June 2020 - PSDR - mailman.hamwan.org

Board Election
by Marc Lacy 18 Jun '20

18 Jun '20

Good Morning. I would like to run for a position on the hamwan board of directors. I have been a supporting member for 2 years. 73 de KD7RYY Marc

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HamWAN Board Director Elections
by Marc Lacy 18 Jun '20

18 Jun '20

I vote yes for the following six candidates. Cory Johnson Rob Salsgiver Doug Kingston Tom Hayward Bart Kus Nigel Vander Houwen 73 de KD7RYY Marc

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Baldi Deployment Report: Part Deux
by Bart Kus 17 Jun '20

17 Jun '20

Better late than never! We visited Baldi instead of Rattlesnake last Saturday. Both sites were in rain, and Baldi had the easier set of tasks, so we opted for the safer option. Here's the work report: 1) Baldi has had a server so old for so many years that it's RAID drivers are no longer supported by HPE for management within ESXi. It's also had very little RAM (8GB) and drive space (RAID1 of 73GB drives). I took one of my spare servers to serve as a new hypervisor up there. It has 48GB RAM and 4x250GB SSD in RAID10 (500GB space). After install, I discovered iLO had somehow lost all the credentials I saved into it. It took all of Sunday to setup a special PXE environment + OS to finally gain control of iLO from the server side (not network side). Everything here is finally working as it should, and VMs will be migrated soon so we can decommission the old server. 2) The switch in "Building 2" at Baldi was full! We managed to install a new 24-port gigabit switch, pictured here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8a98D44dDxkeqJn37 This switch is important as it links "Building 1", and "Building 3". We also discovered the UPS powering all the repeaters and the network gear was overloaded. It would beep when things were transmitting. We re-arranged the load so that it's only backing up the network gear now, and the repeaters will need their own larger UPS. 3) We installed the shield on the CampMurray facing dish. Over the last week I noticed the VPol signal on the link was really low (-94dBm) whereas the HPol was just fine (-65dBm). Prior to shield install on the dish, I inspected the connectors for any water ingress. I did not find any. However, I did find what looked like crusty build-up on the center pin of the VPol RP-SMA-to-N adapter. This adapter was re-used from the old 3ft dish. That dish had a split-open HPol connector (likely caused by ice expansion), which I suspect allowed water to pool in the feedhorn and probably drip down to this adapter, causing it to build-up whatever this grey substance is. We did our best to clean up the connector with the tools at hand. After re-installing and re-aligning the dish, VPol is now reading -84dBm instead of -94dBm. While this is a 10dB improvement, there's still clearly a problem. We need to return with a new adapter, and a method to properly clean the female N connector on the antenna to remove any residue which might still be there. Possibly re-compress the pin if it was split open too much by the residue. Another thing which might be affecting VPol is misalignment of the corresponding dish at CampMurray. That dish was never aligned with Baldi for lack of ever hearing a signal. If it's severely off-axis in the horizontal, the VPol transmission might be getting shunted by its shield (conductive vertically when azimuth is off). Both things need to be addressed before this link can be considered done. 4) We had serious Ethernet link stability problems with the new Rattlesnake.Baldi dish. Its cable is routed just a few feet from an FM broadcast antenna, and several repeater antennas. We installed a 30m (100ft) run of multimode fiber to connect the Rattlenake.Baldi modem to the switch in Building 3. The link came up and has been rock solid. I also suspected there might have been water in the original RJ45 leading to these Ethernet link outages. This was inspected and the connector was found to be dry, so there's no worry of corrosion due to PoE voltage. While the cause of the CAT5 link failure is not known, I think we can narrow it down to either RFI or a bad crimp job on the tower-side connector. The shack-end connector was re-done twice with no change in link failures. Anyway, this modem is now happy with the fiber and has great signal to Rattlesnake (-55dBm)! Now let's hope for some nice weather for the next visit to Rattlesnake, which requires work at about the 150ft level of a tower. --Bart

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VOTE: RF Armor for CampMurray dish
by Bart Kus 12 Jun '20

12 Jun '20

Hello, We recently installed a replacement dish @ Baldi for CampMurray since the original dish there was damaged beyond repair. I brought a dish from my inventory "just in case" to serve this role, since I wasn't sure if we'd need to replace the existing dish until it was inspected. I didn't bring an RF Armor shield kit at the time though, due to the uncertainty of the situation. Now, however, we know that dish needs to stay and I discovered I have a new RF Armor kit in my inventory that I don't need (purchased for a different commercial project that didn't happen). This vote is to approve HamWAN purchasing that shield and installing it on that dish. Cost based on RF Armor ordered recently for Rattlesnake: $160 --Bart

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Portland uplink node
by Justin Roberts 12 Jun '20

12 Jun '20

I am still reading on some of the specs on the PSDR and understanding the operations so bear with me if I'm missing a section. I live in Portland near the airport in line of sight of Larch Mountain and I see Larch has recently come online to link the Portland area into the PSDN. I have gigabit public internet connection with the hardware resources to either integrate a secondary LAN or operate an uplink node. I do not currently have any connection to hamwan or the communication equipment but I wanted to offer my network as an uplink point. Am I understanding that I should purchase the equipment to get established established as a standard client node firstly then circle back to connect as an upilnk? Thank You, Justin W6UDF

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HAMWAN for EOC
by Shoreline ACS 10 Jun '20

10 Jun '20

I have been asked by our city Emergency Manager and the Assist. Fire Chief for a written proposal to install HAMWAN at Shoreline Fire Headquarters <https://tinyurl.com/yavdmuly> located at 17525 Aurora Ave N, Shoreline 98133, which also houses the City of Shoreline EOC. Project to include high gain roof top antenna / modem, network switch, two VoIP phones, one for the EOC radio room, the other for the Fire Department local dispatch/coordination room. Is there someone on your team who can work with me on this project? Also can you provide a list of existing EOCs that have HAMWAN capability and VoIP phones. Thank you John Slomnicki N7TPM Team Manager 206 949-1226 -- City of Shoreline <https://sites.google.com/a/w7aux.org/shoreline-acs/> Auxiliary Communications Service W7AUX <https://sites.google.com/a/w7aux.org/shoreline-acs/> [image: https://www.facebook.com/shorelineacs/] <https://www.facebook.com/shorelineacs/>

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VOTE: Rattlesnake HamWAN Site
by Bart Kus 08 Jun '20

08 Jun '20

Hello, I've been working recently on the Rattlesnake site and funding things out of pocket. I'd like HamWAN to assume the expenses and future ownership/maintenance of the items. I have itemized the total cost of the site here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1P_QE15Gj3UtxGh5JG6TgI1RdsY-7Gn0-idw… This installation spans 2 shacks on the mountain, and 2 towers. The north tower links to Haystack, and the south tower links to Baldi. The two shacks (and towers) are tied together via 60GHz microwave link and share a LAN. The site will provide 2 sectors worth of regional coverage. One sector bearing north, and the other bearing 120 degrees. The site will also feature a remotely controllable PTZ camera which will stream 24/7. All links have excellent signal quality. The items marked "Future Deploy" are scheduled for deployment this coming weekend. The other items are already deployed. Some of this hardware has already been expensed with HamWAN, other hardware was already owned by HamWAN and was re-assigned for use at Rattlesnake, and the remaining hardware I purchased out of pocket and haven't been compensated for yet. This spreadsheet GRAND TOTAL tracks the total cost of the site. *In terms of the remaining expenses for HamWAN and me to be square, that is only $1,120.* I have submitted a reimbursement request to the board for that amount, in parallel with this vote approval request. --Bart

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Inexpensive heavy-duty wall offset mounts?
by Nick Kartsioukas 08 Jun '20

08 Jun '20

I'd like to get a few masts up without drilling holes through my roof so I'm looking at offset wall mounts like https://www.bairdmounts.com/products/wireless/complete-list/Wall-Mounts/WL-… to clear the roof eaves. I don't feel like spending $200 per mount though. I'm looking to do 3 masts up, plus a length of unistrut across all 3 masts. Plan is to have a grid antenna for GOES, a discone, a 3' vertical for ADS-B, a Diamond X50NA, and a Mikrotik dish stuck way up high. If there are mounts that can support this that aren't $200/ea I'd be very happy. Otherwise I guess strapping the masts to the house and sticking them through the roof with boots is the way to go.

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Baldi deployment report
by Bart Kus 07 Jun '20

07 Jun '20

Hello, We deployed stuff @ Baldi today. First, the good news: 1) We installed the cable between the buildings, and got all of them on the gigabit LAN. 2) The 24-port switch for the middle building didn't arrive on time, so we're using the full switch that was there already. 3) We aligned the Beacon.Baldi dish and managed to get another 10dB of signal out of it now that it's focused solely on Beacon. 4) We got access points deployed into all the buildings. 5) We got the link to CampMurray working at last. The 3ft dish was discovered to be damaged and had to be replaced with a 2ft from my personal inventory. This will need an RF Armor shield, and an additional expense report for the Baldi deploy budget to cover the cost of the dish itself. Now for not great news: 1) The Ethernet link between the northernmost building and the new Rattlesnake.Baldi dish seems to be faulty. It was raining hard when we were installing this, so maybe there's water in the connector. It's also deployed pretty close to lots of VHF/UHF antennas, so maybe the RFI is killing the Ethernet. We need to go back on a dry day, hopefully with a cable analyzer, and examine the situation. If it's VHF/UHF RFI, then we'll need to run fiber to the modem. I have disabled the power to the dish for now, on the theory that water is causing PoE arcing at the modem contacts and we don't want that electrolysis process to continue. Power draw to the modem is not unusual, about 3.2W, although it has been observed to be quite variable at times, from 3W to 4W. 2) The AP in the northernmost building appears to have really bad performance. I had a hard time pinging it over WiFi from within the shack. Had to resort to using wired Ethernet to get any packets moving and work done. I've no idea the cause of this. Perhaps a spectrum scan is required. 3) The VHF DMR up there appears to have been static-IP configured and didn't migrate properly. We'll need some follow-up remote work to re-program the repeater for DHCP. I think that's everything noteworthy. --Bart

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VOTE: Gold to Buck PtP Link Hardware Request
by Kenny Richards 06 Jun '20

06 Jun '20

NOTE: I was informed that requests to spend money need to be posted to the PSDR reflector, as well as the BoD/NetOps per the bylaws. The board was favor of the purchase, but I'm reposting for wider input or concerns. Thanks Kenny ----Original Request----- BoD, I would like authorization to purchase the required hardware to complete the second PtP link for the Buck Mnt site, specifically the Gold Mnt side. When we did the Buck installation, a second PtP dish was put in place and pointed at Gold. (Using one of the sectors to align) The plan was to get the Gold side installed last summer, but the Lookout installation took priority. Now that we have access to Gold again, I'd like to finish the project. (currently Buck is fed by a link to CPark installed when that site was overhauled last summer) The dish/radio I had set aside for this was used for the recent Rattlesnake installation, so I need to purchase another. Using the figures Bart quoted, the following will need to be purchased. I believe I have enough ToughCable in the garage for the project. Rob has already acquired the pieces to create a mount. Existing Inventory Estimate: RB921UAGS-5SHPacD-NM modem 1 $150 $150 Existing Inventory Estimate: mANT30 2ft microwave dish 1 $120 $120 Existing Inventory Estimate: Sleeve30 2ft microwave dish isolation kit 1 $100 $100 Thanks Kenny

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