Heyden Antenna Set-up

Anonymous Posted the following as comment on 14 Jun 12 to "North Sault Data Hub Issues Update 01 May 12".

“I see the antennas on the Heyden tower have been moved. They are now both side by side, pointing to the south, rather than one east and one west. I am in goulais and although my signal is slightly weaker, my speeds are faster and much more consistant. I'm getting around 3mbps in the afternoon and up to 5mbps in the wee hours of the morning. Yet to see what it's like in the evening. Anyone else notice a difference?”

I re-posted it here so I could add the pictures.

First, in my opinion these are fairly good speeds. The Tbaytel website lists the data hub speed as 7.2 Mbps. Other vendors list the expected speed as between 2-4 Mbps. Tbaytel does not indicate the expected speed but I see no reason why it should differ from the other carriers.

Unfortunately I do not have a close-up picture of the original Heyden antenna set-up. I do have close-ups of the current Heyden set-up.

Original Tower Set-up Viewed From MTO Site	June 2012 Set-up Viewed From Hwy 17 MTO Site
June 2012 Close of Antennas From Hwy 17 MTO Site	June 2012 Close-up of Antennas from Beaumont Park Entrance.

I don’t think the antennas have been moved. The upper antennas are for Canopy and the lower are for cellular. The view of the Canopy antennas from Beaumont area show that while they are on the same side of the tower, they are oriented at different angles to cover the areas of population density outside the Heyden DSL and cable coverage areas.

The cellular antennas are oriented to cover up and down the highway. Note one backs, grey sides, are in opposite directions from the fronts, white sides. I am not sure what the coverage angle is but I suspect it is either 120° or 180°. 

The main criterion for provincial funding was that the cellular site’s primary coverage area was to be along the Kings highway. Any additional coverage was a bonus. The object Canopy equipment orientation was to cover the maximum number of people.