October 2017 - PSDR - mailman.hamwan.org

Greetings from VA4WAN (HSMM network in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)
by Colin Stanners 29 Oct '17

29 Oct '17

Hello HamWAN PSDR members, I was hoping to introduce our VA4WAN project to your organization a bit further than the quick IRC conversations that were had a few months ago when I was visiting Seattle/Victoria. I am the main network designer / RF tech / tower climber and will be following the PSDR list in digest mode. A handful of hams in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada are building an open HSMM network quite similar to (but not yet following all the standards of) the HamWan project. We have acquired access to ~5 sites now, later 10-12, around the city of Winnipeg and rural areas. Currently all the gear is Ubiquiti / Mikrotik in 2.3Ghz (mostly user access) / 3.4Ghz (testing) / 5.9Ghz (mostly backhauls). We have the 44.135.116.x - 44.135.121.x networks advertised via BGP under the ASes of friendly internet providers (currently single-homed). We are looking to multi-home our internet connectivity; acquiring an AS would currently be stretching our budget but it was mentioned that we may be able to request permission to use the PSDR's AS number. I'll be looking into your documentation for how to propose that. We've been working on this for 4 years. It was slow at first but in the last few months we've improved our structure and plans, and are more quickly developing standards, acquiring hardware and installing sites. We have about a dozen direct users on the network but many more through repeaters/clubs. Please let me know if you have any questions, or if anyone is around Winnipeg we could organize tours etc for them. Small website: http://va4wan.ampr.org/ FB which updates often: https://www.facebook.com/groups/va4wan/

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Beacon Hill site online
by Tom Hayward 22 Oct '17

22 Oct '17

I finished up configuration of the sectors at the Beacon Hill site, so it is now 100% deployed. Those of you who were waiting can now try aiming your antennas. None of this has been tested yet, so please send in your reports. Tom KD7LXL

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HamWAN Fall Update
by Nigel Vander Houwen 19 Oct '17

19 Oct '17

Hello HamWAN, I’ve got a generalized fall update for everyone, and a large number of thanks to hand out for a huge amount of efforts folks have put in recently. We’ve got a new cell site at Beacon that has been physically deployed by a huge number of volunteers putting in quite a bit of time. Beacon isn’t quite online yet and available for connections, pending the team having time to configure the gear (but that’s fortunately not weather sensitive). I’d very much like to put out a huge thanks to the team who worked on deploying Beacon as listed here: Richards, Leon, Osborn, Chan, Kus, Sheppard, Maloy, Kingston, Hayward, Neals. If there are any I’ve missed, please forgive me, and know that your efforts have been hugely appreciated. We recently visited Baldi to get the site prepared for winter. We were able to get a new large battery bank installed on the UPS at the site to improve HamWAN’s runtime in the case of a power outage. A new PDU was installed so we have better visibility into power usage, and control of our devices on site. And to swap the broken Baldi camera, so here going into winter we have newly repaired visibility into the conditions up at the site. I’d like to thank Tom, Bart, and Bruce for their efforts up at Baldi getting us ready for winter. I was able to join Bart for a bit of one of a number of recent trips up to Haystack he has made in recent weeks getting the site prepared for winter. Additional solar panels have been added, as well as an experiment with a wind turbine, in the hopes of ensuring enough power availability over winter, so we can avoid the outages we saw this last winter. He has put in tremendous effort to rework the whole site’s power system to provide significantly better visibility into the power sources and sinks, as well as vastly improved control. A new PDU was also installed at Haystack which helps us better manage our PoE devices. I’d like to thank Bart for the massive amount of time he’s put into this effort, as well as his contributions in terms of acquiring the panels, turbine, and all the other supporting gear that’s gone into this retrofit. Hopefully we’ll be in far better shape on the power budget this winter. I’ve recently been primarily focused on building the new PDUs we’ve been deploying to the sites, and the board met earlier this evening to approve the expense for the PDUs going into these site improvements. They end up giving us quite a bit more visibility and control into our PoE powered devices. These PDUs take a number of man hours to put together, and I’d like to thank Bart for CNC machining the faceplates for me earlier this year, so I’ve been able to focus on the soldering and assembly of the end product. Work to get the state connected at Camp Murray is moving slow, but it is in progress. I’d also like to highlight some of our sister networks. Interior British Columbia ( http://www.hamwan.ca/ ) has a few sites online at this point. Really impressive progress. HamWAN Tampa Bay ( http://flscg.org/ ) suffered some minor damage knocking one of their cells offline during the hurricane, but that has since been repaired. Glad everyone is safe, and things are back online. Again, please forgive me if I missed any big progress/news from our sisters. Thanks again to everyone, whether you just follow the project, or have had a chance to come out and help with a deploy. Together we make HamWAN work. Nigel

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Certification
by John Semenec 19 Oct '17

19 Oct '17

Hi, I have installed my HamWAN router and am ready for certification. The callsign I will be using is VA7WS and connecting to the Black Knight Mountain node in Kelowna. WLAN MAC Address is 64:D1:54:52:B7:F3 John W. Semenec VE7JWS

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HUB mobile hamwan with WiFi hotspot working
by Robert Edmiston 15 Oct '17

15 Oct '17

I got my hamwan link Working from the historic Madison Park ferry dock in Seattle to Haystack with 1.8mbps down and 3.8 up. Then connected to a tplink WiFi hotspot and sent Winlink email from a laptop and email from an iPhone. Pretty darned happy with this new super power. Thanks Puget Sound Hamwan volunteers. Bob E. KG7UCL

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Madison Park Seattle HAMwan node?
by Robert Edmiston 11 Oct '17

11 Oct '17

Hi there. I'm Bob Edmiston, emergency hub radio lead for the Madison Park emergency hub. From a propagation perspective, the waterfront communities around Lake Washington have more in common with each other than their respective cities due to line-of-sight challenges. Waterfront communities share the luxury of direct line-of-sight radio communications, especially well suited to hamwan frequencies. My neighborhood on Lake WA falls in the hamwan shadow of the Washington Park hill, but we are line of sight to Kirkland and cougar mountain. Who could I speak with about the possibility of testing connections from Madison Park to the Eastside? Bob Edmiston KG7UCL 425-985-4182 Madison Park HUB

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Need DNS advise to connect to Hamwan
by Robert Edmiston 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

I have been able to connect my Microtik router to CapitolPark and ping Google.com from the Winbox terminal command line in the router, but I must be missing some DNS information. While the router appears to be able to ping sites, my laptop can't connect through the router or ping anything. I'm close, but can't quite connect. Could somebody please help me out by sending some things to try or give me a call? Bob Edmiston Madison Park HUB KG7UCL 425-985-4182

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Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Madison Park Seattle HAMwan node?
by Robert Edmiston 04 Oct '17

04 Oct '17

Hi Carl, Thanks for the thoughtful and thoroughly useful reply. It's great to see your setup and learn what specific gear you used and to hear how it's working. I'm sure I will need to adjust my expectations as I learn what hamwan is and is not capable of doing. Cheers, Bob Edmiston KG7UCL On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 8:09 AM, Carl <carl(a)n7kuw.com> wrote: > Was out of town for a few days when this thread was active. Am back now > and able to comment/contribute. > > > > This is the dish I bought and installed at my home. It is working very > well on a 23 mile shot to Gold Mountain. This is the dish only, see below > for radio/modem. > > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MG4UDAA/ref=oh_aui_ > detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 > > > > This is the Mikrotik radio/modem/router that I purchased, which is > designed specifically to work with the above dish (or vice-versa?). > > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GA0DMDQ/ref=oh_aui_ > detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 > > > > You will also need some length of outdoor/waterproof Cat5 network cable, > as well as the ability to power the dish (a power-over-ethernet adapter can > power the radio from 12 volt supply, you’ll need to build or buy a power > cord for it). > > > > The attached photograph is my complete installation, including the > mounting pipe (set in 60 pounds of cement). > > > > It is important to note a few things: > > 1. Follow the installation/setup instructions for programming the > router exactly. The slightest single character typo can result in it not > working (won’t hurt it, just won’t work). There are some very smart people > who can help you with that if you do make a mistake (I’m not among that > group – I needed help). > > 2. Alignment of the dish is precise. Adjustment of a small fraction > of an inch can take it from a good signal to no signal (the longer the > shot, the more true). I have literally spent hours fine tuning my dish for > as good a signal as I can get. I learned to leave it alone after a couple > of futile attempts to improve it. > > 3. A solid mount is essential. For disaster response, having a > portable tripod mount would probably be necessary, but it needs to be > strong enough to be rigid, and you need the ability to emplace it solidly > so it can’t move. > > 4. Nothing (absolutely nothing) can be blocking the line of sight > to/from the dish. A tree limb or leaves is enough to block your signal. > > 5. Dish needs to be positioned such that nobody should be able to > walk/stand in front of it for two reasons. First, it would block the > signal. Second, it exposes them unnecessarily to 5.8 GHz rf emissions (like > being in a directed microwave oven, but much lower power). > > 6. You can buy single polarity and dual polarity dishes and radios. > You probably want dual polarity. If you are shooting at a site that has a > dual polarity sector panel, the dual-pol dish should give you better > signal/bandwidth. The dish and radio linked above are dual. > > 7. Using an elevation profile on Google Earth can help you > determine if you really do have line of sight. The attached Haystack Path > illustration shows the path from my house to Haystack, and if you look > close there is a ridgeline a very short distance east of my house along > that path. The ridge has a ground elevation of 486 feet, and I’m at about > 445 feet, so I would need to have my dish 41 feet above ground elevation at > my house to use that path (if there was nothing on the ridgeline like a > tree, building or house that blocked the path, which there is). Thus, I do > not have LOS to Haystack even though I’ve got a 40 foot tower in my back > yard. The Gold Path picture shows I do (or at least should) have a path to > Gold Mountain. I do, just barely, have a peak-a-boo view because of trees > and houses around me that block most of the possibilities. The location of > my dish is the ONLY location on my property that works, and that is about a > foot in any direction amount of space where I can put the dish. > > > > Lastly, with regard to your specific interest – support of a hub – you > also need to consider the larger issue of what may or may not be available > in a true disaster situation. While HamWAN is pretty robust, there is no > assurance that any particular sight would remain intact. If you only have a > shot to one location (such as Haystack), and the sector panel you are > aiming at is mis-aligned or damaged from an earthquake, you don’t have > connection. Also, if HamWAN were to be isolated from the internet (a > possibility), then you would only have connectivity to some local servers > specifically installed to support emergency management, and there is not > yet any established plan or policy on how those would be managed, who would > have access to them, or even how they would actually be used. Most likely > they would not respond to normal web-browser or email client type > applications. So while I do agree fully with your idea/plan to get a dish, > set it up, get it working, and gain experience with it (that’s part of what > ham radio is all about), I caution you to set realistic expectations on > what you may accomplish with it in a true emergency or disaster situation. > If it will work for you in that scenario, it could be a powerful addition > to your “toolbox” of communication resources. > > > > Carl, N7KUW > > Seattle ACS > > > > *From:* PSDR [mailto:psdr-bounces@hamwan.org] *On Behalf Of *Robert > Edmiston > *Sent:* Tuesday, October 3, 2017 2:34 PM > *To:* Puget Sound Data Ring > *Subject:* Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Madison Park Seattle HAMwan node? > > > > Right, I just checked my canceled order, it was for the LHG-HP5, not the > US version. I look forward to hearing how it performs once we can get our > paws on one. > > > > On Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 2:29 PM, Tom Hayward <tom(a)tomh.us> wrote: > > Note that the LHG-HP5-US is not on the list, but the RBLHG-5nD is. You can > see the differences in the datasheet: > > https://www.streakwave.com/mmSWAVE1/Video/LHG_hp5xl.pdf > > The reason it's not on the list is because no one has had a chance to test > it because it's not available yet. Once it's available someone will need to > try it to see if it works. With other models, the -US versions have been > locked out of the ham band and not usable with HamWAN. This would be my > primary concern. > > > > Tom > > > > On Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 2:18 PM, Robert Edmiston <kg7ucl(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Correction. My order with Streakwave for the super lightweight LHG-HP5-US > dish was canceled because, according to them, it's new and won't be in > stock until early 2018. So, I had to go with the heavier and 3x more > expensive RB911G5HPnDQRT square flat antenna/router combo. Both were on > the recommended hardware lists so I expect it'll work just as well. After > a successful proof of function, I will likely order the lightweight dish > anyhow. I could have ordered it from Latvia, but shipping is $35 and a > money wire transfer comes with another $35 fee and who knows how long it > would take to arrive. I expect to be ready to try out a test in a week. > > Cheers and thanks for all the great info on the hamwan website. > > Bob > > > > On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 9:30 PM, Robert Edmiston <kg7ucl(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Thanks for all the info, I've ordered a MikroTik LHG HP5 unit which has > the dish and router in one. It's not the most sensitive of their > offerings, but it's affordable enough for an experiment to just buy on my > own dime, and it's light enough to move around easily. Let me know if this > is a bad choice. After it gets here, I'll try out your online > documentation to see if I can connect without having to pester anybody. > Thanks for putting this Puget Sound Ring together, I'm super excited to get > involved and contribute. > > Bob Edmiston, KG7UCL > > > > On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 4:26 PM, John D. Hays <john(a)hays.org> wrote: > > And there are people who will help out, if needed. > > > > On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 4:09 PM, Nigel Vander Houwen <nigel(a)nigelvh.com> > wrote: > > Bob, > > > > We have a list/comparison of compatible options. Please note that Ubiquiti > devices WILL NOT WORK on HamWAN. Mikrotik and Ubiquiti offer different > protocols NV2 vs AirMax, and HamWAN is built on NV2, so it’s Mikrotik only. > > > > http://hamwan.org/Standards/Component%20Engineering/Client%20Hardware.html > > > > Some of those options, like the Poynting grid antenna are difficult to > find these days, but there are a number of good options there. Once you > have a setup, we also provide instructions for getting it configured. > > > > http://hamwan.org/Standards/Network%20Engineering/Client% > 20Node%20Configuration.html > > > > And of course you can post here on the mailing list, or join us on chat > http://webchat.freenode.net/?nick=HamWAN..&channels=%23HamWAN > <http://webchat.freenode.net/?nick=HamWAN..&channels=#HamWAN> for > additional info/help. > > > > Nigel > > > > On Oct 2, 2017, at 15:56, Robert Edmiston <kg7ucl(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Hi Tom, > > Thanks for the quick response. That would be super if I could reach the > Haystack site. Our little community would be quite cut off without power > in the event of an earthquake or even something as common as a heavy snow. > My hub team is investigating solutions for emergency comms beyond feebly > attempting to use voice to convey ICS-213 forms. It sounds like you have > something great working already and I'd love to see if it could work for > us. > > > > I'd like to see if it would work at all, with minimal investment. We have > a community council with funds to buy equipment if a proof of concept test > works out. What would be your recommended kit for seeing if we could make > contact? From your online PowerPoint docs, I've read that the Microtik > hardware is super hard to configure, but that the Ubiquiti is far easier to > set up for people who are not network transport layer engineers. > > Bob > > > > On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 3:37 PM, Tom Hayward <tom(a)tomh.us> wrote: > > Bob, > > What is your goal? Your location on the west side of the lake should > be well covered by the Haystack site (at 4000' above Sultan). This > will give you routing to all other HamWAN users. > > Tom KD7LXL > > > On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 3:27 PM, Robert Edmiston <kg7ucl(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi there. I'm Bob Edmiston, emergency hub radio lead for the Madison > Park emergency hub. From a propagation perspective, the waterfront > communities around Lake Washington have more in common with each other than > their respective cities due to line-of-sight challenges. Waterfront > communities share the luxury of direct line-of-sight radio communications, > especially well suited to hamwan frequencies. > > > > My neighborhood on Lake WA falls in the hamwan shadow of the Washington > Park hill, but we are line of sight to Kirkland and cougar mountain. Who > could I speak with about the possibility of testing connections from > Madison Park to the Eastside? > > Bob Edmiston > > KG7UCL > > 425-985-4182 > > Madison Park HUB > > > _______________________________________________ > > PSDR mailing list > > PSDR(a)hamwan.org > > http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr > _______________________________________________ > PSDR mailing list > PSDR(a)hamwan.org > http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr > > > > _______________________________________________ > PSDR mailing list > PSDR(a)hamwan.org > http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr > > > > > _______________________________________________ > PSDR mailing list > PSDR(a)hamwan.org > http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr > > > > > > -- > > > ------------------------------ > > John D. Hays > Edmonds, WA > > K7VE > > > > <http://k7ve.org/blog> <http://twitter.com/#!/john_hays> > > > > > _______________________________________________ > PSDR mailing list > PSDR(a)hamwan.org > http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > PSDR mailing list > PSDR(a)hamwan.org > http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr > > > > > _______________________________________________ > PSDR mailing list > PSDR(a)hamwan.org > http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr > > >

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