Howdy,
Some friends and I are looking in to the feasibility of a fairly large-scale deployment of AREDN for our area. The primary challenge is that the entire region is mountainous with lots of draws, valleys, rises, pans and more. To add to the fun, we are surrounded by millions of acres of public lands (USFS, BLM, and Wyoming F&G). On the one hand, we would like to do this to aid search and rescue and other emergency services. On the other hand, have a local mesh network to use for both emergency and routine communications appeals greatly to the self-reliance advocates in our region. And then there are those who simply enjoy technical challenges.
We decided to standardize on the Mikrotik platform for our prototypes and proof-of-concept deployment. We have worked out the details for low-cost solar power and batteries, etc. and there are plenty of private land owners willing to allow repeaters to be installed on their land, should we "go big."
What I'm looking for in advice on how best to deal with deploying AREDN in a region where line-of-sight is often a challenge. Cost control, user friendliness, and whatnot are all considerations.
I'm sure I should provide more detail, but I'm simply not sure what to include in this post.
Thank you in advance for anyone willing to advise this Gen Class HAMmer about AREDN for our community.
Happy trails!
--Eriks
P.S.: I'm in Dubois, Wyoming-- our ZIP code is geograpically larger than the entire state of Rhode Island, but we have only 1,411 year-round residents.
Some friends and I are looking in to the feasibility of a fairly large-scale deployment of AREDN for our area. The primary challenge is that the entire region is mountainous with lots of draws, valleys, rises, pans and more. To add to the fun, we are surrounded by millions of acres of public lands (USFS, BLM, and Wyoming F&G). On the one hand, we would like to do this to aid search and rescue and other emergency services. On the other hand, have a local mesh network to use for both emergency and routine communications appeals greatly to the self-reliance advocates in our region. And then there are those who simply enjoy technical challenges.
We decided to standardize on the Mikrotik platform for our prototypes and proof-of-concept deployment. We have worked out the details for low-cost solar power and batteries, etc. and there are plenty of private land owners willing to allow repeaters to be installed on their land, should we "go big."
What I'm looking for in advice on how best to deal with deploying AREDN in a region where line-of-sight is often a challenge. Cost control, user friendliness, and whatnot are all considerations.
I'm sure I should provide more detail, but I'm simply not sure what to include in this post.
Thank you in advance for anyone willing to advise this Gen Class HAMmer about AREDN for our community.
Happy trails!
--Eriks
P.S.: I'm in Dubois, Wyoming-- our ZIP code is geograpically larger than the entire state of Rhode Island, but we have only 1,411 year-round residents.
It's not ideal, nothing is going to be ideal for this geographic area. Does anyone have experience making a string of Omni antennas on the same channel who can share what that was like?
Ed