Tom.
Here is a status update on my efforts at
accessing the Gold Mountain HamWAN. I went out with
my two MikroTik Metal 5SHPn transceiver modems, one of
my dishes, and a sector antenna this morning. I
tested from the corner of E Collins Road and Babydoll
Rd, at 47.548349, -122.5939, here in east Port
Orchard. From this location I can see the flashing
white beacon on Gold Mountain.
I
get a good signal on the mesh dish: -69 dBm. The
vertically polarized sector antenna (SA58-90-17-WB)
has 10 dB less signal, but the modem will "associate"
with the network. Pointing is not critical--I've got
about 15 degrees each way, a 30-degree sweep where I
have reasonable signal (around -80 dBm). This is at
ground level. It should work when I hoist it into the
trees behind my house.
I have two modems; one has a broken back-cover latch and
is on v6.12. It associates well, even on the sector
antenna. Unfortunately, I can't seal the back
connection because of the broken latch.
My other, water-resistant modem I updated from v6.12 to
v6.32.3. I did not do a full reset when updating the
client configuration from the HamWAN website. I could
not get this one to acquire an IP address from the
network, even on the dish antenna. I went back to my
hamshack (I was wet and tired and water was fritzing my
laptop keyboard!). I reset and reloaded this modem to
try again tomorrow. Does RouterOS firmware matter?
When I put the sector antenna/modem into the tree I will
use a rope on top from which to hang the combination
antenna/modem, and two ropes at the bottom of the sector
antenna (one on each left and right side) to steer the
antenna. I have shielded, outdoor CAT6 cable (Ubiquity
ToughCable Carrier) as a downlead.
We're hams, we experiment!
73 from Dan at K7MM
509 330 6398