ARES Forums

20-Mile AREDN RF li...
 
Notifications
Clear all

20-Mile AREDN RF link to Grand Mesa Thur 23SEP21

2 Posts
1 Users
0 Likes
138 Views
(@k0dz)
Member Admin
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 9
Topic starter  

During the Thursday 10- meter net, I'm planning to operate a portable hf rig near the Lands End Observatory atop Grand Mesa.

Stoney, Steve and I placed a large 5ghz dish with built-in node on Stoney's antenna mast, and aimed the node toward the observatory.

I will take a smaller 5ghz dish node with me to the observatory area.

Steve and Stoney will be fine-tuning the link from the Grand Junction end while I aim the smaller dish toward them from the Mesa.

I'm hoping to join the 10-meter net Zoom meeting via a 20-mile AREDN RF point-to-point link while running the 10-meter net.

 

 

We'll post results of this attempt shortly.

 

Bill

 

This topic was modified 3 years ago 2 times by Bill Tillery KØDZ

   
Quote
(@k0dz)
Member Admin
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 9
Topic starter  

The 20-mile link was successful!   

I found a location within a few hundred yards of the Lands End Observatory and was able to drive to within a few feet of the cliff edge.  The following equipment was powered using the built-in inverter built in to my Jeep:

The AREDN system used was a Mikrotik LHG5 (Lite Head Grid) dish with built-in AREDN router mounted on a Daleaudio speaker stand.   The dish was connected to a Netgear switch.  A Mikrotik 2.4ghz Basebox with omni antennas was also mounted on the speaker stand, and connected to the same switch.   The traffic from the dish link was routed to the Basebox and then transmitted to the surrounding area.

A Gl-iNet AR150 was connected to my laptop.   The Ar-150 linked automagically to the Basebox and allowed me to access WestSlope MeshChat and conduct text conversations with others connected to the WestSlope Mesh.  

I was able to access webcams on the Mesh and did get pictures from them, and load a webpage from the Internet, albeit slowly.   I was unable to link to the 10-meter net Zoom meeting via AREDN, but was able to to join the Zoom meeting via cell phone.  I'm assuming the throughput was insufficient, but had not installed Iperfspeed and so was unable to measure throughput.

Pointing the dish to GJ turned out to be easier than expected.  After activating GRAPHS on the K0DZ-LHG5 node, I pointed the dish down slightly and then slowly scanned north to south until finding the direction with maximum signal strength. And then elevated the dish until the signal was further maximized, and then locked the speaker stand in position.  At that point, the SNR was about -80, not great, but usable.  Due to the need to climb onto a roof after the onset of darkness, we agreed not to attempt to optimize the LHG5XL (bigger dish) at Stoney's QTH.  Perhaps we could have increased throughput had we done so, but safety took priority.

The link remained in operation for the duration of the 10-meter net, with similar link performance throughout. 

Note: There was no actual need to have three nodes on the Mesa.  I could have simply connected the dish directly into the laptop, probably a more appropriate way to isolate the performance of the link.  

Note:  The Basebox experienced a power issue twice.  I noticed that the switch and dish powered up fine, but the Basebox power light was blinking.  The issue turned out to be that the inverter did not have the capacity to power up both nodes and the switch simultaneously.  When I powered up the dish and the switch together, and then powered up the Basebox a few seconds later, all three devices stayed powered up with no further problems.  Goal in the future is power the system with a 24vdc battery.  

Please post comments and questions.

 

 

This post was modified 2 years ago 2 times by Bill Tillery KØDZ

   
ReplyQuote
Share: