Phoenix Contact 900mhz Radio Problems

[scadadavid]

I have been troubleshooting a Phoenix Contact Radio setup for 3 days now and have come up stumped. The system is set up on 3 offshore platforms, 1 home platform that contains the master and 2 outer platforms that have 1 slave on them. I have been mainly focused on the master radio since it is unable to communicate with both outer platforms. The antenna set up on the home platform is an approximately 70 foot LMR400 cable that comes into a High Gain Omni Antenna that is less than a mile from each outer platform. Each outer platform have a high gain Yagi antenna aimed perfectly at the Omni and I cannot establish comms for anything. Any help or insight in using these radios is helpful. Thanks.

 

[Bit_Bucket_07]

Did you previously establish comms at a shorter distance? You should be within line-of-sight at under 1 mile.

 

[scadadavid]

Yes I established comms with the master radio with another transceiver set up as a slave in close proximity without an antenna. So the same should be true with antennas connected within the range of the gain of the antenna, but for some reason I cannot get a connection to the outer platforms.

 

[Lancie1]

Scadadavid,

To recount, a slave set up near the master, without an antenna, received a signal, but when the master was routed to an antenna, no signals were received or transmitted.

The problem links seem to be the antenna and any cables used to connect it to the master, and all cable connectors and terminals.

Are the new antennas well-isolated from the steel of the platforms (and therefore Earth ground)?

 

[scadadavid]

Yes they are isolated from ground. And even if they were grounded somehow wouldn't that create a diminished signal rather than an absence?

 

[Lancie1]

If both poles of the signal are completely grounded, then your antenna will not radiate any signal. If there is a high-resistance partial ground, the signal strength can be reduced.

 

[Bit_Bucket_07]

Is it possible that you are experiencing interference from other radios?