I'm a rank newbie who took in Andre K6AH's presentation at the Yuma Hamfest. I'll be returning to Canada in 4 weeks with a side trip to San Diego in a few days. I'd like to take home two 2.4 stations suitable for setting up a 6 mile experimental point to point circuit. I've done some searches of the website materials as well as other on-line sources but remain confused with respect to best choice for two "inexpensive" but effective units. Depending on cost differential, a 120 degree sector antenna would be appropriate for one end of the link (high ground, WL2K V/UHF hub).
Identification of a San Diego retailer would be helpful
73,
Ian VA3QT/W7
520.238.9900
va3qt4@gmail.com
I am aware of only one retailer in San Diego that has some units on the shelf, but its not a wide selection and last I looked it had a decent makeup over online sources. I'm not aware of any other vendors in the San Diego Area but there could be and I just haven't heard of them.
http://www.we-supply.com/search.htm?searchterm=ubiquiti&searchmode=all&s...
They don't carry the NSM2 (only the NSML2) which is my normal "go-to" 2.4 GHz Device.
They also don't appear to have the rocket, and they certainly do not have Sector antennas needed for putting up "major" (mid mile or mountain top/backbone nodes as Andre called them) nodes with 120degree (-6db) beamwidth.
There are also some good deals back here in Canada.
One authorized supplier is in Quebec.
You can also find several local (Ontario) deals on eBay.
Contact me for details or help.
Matt
VE3OY
73,
VA3QT
73, Bob ve3cwu at rac dot ca
You need to be sure to source the International version of the UBNT equipment.
If you are looking to do a dual chain point to point I would pick up two Rocket M2 devices and two Rocket 2 dishes.
You inquired about sectors. This type of antenna is made for a Point to Multi Point, Think about a cell tower connecting to several cell phones. You may be close enough at 6 miles to make a link in between two sectors if both units are high enough above average terrain.
If a single chain link will fit your needs you can save some money by using Bullet M2 Devices and two 2ghz grid dishes.
You can order international equipment form
FlyTech Computers Doral, FL (305) 471-5142
Or
ISP Supply in Houston Tx (855) 947-7776
If you have any issue getting equipment from them you can call me at Gulf Coast Broadband Morgan City La 985-384-7040 and I han have it drop shipped to you from my UBNT wholesaler.
To order international equipment you will need to provide a copy of your ham license to all vendors.
73
Sam Rock K5MOB
K5MOB
Joe
After this we started ordering all international equipment for our Ham Mesh projects!
K5MOB
We have been publishing downgrade instructions for over a year now.
Heck I even still periodically see NIB hardware coming out from distribution on US devices that are old enough the issue doesn't exist. I put odds your hitting the same and since INTL gear likely flushes much slower through USA dealers they just haven't caught up to a firmware update yet.
http://www.aredn.org/content/software
In summary, check it with our AREDN U-Boot Test utility and if necessary, downgrade to the AirOS 5.5 (links provided) and then you can upgrade to AREDN.
On a related note, I found a post in a 3rd party forum a couple months ago. It claimed the failure was actually in OpenWRT bad definitions of the flash layout as the root cause. ubuiquiti had reportedly only fixed a defect in the bootloader, probably a check to not allow loading a kernel with missmatching flash definitions--a good thing to avoid corruption. It just happened to work previously by accident with miss-matching definitions with the older bootloader version. Not sure if this is correct, will have to inspect further--should be an easy fix if this is the case instead of the current workaround.
Joe AE6XE
Some will assume this was to stop 3rd party firmware but it equally could have been done as a protection against a number of the Ubiquiti firmware overwrite viruses that were floating around at the time.
I've (as part of my AREDN development testing) have done this without changing the boot layout and gotten it to work. There are still a couple other items but really that was the main issue that prohibited firmware and caused the situation users thought it was bricked.
For what ever reason I remember having issues back dating some devices. I am going to have to try checking all the new UBNT devices as we get them to see whats up..
____________________________________________________
So please excuse my statement about the international equipment, just look for the best price on the equipment and your good!
K5MOB
http://www.aredn.org/content/request-testers-ubiquiti-xw-issues
and
http://www.aredn.org/content/development-code-branch-now-available