Radios, Modems and Surge protectors

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Thread Starter

Peter Bubik

Can you recommend good Line Drivers / Short Haul Modems and strategies for lightning protection?

I need to establish communication from one PLC to another. The path is through the mountains and goes as follows:
IntakePLC <--> LineDriver <--> 1900mCable <--> LineDriver <--> MDSRadio <--> 2kmLineOfSight <--> MDSRadio <--> LineDriver <--> 300mCable <--> LineDriver <--> MuxBM85000 <--> PowerHousePLC

The equipment we have settled on:
PLCs - Both Modicon
1900mCable - 4pair double shielded 18 gauge
Radios - MDS9810 Spread spectrum freq. hopping
300mCable - shielded comms cable?? - good comms.
Multiplexer - MUX BM85000

The question is what do I use for lightning protection and line drivers.

1. The radios guarantee 19.2kbps throughput(any experience with these? Can you confirm that?), I'd hate the line drivers to be the bottleneck - so we need something that will go at least 19.2kbps. I'd also like to use the same type of line drivers for both, the 300m and the 1900m (and have only a couple of spares). Do you have any experience with this sort of application? What is a good equipment to use? (Reliability is #1, price #2)

2. Both of the radios have antennas 100ft high on comm towers. The towers will have lightning rods and the coax will go through Polifasor(?) in-line lightning surge protector. I understand that this unit will not deal with direct hit. What is commonly done in these cases? Should I just go with it and add some optical isolators along the path? What works good and what doesn't? Any experience with these?

Any comments are greatly appreciated
Please do not hesitate to call me at (403) 298 0256 to chat about solutions and experience.

Peter
 
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