Aug 11, 2026 · Point-to-point
Point-to-point wireless looks simple in a product photo. Two dishes, a claimed distance, a price. On a compound or a small campus the failure mode is almost never the radio chipset. It is the path, the mount, or the power.
Path. Trees grow. Roofs get HVAC. A winter shot through bare branches is not a summer link. If you cannot describe the Fresnel zone in plain language — “this hop needs clear air in a football-shaped volume between the two mounts” — you are guessing.
Mounts. A dish on a wobbly mast will work on a calm afternoon and fall over in a storm. Stiffness, grounding, and how the enclosure is reached for service belong in the drawing, not in a day-of improvisation.
Power and handoff. The radios are the easy part. What VLAN they land on, what happens when a switch reboots, and whether PoE or DC is honest at the far end — that is the design.
If a vendor will not talk about fade margin and mounting before they talk about model numbers, they are selling you a shopping cart. We write the path first. Hardware follows.