How stable does a tower for point to point internet need to be.

[John_in_mn]

My only good option for internet in my rural location is point to point offered by a local internet provider. I need to be at least thirty feet off the ground in my location. The local provider typically mounts a dish on the roof, but my roof is not quite high enough. I already have a tower that is high enough, but the provider says it's not stable enough... they haven't even looked at it. Does the dish for point to point internet have to be super stable? How would I measure stability? -thanks

 

[kanewolf]

If you have a typical tower, a plumb bob hung in the center of the triangle would give you an indication of stability. At 30ft, 3 well placed guy wires should stabilize a tower for any use.

 

[bill001g]

It doesn't have to move a lot to take it out of alignment but most actual towers are designed to carry a certain wind load of antenna. They are designed to move very little if at all. Not so much because of signal loss but if you keep flexing the tower it will eventually fail due to metal fatigue.

Most wireless antenna systems are considered less that 1sqft of wind load. You would have to try to find the technical spec for your tower or one that is similar in design to see what the rating is. These type of antenna are fairly small compared to the large tv or ham antennas that are put on towers in the past.