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WISPs Warn: The Weather Outside Is Frightful

Members of the ISP-Wireless list warn that the latest cold snap will challenge your equipment, yourself, and even your coffee.

[December 9, 2005]

On the ISP-Wireless list this week, TJ warned:

Just a quick heads up.... we just experienced -16°F last night without any wind chill. We are located in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The temperature in Jackson Hole, WY got down to -24°F and with the wind chill -40°F. I'm sure it's headed across the country. Make sure your equipment is ready, and your installers that are working outside.

[BG replied] "We hit -23 degrees Fahrenheit. (Just think: that's 55 degrees BELOW freezing; 87 degrees Fahrenheit is 55 degrees ABOVE freezing.) Single digit or subzero temperatures expected every night this week. The HIGH for the week will be around freezing, from the looks of things."

[GM claimed] "We hit -23°C last night. Everything is purring happily. Our network runs at its best during the winter."

Reporting in from Washington, MS noted:

It's been 12 here for days now. Been a long time since it's been that cold this early. We're all wondering if we're just getting winter early or if Jan. is gonna be a killer!

Of course, WISPs in Florida were warmer.

[SYS joked] "Yes, you're not kidding it's cold. Got down to +20, and we will only get up to +69 / +72 today. Down right cold. Right now it's only +33. We have had to actually start wearing light coats and long sleeve on some days.

Only a couple days a week can we get away with short sleeves. They are saying we might start seeing night drops as low as +15. So during these cold temps, we have to wait until 11:00am for the chill to kill off before we can do anything. Can't wait for Feb/March when it warms back up."

[SC added] "Bring it on, my stuff needs to chill a bit :) (Florida) "

[BG replied] "Poor guy. We were on a roof this morning just as it got above zero. I brought up a mug of warm coffee, and when I sloshed it a little the droplets instantly froze on the rooftop before they could even run down it.

It was even cold in Texas:

[TP reported] "In central Texas, we got ice since yesterday. We have 1 sector that is completely down and 1 sector half of the customers are down. One which is down has Maxrad sector antenna, with Smart Bridge air point Pro out door radio. This setup has worked for over 2 years. This was the first time we have ice condition for more then 15 hours.

Second antenna is Pac wireless horizontal sector and that has also worked for 2 years. So is it common to see outage when there is ice on the antenna? What can be done to prevent this in the future?"

[DV worried] "If Texas is getting that cold there is no hope for us up here in upstate NY. I was down for a couple of hours last year but maybe we need to talk to our antenna manufacturers and see what they can do about heaters with power over coax. It might work real well with those PAC horizontal slot antennas."

[MS suggested] "It's not normal for ice to cause your antenna to fail, but it could certainly happen. I have a site that gets a LOT of frozen fog in the winter and I've seen nearly 2" of fluffy white stuff stuck to everything up there. Guy wires, antennas, cables, all of it. That took us down till I took a broom to things.

It's really a matter of your fade margin. Normally, for what we do, a 10 dB fade margin is plenty. In a case like this you may need much more than that.

If this becomes a habit, you have two choices: Up your power levels (all the usual nasty problems apply as reasons to not do this) or get the ice off. Sometimes just waxing—yes car wax or furniture wax—the antennas will do the trick. Other times, you may need to install some heat tape of some kind to keep them warm enough to keep the ice melted off."

MS added an important warning:

Note: For you Darwin types out there do NOT try to knock the ice off the tower by hammering at the base. Ice from 200' up has been known to go right through the building roofs on some tower sites!

—End