Kingsley, I agree that others' experiences at 5GHz are relevant datapoints regardless of whether they are RF compatible protocols, albeit no guarantee. I noticed your desire for "general home internet usage" comment; you should be aware that it is not legal to use encrypted communications on amateur radio frequencies (HamWan uses the 5GHz ham band for client connections), which nearly all websites today do (TLS/SSL encrypted traffic, indicated by the "https" and padlock symbol showing up in your browser address bar) as well as any VPN connections you may do. Thus, my ARES team uses HamWan for UNencrypted communications, specifically Winlink email and DMR ham hotspots, and it performs very well for such emergency communications. Cheers, Stephen W9SK -----Original Message----- From: Kingsley G. Morse Jr. <kingsley@loaner.com> Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2021 5:27 PM To: Stephen Kangas <stephen@kangas.com> Cc: 'Puget Sound Data Ring' <psdr@hamwan.org> Subject: Thanks for the info (Was: A non-line of sight connectivity vendor replied) Hi Stephen, Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. I find I often benefit from other peoples' points of view, and unless I'm mistaken, now is one of those times. I was unaware Ham WAN uses a proprietary RF protocol from MikroTik. You asked how other vendors' equipment might be relevant. Maybe you know better, but it seems to me that another tech, at least in theory, might let people whose line of sight to a 5GHz Ham WAN tower is blocked by trees to reach it. But, maybe we agree, there remains the issue of installing compatible gear next to the 5GHz Ham WAN tower. In theory, I can imagine connecting the 5GHz Ham WAN gear on Lookout Mountain to tree piercing FreeWave gear with something like an Ethernet cable. But even if that's technically possible, Greg at FreeWave candidly revealed their throughput is limited to around 1.5Mbps for a single point to point link, which isn't going to be fast enough for general home internet usage. I suppose other unknowns are how wide their antenna's angle is, and how many 1.5Mbps users the cost could be shared by. Thanks again for freely sharing your thoughts! Kind regards, Kingsley On 07/24/2021 20:37, Stephen Kangas wrote:
Hi Kingsley, Please clarify for me what relevance the comments from your below vendors have to do with 5GHz HamWan.
In case you aren't already aware, I understand that HamWan here in the PNW requires MikroTik equipment because HamWan uses their proprietary (read: not available from anyone else) RF protocol. Therefore, comments from other manufactures or their vendors about their capabilities should have little relevance. What should matter is what MikroTik and their experienced installers say about link path interference, and our PNW HamWan install experts say that trees in the LOS path interrupts the signal. Tests that I and another HamWan buddy of mine have performed with our portable client MikroTik equipment seems to bear that out. I have a single cedar tree top that used to be in my fixed home QTH path from the Rattlesnake sector 2-3mi away, and moving my fixed client antenna up on a taller mask to clear the tree for direct LOS now makes it possible for me to get acceptable performance for WinLink email and my DMR hotspot.
If I'm missing something here (which I well may be), please inform me.
Stephen W9SK
-----Original Message----- From: PSDR <psdr-bounces@hamwan.org> On Behalf Of Kingsley G. Morse Jr. Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2021 8:13 PM To: psdr@hamwan.org Subject: [HamWAN PSDR] A non-line of sight connectivity vendor replied
I asked GNS Wireless, RadioLabs and FreeWave Tech. if their gizmos could reliably communicate between
a.) A HamWAN antenna on Lookout Mountain and
b.) computer users living in a treed neighborhood roughly a mile away.
Greg Corey at FreeWave Technologies replied
"We specialize in long-range, non-line of sight connectivity for industrial processes. We can most likely achieve a link to the locations you described but the connection speed would be very slow. Our maximum throughput is around 1.5Mbps for a single point-to-point link. Generally speaking, this isn't going to be fast enough for general home internet usage."
The others didn't reply.
I hope that helps, or is at least interesting.
Comments welcome.
So, Kingsley
-- Time is the fire in which we all burn.
_______________________________________________ PSDR mailing list PSDR@hamwan.org http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr
_______________________________________________ PSDR mailing list PSDR@hamwan.org http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr
-- Time is the fire in which we all burn.