WA2KWR, Frank Columbus, and myself AE6XE, Joe Ayers, tested a 32 mile link.  The results exceeded our expectations.  Here's the write up and link to pictures including 32.5Mb live HD video file captured over the link (sorry no audio on the camera).

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wmcd8jfndw3p47w/AADpav22c7yOR1Urgx5A18L7a#/

Test Date: September 27, 2014

Test Time: From 1049 PDT until 1135 PDT.

Test Location:   Catalina Island, CA AVX Airport <-> Newport Beach, CA

Geographical Description and Equipment Used:

The link distance was 32 statute miles and WA2KWR dish was aimed 242 degrees TN.

The WA2KWR dish was a 29 dBi L-Com HG5829D configured for horizontal polarization and the radio was a Ubiquiti Bullet M5 Titanium. Located at a  small park near the intersection of Cliff Dr and El Modena Ave in Newport Beach with an approximate elevation of 70 feet MSL.

The AE6XE dish was a 30 dBi Ubiquiti Rocket Dish RD-5G-30 running vertical and horizontal polarization and the radio was a Ubiquiti Rocket M5.  Located at the NE side (nearest the coastal cliff) of Catalina Airport KAVX at an approximate elevation of 1550 feet MSL.

Frequency Used:

The test was performed running a 20 Mhz channel on CH 149 – 5.745 GHz. This was done operating under FCC Part 97, Amateur Radio Service

Results:

Initial Signal Readings:  –72 thru –76 dBm signal strength with ~20 dB SNR.

After antenna adjustments at the Catalina site (AE6XE): ~ -65 dBm signal strength with 23 db SNR

The HD video was impressive even with a few very short signal drop outs.

Other Technical Data:

Both ends were running Ubiquiti airOS 5.5.8. Both were in bridge mode where WA2KWR was the AP and AE6XE was the station. Both stations were  mounted using temporary tripods and were battery powered.

Note: This symbol “~” indicates an approximation.

On one end was the camera, in this case a ubiquit AirCam. On the other end was a laptop. Both these devices directly plugged into an adjacent Ubiquiti 'node' with a cat5 cable. The nodes were out-of-box running the Ubiquiti airOS operating system.

We could have loaded bbhn firmware on the 2 nodes and defined the camera as a service in setup--a 2 node mesh with same exact hardware setup. The performance (given the 802.11 protocol used) should be identical regardless if airOS vs. bbhn firmware.

This test shows we've not yet found the range limit of what this hardware can do for point-to-point line of sight under the following conditions:

• clear Fresnel zone
• over large body of water
• island 20+ miles offshore and no source of competing signals on that end