May 2020 - PSDR - mailman.hamwan.org

Lower 45 MHz of 5.9 GHz to go license-exempt
by Steve Stroh 02 Dec '20

02 Dec '20

https://www.fcc.gov/document/chairman-pais-remarks-new-59-ghz-band-proposal -- Steve Stroh (personal / general): stevestroh(a)gmail.com

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Mikrotik Firewall
by Rob Martin 29 Aug '20

29 Aug '20

Greetings, I have been writing a lot of Mikrotik Firewall rules lately. I know I am getting better at it, but the more I know, the more apparent it is that there is a lot more to learn! I have questions about how best to use the Mikrotik Firewall. The lines below are to illustrate the issue, and are not comprehensive. Also, I have used extra spaces to make it easier to see what I am doing. Let’s say I want to block a list of address ranges, in this case (some of the) Bogons, those non-routable addresses that should never be the src-address of any incoming traffic from outside my network. For whatever reason, traffic from Bogons shows up anyway. First, add the addresses to the address-list. /ip firewall address-list add address=10.0.0.0/8 list=Bogon add address=172.16.0.0/12 list=Bogon add address=192.168.0.0/16 list=Bogon Technique #1 – Drop incoming Bogon traffic in the Firewall Filter. The determination as to whether the traffic is arriving through the tunnel, and whether its src-address in on the Bogon list is performed twice, once for chain=input and again for chain=forward. /ip firewall filter add chain=input action=drop in-interface=Tnl src-address-list=Bogon add chain=forward action=drop in-interface=Tnl src-address-list=Bogon Technique #2 – Mark the incoming Bogon traffic prior to routing using Firewall Mangle – chain=prerouting - then drop it in Firewall Filter with two simpler rules. A single Firewall Mangle rule will mark everything in one rule. That is all it does. The two Firewall Filter rules that follow only have match the packet-mark. /ip firewall mangle add chain=prerouting action=mark-packet new-packet-mark=Bogon_from_Tnl passthrough=no src-address-list=Bogon in-interface=Tnl /ip firewall filter add chain=input action=drop packet-mark=Bogon_from_Tnl chain=forward action=drop packet-mark=Bogon_from_Tnl I think both of the above techniques will achieve the same result, blocking Bogon traffic arriving through the tunnel. Questions: 1. Which method is better, and by better I think I mean, which has the lowest impact on the performance of the router? 2. Does the answer depend on the number of the Bogons in the address-list? 3. Does the answer depend on where in the Firewall Mangle list the Mangle rule is positioned? 4. Does the answer depend on where in the Firewall Filter list the Filter rules are positioned? 5. Is there a way to measure any of this quickly with simple tools, and on a limited budget? Who out there is a Firewall expert?!! Rob K7QJ

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Ups and Downs
by David Jenner 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

My connection (K7DCJ-Buck) has been down for a few minutes a couple of dozen times in the last two days. Is the source of this known, or is it at my place? 73, Dave K7DCJ

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CAT5 cable tester
by Bart Kus 29 May '20

29 May '20

HamWAN is in the business of deploying lots of long CAT5 cables, terminated by amateurs, in remote locations. We often have a hard time getting the terminations right. In the worst cases, the problems are only discovered once the cables are installed on a tower, and need to be re-terminated up there. A method of testing the cables before installing them would save us headaches and speed up deploys. Can someone volunteer to lead an effort to research the market and select an appropriate cable tester? HamWAN would then purchase at least 2 of these, and keep them with folks who are doing site deploys. Here are some requirements I'd like the tester to meet: 0) The tester is a reliable quality device. 1) Ability to detect proper shield termination, since we use shielded CAT5 to keep RFI down. 2) Ability to report performance characteristics of the cable, beyond a simple pass/fail LED. 3) Ability to operate in rainy conditions. 4) Battery powered, preferably rechargeable. 5) UI friendly to color-blind people. :) Additional requirement suggestions welcome. --Bart

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Rattlesnake Mountain volunteer call
by Bart Kus 22 May '20

22 May '20

Hello, Sorry for the short notice, but if anyone feels like helping out on Rattlesnake Mountain (near North Bend) this Saturday with installing some microwave and networking, please reach out to me. We're starting @ 9:30AM and expect it to take all day. Thanks, --Bart

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Whatcom County Instalations
by Andy Sayler 19 May '20

19 May '20

Good Afternoon, Name here is Andy,kf7vol. I have been helping a series of ham get the necessary gear as well as configure and install here in the county. I wanted to reach out to your team and see if there was anything else needed once I get these sight set up on your network. One item that we haven't been doing and I would like to do is get them posted to your network map. At this point I have four that I would like to get uploaded. I see that someone had a URL to access the device through a web portal. Do these have to be created on your end? While we are here I was wondering if your team had an antenna pointing solution other than looking at the signal in winbox? That method does work I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a better way out there. Sorry for the baroque of questions I just felt it was high time that I reach out and make sure I was doing a proper job of setting up these sights. Thank you for your time! -- *Andy Sayler, Head Monkey | Keyed Up/Oil Can Garage.* Down The Street | Lynden, WA 98264 | mobile (360) 319-7417

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Scripting help needed
by Rob Martin 06 May '20

06 May '20

Hello, I would appreciate some assistance in writing a script to run in a Mikrotik router. I am trying to get a remote Mikrotik router to phone home by establishing an ovpn tunnel. I am able to deliver my local IP address to the remote router, and store it in its firewall address list. My local IP changes occasionally. The ovpn tunnel setup does not seem to have a way to directly use a variable for the connect-to address. I need help with a script to perform this. Here are details of the project: 1. Add an entry to the list to simulate a separate process that adds entries automatically. I have the this part working already. /ip firewall address-list add list=K7QJ address=97.11.22.33 2. Add the following ovpn tunnel to simulate an earlier entry in the router setting up the tunnel. This is a slightly edited version of a working tunnel. /interface ovpn-client add add-default-route=yes certificate=cert_export_client_QJ.crt_0 cipher=aes256 comment="Tunnel to K7QJ TS " connect-to=12.34.56.78 **** placeholder IP disabled=yes mac-address=00:11:22:33:44:55 name=Tnl_K7QJ password=abcdefg user=K7QJ_A 3. Here is where I need help..... Create a script that will scan the address list, locate the entry K7QJ, and put the address value (97.11.22.33) in a variable. 4. Add lines to the script that will edit the above tunnel setup as follows: connect-to=97.11.22.33 **** where the IP is recovered from the variable disabled=no **** and the tunnel goes live. Thanks for any help you might be able to offer. Rob K7QJ

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Any plowing people / companies that can shove some snow?
by Bart Kus 04 May '20

04 May '20

Hello PSDR, With the snow almost melted, I'd love to open up site access. This usually doesn't happen until June, but I'd like to shave a few weeks off this year if possible. Does anyone know how I might get some snow plowing done along some mountain road? Thanks for any pro-tips! --Bart

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Recommended settings for IP video on HamWAN
by B.J. Guillot 04 May '20

04 May '20

I want to make sure I'm being respectful of HamWAN network bandwidth, so figure I'd shoot this note out to the group. Does anyone have suggestions for what video settings I should use for a Grandstream GXV3500 streaming device? Primary video stream options: - *Preferred Video Codec*: H264 (or MJPEG) - *Resolution*: D1 704*480 (also lesser resolutions available, but this is already SD quality) - *Bit Rate*: 1024 kbps (lower options are 768, 512, 384, 256, 128, 64, 32, 16) - *Maximum Frame Rate*: 30 fps (other options are 25, 20, 15, 13, 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) - *Bit Rate Control*: CBR (constant bit rate) or VBR (variable bit rate) -- the default in CBR, but I figure this should probably be VBR for HamWAN, happy to hear opinions - *I-frame Interval*: 50 (choose between 1-100) Purpose of what I'm trying to do: The local Amateur TV net has a group of people using Grandstream devices to send video to the repeater for those of us who are not in a good position to transmit RF to it. Grandstream users are starting to outnumber users capable to sending video RF, so I'm looking to find a way to make it still feel like it's "ham radio" for those of us sending video over the Internet. Utilizing HamWAN to do this feels like a way to keep the ham radio spirit alive in ATV. If you can't point your 70 cm yagi at the ATV tower and send NTSC because of your location, at least you can point a dish at a HamWAN sector and send the IP video that way since there are more sector locations to pick from and we're still using a 5.9 GHz amateur radio frequency to do it. I can power-down the Grandbox box when I'm not using it (nets are only 2 hours a week), so I don't think the network load will be high, but there's always the possibility I might forget to disconnect the power, and I don't want to waste X kbps of bandwidth if there's a way to utilize less in the event of an error. The box uses RTSP, which I believe is not encrypted, so should be "legal" for HamWAN according to what I know. If this is not the case, please let me know ASAP. I'm connecting into the SnoDEM/Paine sector. I don't have a clear line of sight and typical bandwidth is only about 1 Mbps (sometimes a little less; sometimes with packet loss), though on one or two occasions when the stars aligned I managed to get 3 Mbps. More info on the local ATV net: http://bgfax.com/atv Regards, Burt Guillot - N7CS Marysville

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Looking for beta testers: Aim Tool for Mikrotik app for iOS and Android
by Herb Weiner 01 May '20

01 May '20

Aim Tool for Mikrotik is an app for iOS and Android. It uses SNMP to monitor the wireless signal strength to facilitate aiming a Mikrotik Node. It provides continuous audio and visual feedback of the signal strength. Upon release, it will be available for no charge from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. I am looking for a few serious beta testers who are willing and able (in these times of social distancing) to test the app and provide feedback. No special provisions are required to test the app on Android. To test on iOS, you will need to send me the UDID of the iOS device on which you will be testing. Please refer to https://www.wikihow.com/Obtain-the-Identifier-Number-(UDID)-for-an-iPhone,-… <https://www.wikihow.com/Obtain-the-Identifier-Number-(UDID)-for-an-iPhone,-…> . Thanks for your attention. Herb Weiner, AA7HW

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