Thanks for the data point Alan, So the QRT 5AC is an AC device confirmed to work with HamWAN. Thanks a lot, this gives me hope that some of the other newer AC devices might also be compatible. 73, Chris On 4/22/23 10:04, Alan Dieringer [WX7L] wrote:
Back in Sept. 2021, I decided to connect with HamWAN's Puget Sound Data Ring (PSDR) in order to have Winlink capability in an emergency. Based on HamWAN's PDF comparing various devices that shows the QRT 5 ac along with many others http://hamwan.org/Standards/Component%20Engineering/Client%20Hardware/antena... <http://hamwan.org/Standards/Component%20Engineering/Client%20Hardware/antena... I decided to investigate if the QRT 5ac would work on the PSDR. Flytec Computers had it in stock and the salesperson assured me it would work or they would take it back and refund my money.
So I purchased a MikroTik QRT5ac flat panel antenna and had it operational on HamWAN's Puget Sound Data Ring (PSDR) using the guidance on http://hamwan.org/Standards/Network%20Engineering/Client%20Node%20Configurat... and Dan K7MM Ransom's Feb. 2016 video http://hamwan.org/Standards/Network%20Engineering/Client%20Node%20Configurat... demonstrating how to use the guidance.
When I first turned it on, I found that within about 48 degrees of bearing the antenna was picking up three HamWAN sites: Gold (19 miles); Buck (30 miles) and Blyn (42 miles). Cloud cover on the Buck Mt. site Line of Sight (LOS) frequently reduces the signal strength to such a degree that it is dropped from the "scan" list. Depending on the weather and clouds, the QRT 5ac picks the best signal at any particular moment which was generally Gold. So Gold was the site which I kept the QRT 5ac pointed at. After Gold and Blyn were decommissioned, I pointed the QRT 5ac at Buck and Winlink messages would transmit within a few seconds even in bad weather. I did not keep the QRT 5ac on continuously as my primary interest was having emergency communications.
Be sure to order the "International" version and not the "US" version.
73 Alan WX7L
P.S. Below is an email to Nigel K7NVHon my Sept. 26, 2021 PSDR experience. My thanks to Nigel for generously volunteering to Elmer me. The email contains information from the QRT 5ac via the WinBox operating software utilizing the "/interface wireless scan 0" and "/interface wireless monitor 0" commands. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: <WX7L@winlink.org> Date: Sun, Sep 26, 2021 at 1:05 PM Subject: QRT 5ac Signal Reports for radio-name: S2.Blyn/K7WAN; Buck-S2/K7WAN; and, Gold- To: <nigel@nigelvh.com <mailto:nigel@nigelvh.com>> Cc: <wx7l@westseattlearc.org>
Nigel, The clouds rolled in over Gold Mt., so I thought I would see what sort of connection I could get with Buck. While swinging the QRT 5ac further north I found another signal and locked onto it. I then checked the signal in WinBox and found I was connected to S2.Blyn/K7WAN and getting a much better tx/rx rate than with Gold. Below is the information for Blyn, Buck, and Gold. These were taken within the past half hour. If you have the location and radio information for the Blyn site I would appreciate it. 73 Alan
admin@WX7L-Gold] > /interface wireless scan 0 Flags: A - active, P - privacy, R - routeros-network, N - nstreme, T - tdma, W - wds, B - bridge ADDRESS SSID CHANNEL SIG NF SNR RADIO-NAME ROUTEROS-VERSION A RT B E4:8D:8C:F1:6D:22 HamWAN 5900/5/an -82 -109 27 Gold-S2/K7WAN A RT B C4:AD:34:D3:8D:8C HamWAN 5900/10/an -80 -111 31 S2.Blyn/K7WAN A RT B 64:D1:54:98:2F:21 HamWAN 5900/10/an -86 -111 25 Buck-S2/K7WAN
*[admin@WX7L-Gold] > /interface wireless monitor 0 radio-name: S2.Blyn/K7WAN* status: connected-to-ess channel: 5900/10/an wireless-protocol: nv2 tx-rate: 21.6Mbps-10MHz/2S/SGI rx-rate: 13Mbps-10MHz/2S ssid: HamWAN bssid: C4:AD:34:D3:8D:8C radio-name: *S2.Blyn/K7WAN* signal-strength: -81dBm signal-strength-ch0: -83dBm signal-strength-ch1: -84dBm tx-signal-strength: -78dBm tx-signal-strength-ch0: -82dBm tx-signal-strength-ch1: -80dBm noise-floor: -111dBm signal-to-noise: 30dB tx-ccq: 48% rx-ccq: 32% authenticated-clients: 1 current-distance: 68 wds-link: no bridge: no routeros-version: 6.47 last-ip: 44.24.245.1 notify-external-fdb: no radio-name: S2.Blyn/K7WAN
[admin@WX7L-Gold] >
[admin@WX7L-Gold] > /interface wireless scan 0 Flags: A - active, P - privacy, R - routeros-network, N - nstreme, T - tdma, W - wds, B - bridge ADDRESS SSID CHANNEL SIG NF SNR RADIO-NAME ROUTEROS-VERSION A RT B E4:8D:8C:F1:6D:22 HamWAN 5900/5/an -86 -107 21 Gold-S2/K7WAN A RT B 64:D1:54:98:2F:21 HamWAN 5900/10/an -76 -112 36 Buck-S2/K7WAN RT B C4:AD:34:D3:8D:8C HamWAN 5900/10/an -90 -112 22 S2.Blyn/K7WAN
*[admin@WX7L-Gold] > /interface wireless monitor 0 radio-name: Buck-S2/K7WAN* status: connected-to-ess channel: 5900/10/an wireless-protocol: nv2 tx-rate: 21.6Mbps-10MHz/2S/SGI rx-rate: 14.4Mbps-10MHz/2S/SGI ssid: HamWAN bssid: 64:D1:54:98:2F:21 radio-name: Buck-S2/K7WAN signal-strength: -78dBm signal-strength-ch0: -81dBm signal-strength-ch1: -81dBm tx-signal-strength: -78dBm tx-signal-strength-ch0: -80dBm tx-signal-strength-ch1: -82dBm noise-floor: -111dBm signal-to-noise: 33dB tx-ccq: 38% rx-ccq: 38% authenticated-clients: 1 current-distance: 48 wds-link: no bridge: no routeros-version: 6.42.6 last-ip: 142.250.69.202 notify-external-fdb: no radio-name: Buck-S2/K7WAN
[admin@WX7L-Gold] > [admin@WX7L-Gold] > /interface wireless scan 0 Flags: A - active, P - privacy, R - routeros-network, N - nstreme, T - tdma, W - wds, B - bridge ADDRESS SSID CHANNEL SIG NF SNR RADIO-NAME ROUTEROS-VERSION A RT B E4:8D:8C:F1:6D:22 HamWAN 5900/5/an -70 -109 39 Gold-S2/K7WAN A RT B 64:D1:54:98:2F:21 HamWAN 5900/10/an -80 -112 32 Buck-S2/K7WAN
*[admin@WX7L-Gold] > /interface wireless monitor 0 radio-name: Gold-S2/K7WAN* status: connected-to-ess channel: 5900/5/an wireless-protocol: nv2 tx-rate: 7.2Mbps-5MHz/2S/SGI rx-rate: 3.6Mbps-5MHz/1S/SGI ssid: HamWAN bssid: E4:8D:8C:F1:6D:22 radio-name: Gold-S2/K7WAN signal-strength: -71dBm signal-strength-ch0: -73dBm signal-strength-ch1: -75dBm tx-signal-strength: -71dBm tx-signal-strength-ch0: -74dBm tx-signal-strength-ch1: -74dBm noise-floor: -108dBm signal-to-noise: 37dB tx-ccq: 38% rx-ccq: 21% authenticated-clients: 1 current-distance: 31 wds-link: no bridge: no routeros-version: 6.43.4 last-ip: 172.217.14.206 notify-external-fdb: no radio-name: Gold-S2/K7WAN
[admin@WX7L-Gold] >
=========================================================================================
*P.P.S. Here is some additional information on the radio sites and from where I purchased my QRT 5ac:*
*Google Maps for Blyn Radio Site: *https://www.google.com/maps/place/Blyn+Radio+Site/@48.006345,-122.972436,231... <https://www.google.com/maps/place/Blyn+Radio+Site/@48.006345,-122.972436,231m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xdc9d4176b55add1a!8m2!3d48.0062919!4d-122.9729022?hl=en-US>
*WX7L QTH to Blyn Radio Site *
Latitude: 48.00625 Longitude: -122.972917 Locator: *CN88MA31GM <https://k7fry.com/grid/?qth=CN88MA31GM&from=CN87TM38HV>* (map <https://k7fry.com/grid/?qth=CN88MA31GM&from=CN87TM38HV&t=n>, sat <https://k7fry.com/grid/?qth=CN88MA31GM&from=CN87TM38HV&t=s>, terrain <https://k7fry.com/grid/?qth=CN88MA31GM&from=CN87TM38HV&t=t>, hybrid <https://k7fry.com/grid/?qth=CN88MA31GM&from=CN87TM38HV&t=h>) Distance from *CN87TM38HV* - *68.087 km* (42.31 mi) ** Bearing ~ *320.32°* (reverse bearing ~ 140.32°) Midpoint - lat: 47.772071 lon: -122.679586
* WX7L QTH to Gold Mt.*
Latitude: 47.547743 Longitude: -122.804514 Locator: *CN87ON31 <https://k7fry.com/grid/?qth=CN87ON31&from=CN87TM38HV>* (map <https://k7fry.com/grid/?qth=CN87ON31&from=CN87TM38HV&t=n>, sat <https://k7fry.com/grid/?qth=CN87ON31&from=CN87TM38HV&t=s>, terrain <https://k7fry.com/grid/?qth=CN87ON31&from=CN87TM38HV&t=t>, hybrid <https://k7fry.com/grid/?qth=CN87ON31&from=CN87TM38HV&t=h>) Distance from *CN87TM38HV* - *31.217 km* (19.4 mi) Bearing ~ *272.37°* (reverse bearing ~ 92.37°) Midpoint - lat: 47.542679 lon: -122.596593
*Bearing Degrees from WX7L QTH to Gold Mt Less WX7L QTH to Blyn Radio Site * 320.3 - 272.4 = 47.9 *Note: *I became interested in the flat panel antennas because Ian KE7MAP Gallagher and Kevin KI7HRC Gow had brought in their HamWAN nodes to club breakfasts several years ago, which were smaller than mine and very portable. I also read the test results of WA7ONY using the predecessor QRT model from various locations (see http://www.stargazing.net/david/sdr/HamWAN.html) in Oregon and southern Washington. It seemed like the newer model would be a good choice for both portable operations and also for linking to Gold Mt. which is 19 miles from my QTH. I was amazed when I linked 42 miles to Blyn.
Mikrotik QRT 5 ac dual chain 5GHz outdoor flat panel 24dBi antenna with built in routerboard International Version https://mikrotik.com/product/RB911G-5HPacD-QRT
https://flyteccomputers.com/mikrotik-rb911g-5hpacd-qrt currently out of stock
I purchsed from FlyTec for $167.99 + $25.04 tax = $193.03 and received it in about a week
https://www.streakwave.com/mikrotik-rb911g-5hpacd-qrt-5ghz-qrt-720mhz-24dbi-... $164 buy International version not the US version
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