that use the electrical wiring in my home as the antenna so that the transmit signal does not need to be strong enough to fry me or my family. Even with the very low power I was told to keep at least 20cm away from the wifi transmitter.
 

dave9

Mar 5, 2017
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Mar 5, 2017
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1,188
A microwave signal (2.4GHz) can easily travel 5KM, if there are no obstructions. What exactly do you mean by "DIY solutions". Can you build something out of string and glue? No. If you are an expert in RF communications maybe you can build something from scratch but otherwise, you necessarily want "high quality antennas and other wifi transmitting equipments", the higher power transmitters at the very least, while there are designs out there for DIY directional antennas.

Perhaps you need an agent in a less rural area to receive and hold equipment for you till you travel to receive it?
 

Nanren888

Nov 8, 2015
622
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Nov 8, 2015
Messages
622
Check out wimax? (If you have abudget)
If your points are stationary then directivity will likely get you there. Many trials online claim long-distance directional results with Wifi. Many DIY directive antennas. LIkely violate the EIRP standards. They will more than likely need to be directive at both ends. You might want to mount them high, above where people are.
As dave9 says, high quality antennas will do better.
 

aurelZ

Jun 10, 2019
98
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Jun 10, 2019
Messages
98
No matter which antenna or wifi card u use. the main point
is optical visibility of transmitter and receiver antenna.
We have connection over 5km air line with 150mW of power without
problem with comercial antennas from both side.
if you look for DIY solution then best thing is to use satellite dish
with biquad element.

If you wish to cover 5 km radius with your AP antenna then you must
mount your AP antenna high enough
more than 10 meters from ground.
For antenna you can use SLOT antenna with horizontal polarization.
 
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