During last weekend's 10 GHz and Up contest, I was chatting with Don, N0YE, and he informed me that there was some mesh activity going on in the Boulder area. That piqued my interest, as I have enjoyed experimenting with mesh and ptp links over the years, so I finally got a chance yesterday, on my way home from work, to stop at a location in Douglas County that has a great view to the northwest towards Boulder, and setup a Ubiquiti Bullet HP with Yagi and see what luck I would have with establishing a connection to the mesh node at NCAR, in Boulder. It ended up being no problem at all making that connection. I just pointed the Yagi at the Flatirons (those nice slanted rock outcroppings near Boulder) and the Ubiquiti Bullet connected right away. The 38 mile path that crosses over the western section of the Denver metro area was an easy one.
I noticed all of the nodes that appeared on the mesh status page had MeshChat and/or HamChat installed, so of course, I thought I would connect to those and leave some messages. I tried a couple of them and I could never connect to either of them. The LQ and NLQ percentages looked decent enough, so it seemed like I should have no problems. Then, it dawned on me that I probably had my max distance setting set to far less than 38 miles. Sure enough, it was at 15 miles, from previous testing. So, I changed it to 40 miles, and after that, the MeshChat and HamChat programs came right up and all was well. When roving with a station, it is always good to remember to check that max distance setting and set it to match the current situation.
Above, is the simple roving setup. A Ubiquiti Bullet HP, Yagi and tripod mast, with the battery, inverter, PoE injector and laptop in the car. This the view from Daniels Park in Douglas County looking northwest towards Boulder.
73,
Gary
WB5PJB
I noticed all of the nodes that appeared on the mesh status page had MeshChat and/or HamChat installed, so of course, I thought I would connect to those and leave some messages. I tried a couple of them and I could never connect to either of them. The LQ and NLQ percentages looked decent enough, so it seemed like I should have no problems. Then, it dawned on me that I probably had my max distance setting set to far less than 38 miles. Sure enough, it was at 15 miles, from previous testing. So, I changed it to 40 miles, and after that, the MeshChat and HamChat programs came right up and all was well. When roving with a station, it is always good to remember to check that max distance setting and set it to match the current situation.
Above, is the simple roving setup. A Ubiquiti Bullet HP, Yagi and tripod mast, with the battery, inverter, PoE injector and laptop in the car. This the view from Daniels Park in Douglas County looking northwest towards Boulder.
73,
Gary
WB5PJB
Thanks
KD0DFN Clint
Wayne, W0ARP, got his mesh node up and operating from Elbert County on Saturday, and he can get into our mesh node at Silver Heights in Castle Rock, as can I, so we are starting to test various communication methods, such as video, file transfers, VoIP, etc. It would be great if we could get some folks in Highlands Ranch setup with active mesh nodes. I know you have a pretty strict HOA there, but there are several options that are very discreet.
I will be in touch.
73,
Gary
WB5PJB