Hello SF-Bay Meshers,
I'm a newby to this AREDN mesh stuff, but very interested in the possibility of installing a node or two in Livermore or the surrounding area if there is a good place to put one. It seems like a node on the top of one of the buildings downtown would have a fairly good reach in the easter Tri-Valley area - or better yet would be something on the top of Morgan Territories, on a peak near Del Valle, or a peak just west of Pleasanton. Anyone have any plans for something along those lines? I haven't joined any clubs here since I moved here 3 years ago - probably should do that to get a pulse on AREDN here.
Would you recommend a 2, 3 or 5 GHz Ubiquiti unit? It seems the 2 GHz unit would have a limited life span with crowding and only a couple of channels.
I'm proficient with Python, C and the Raspberry Pi using Twilio, Flask, and Ngrok for text-based control. It would be interesting to couple that with a node somewhere. I'm just testing the waters now.... I was looking into 900 MHz LoRaWAN since the power consumption can be very low, albeit short bursts of data. However, that has a way to go in this area as there's not many nodes, it's not a mesh, and there's no confirmation that a message is received. It's interesting though.
Thanks,
Dave K3GX
Welcome Dave. Livermore would be a great spot to create a mesh island. I have a fellow ham friend who lives there and I’ve been trying to get him happening. I know of another ham in Tracy who wants to get a mesh group started.
Go to W6BXN.org and check out the San Joaquin Valley Mesh Group for an example of what could be done. I’ve been a member for just a year now and they are a very active group. The Backbone is 5.8 Ghz and you may want to consider that over 900Mhz. There is some interest in Stanislaus County ARES to begin a mesh island there but I haven’t seen the critical mass gather.
And finally, if you want to create a mobile infrastructure capability (2.4 Ghz & 5.8 Ghz) you could join this meetup group which has also just turned into an official ARRL Amateur Radio Club called Land Ops. I run the Northern California chapter. YouTube search “Land Ops Mesh Off The Grid”
Dave
A 2.4 GHz node just went up downtown on 2nd St. I'll mark in on the map but it's at "The Switch". There are about 6 of us working to get nodes up and yours will be appreciated. AD6KV-RG
We have a technical group meeting at The Switch / Robot Garden (meet up) Tuesdays at 7PM.
The Livermore Amateur Radio Klub is active - www.livermoreark.org
ad6kv@arrl.net
Aredn Node
AP model: Powerbeam M2 400 dish antenna
Frequency: 2.4
Channel: -2
Channel Width: 10 Mhz
Software Version: 3.20.3.0
Node Output Power: 28dBm
Antenna: Built in Dish 400 MM
Memory: 64 MB DDR2
Antenna Pattern: Dish Directional
Antenna Gain: 18 dBi
Antenna Height: 20 feet
Location: Valley Trails (Near Pleasanton DMV & Pleasanton Sports Park)
Location GPS : 37.6776063 -121.9088418
City: Pleasanton
Node Call sign: KK6FFZ-Pleasanton-DMV
Airlink Planning software: https://link.ubnt.com/
Airlink https://link.ui.com/#p=44b94869a7ad491b8e4b67835c0905fb
Heading: 85.02°
Magnetic Heading: 71.76° (Towards Robot Garden)
Tilt: 0.2°
Orv W6BI