I bought a Microtic Sextant G-5HPnd combination dish and receiver at a silent key sale today. Can I use it to get into the CapitolPeak Ham Wan system? Lee Chambers Ki7ss
Lee, The sextant should be compatible, the key factor for you is going to be signal strength. The sextant doesn’t have a terribly large antenna, and 5.9GHz is very line of sight. A couple trees is probably fine, lots of trees or a landform in the way will be a no-go. If you have line of sight to one of our cell sites, certainly give it a try. Nigel
On Aug 26, 2017, at 19:59, Lee Chambers <ki7ss1@gmail.com> wrote:
I bought a Microtic Sextant G-5HPnd combination dish and receiver at a silent key sale today. Can I use it to get into the CapitolPeak Ham Wan system?
Lee Chambers Ki7ss _______________________________________________ PSDR mailing list PSDR@hamwan.org http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr
Thanks. I'm pretty low, but just maybe there's a shot between the distant hills. What should I look for? Lee
On Aug 26, 2017, at 8:20 PM, Nigel Vander Houwen <nigel@nigelvh.com> wrote:
Lee,
The sextant should be compatible, the key factor for you is going to be signal strength. The sextant doesn’t have a terribly large antenna, and 5.9GHz is very line of sight. A couple trees is probably fine, lots of trees or a landform in the way will be a no-go. If you have line of sight to one of our cell sites, certainly give it a try.
Nigel
On Aug 26, 2017, at 19:59, Lee Chambers <ki7ss1@gmail.com> wrote:
I bought a Microtic Sextant G-5HPnd combination dish and receiver at a silent key sale today. Can I use it to get into the CapitolPeak Ham Wan system?
Lee Chambers Ki7ss _______________________________________________ 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
Capitol Peak has about a dozen towers, so if you can see a hill with a bunch of towers that's probably it. Here are the instructions for configuring the Sextant: https://hamwan.org/Standards/Network%20Engineering/Client%20Node%20Configura... Tom KD7LXL On Sun, Aug 27, 2017 at 10:23 AM, Lee Chambers <ki7ss1@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks. I'm pretty low, but just maybe there's a shot between the distant hills. What should I look for?
Lee
On Aug 26, 2017, at 8:20 PM, Nigel Vander Houwen <nigel@nigelvh.com> wrote:
Lee,
The sextant should be compatible, the key factor for you is going to be signal strength. The sextant doesn’t have a terribly large antenna, and 5.9GHz is very line of sight. A couple trees is probably fine, lots of trees or a landform in the way will be a no-go. If you have line of sight to one of our cell sites, certainly give it a try.
Nigel
On Aug 26, 2017, at 19:59, Lee Chambers <ki7ss1@gmail.com> wrote:
I bought a Microtic Sextant G-5HPnd combination dish and receiver at a silent key sale today. Can I use it to get into the CapitolPeak Ham Wan system?
Lee Chambers Ki7ss _______________________________________________ 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
PSDR mailing list PSDR@hamwan.org http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr
Here is one approach to see if you have even a little chance of connecting. Use Google Earth. First plot the location of Capitol Peak. The coordinates are 46.9730333, -123.1382166. Second, plot the coordinates of your location. Put a placemark at both locations. Now using the ruler tool draw a straight line between the two locations and save it. Then right click on that line and select elevation profile to see if you have line of sight. See attached screen captures (don't know if attachments will go through, I'll try). In the third attachment, you see the elevation profile for the path I was considering. It won't work because there is a much higher peak in between Capitol Peak and the location I was interested in (Inspiration Point on the side of Mount Rainer). The arrow shows where that peak is along the path, and the elevation profile shows that isn't the only obstruction, there are a few other peaks also in the way. Another elevation profile attached is from my house in NW Seattle to Gold Mtn. On that you can see that there is clearly a good path, no obstructions along the way. I just have to find a location on my lot that doesn't have trees blocking the view (which is its own challenge). Carl, N7KUW -----Original Message----- From: PSDR [mailto:psdr-bounces@hamwan.org] On Behalf Of Lee Chambers Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2017 10:23 AM To: Puget Sound Data Ring Subject: Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Node question Thanks. I'm pretty low, but just maybe there's a shot between the distant hills. What should I look for? Lee
On Aug 26, 2017, at 8:20 PM, Nigel Vander Houwen <nigel@nigelvh.com> wrote:
Lee,
The sextant should be compatible, the key factor for you is going to be signal strength. The sextant doesn’t have a terribly large antenna, and 5.9GHz is very line of sight. A couple trees is probably fine, lots of trees or a landform in the way will be a no-go. If you have line of sight to one of our cell sites, certainly give it a try.
Nigel
On Aug 26, 2017, at 19:59, Lee Chambers <ki7ss1@gmail.com> wrote:
I bought a Microtic Sextant G-5HPnd combination dish and receiver at a silent key sale today. Can I use it to get into the CapitolPeak Ham Wan system?
Lee Chambers Ki7ss _______________________________________________ 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
PSDR mailing list PSDR@hamwan.org http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr
One more suggestion, again using Google Earth - zoom in on your location after you have plotted the path to Capitol Peak, and look where that line lies on the ground in your immediate area. That is where you have to look to see if you have LOS. Again, see attached for an example. My house is in the lower center of the picture and the path to Gold (in my case) is in red. If I go out in my back yard and stand where the red line crosses my property and look in the direction of that red line, I should see Gold Mtn. Next, I "rotated" the Google Earth view down so I could basically see where that red line was pointing, and found that same location. Second picture attached shows the actual view I have compared to the Google Earth view I should have. Bingo! I've got LOS. I took a good set of binoculars and could see all the towers on Gold, confirming I'm looking at the correct place. (But I've been to Gold many times, so knew where it was anyway.) You can do the same thing for your shot. Good luck. -----Original Message----- From: PSDR [mailto:psdr-bounces@hamwan.org] On Behalf Of Lee Chambers Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2017 10:23 AM To: Puget Sound Data Ring Subject: Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Node question Thanks. I'm pretty low, but just maybe there's a shot between the distant hills. What should I look for? Lee
On Aug 26, 2017, at 8:20 PM, Nigel Vander Houwen <nigel@nigelvh.com> wrote:
Lee,
The sextant should be compatible, the key factor for you is going to be signal strength. The sextant doesn’t have a terribly large antenna, and 5.9GHz is very line of sight. A couple trees is probably fine, lots of trees or a landform in the way will be a no-go. If you have line of sight to one of our cell sites, certainly give it a try.
Nigel
On Aug 26, 2017, at 19:59, Lee Chambers <ki7ss1@gmail.com> wrote:
I bought a Microtic Sextant G-5HPnd combination dish and receiver at a silent key sale today. Can I use it to get into the CapitolPeak Ham Wan system?
Lee Chambers Ki7ss _______________________________________________ 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
PSDR mailing list PSDR@hamwan.org http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr
There are also some great online tools that are great for this sort of analysis. My favorite is Radio Mobile Online which draws from three different databases for analyzing a given path. http://www.ve2dbe.com/rmonline.html
participants (5)
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Carl -
Ed Morin -
Lee Chambers -
Nigel Vander Houwen -
Tom Hayward