Well, I have a semi hardware related issue that doesnt seem to have a home. I have taken it upon myself to integrate technology into my father's farming operation. The problem I am running into is farmers, apparently, have done zero work with technology that doesnt involve paid for gps systems. One of my main ideas is to blanket his home broadband connection across the length of our farm (the areas that need to be reached should all be within 1.5 miles raidally of the house). By doing this, and with some cheap homemade computers installed in three or four main tractors, he would be able to check the weather, check his market information, and (hopefully) be able to control the several peices of electronic equiptment he now uses for various implements.
The problem I am running into involves the actual broadcasting and recieving of the wifi signal. The main house lies on a hill, surrounded by semi-shallow valleys, with a windbreak (roughly 2-3 trees deep at any given point) surrounding it. The omnidirectional antennas I have been looking into tend to have a pretty shallow vertical beamwidth (roughly 7 degrees), which doesnt seem like it could reach the valleys. Smaller antenna, with better beamwidths, dont seem to have the range I need; not to mention Im not sure if they could get through 3 deep pinetrees. I thought about using a heavily boosted reciever dish on the tractor as well, but it too would have to be omnidirectional as the tractors are constantly in motion.
So, after all that, does anyone have any experience with networks that could shed some light on this problem? Can it even be solved affordably? I dont have vast amounts of experience with this, but there has to be a way to make this work without a satelite. Keep in mind there isnt anyone around in the country, so interference isnt so much of an issue. Any insight would be appreciated, thanks.
The problem I am running into involves the actual broadcasting and recieving of the wifi signal. The main house lies on a hill, surrounded by semi-shallow valleys, with a windbreak (roughly 2-3 trees deep at any given point) surrounding it. The omnidirectional antennas I have been looking into tend to have a pretty shallow vertical beamwidth (roughly 7 degrees), which doesnt seem like it could reach the valleys. Smaller antenna, with better beamwidths, dont seem to have the range I need; not to mention Im not sure if they could get through 3 deep pinetrees. I thought about using a heavily boosted reciever dish on the tractor as well, but it too would have to be omnidirectional as the tractors are constantly in motion.
So, after all that, does anyone have any experience with networks that could shed some light on this problem? Can it even be solved affordably? I dont have vast amounts of experience with this, but there has to be a way to make this work without a satelite. Keep in mind there isnt anyone around in the country, so interference isnt so much of an issue. Any insight would be appreciated, thanks.
