Hey everyone,

Just ordered a WRT54G router, and looking to setup a node.  Currently live off of exit 8 in Clifton Park in one of the apartment complexes.

Any tips or advice?

Jared, KD2DAS

Jared,

I'm going to be setting up a node in the near future; I'll be happy to share any interesting information that comes my way.

QRZ puts us at about 16mi away from each other; perhaps if I could configure a node at my office in Troy (at some point down the road) we'd have a shot at establishing a link.

In the short term, however, I'm going to start small with a 1W node here at home.

73

Mike

Sounds great mike! The more nodes we get up on the air, the better! I see the value in this technology, however am still confused as how contacts are made/what we can do with it. Are we essentially building a large network like in a house that I can share files on between computers? I will probably start small as well due to being in an apartment, and not having real estate to put up a high powered node. Thinking though I could put one up on the back deck with a high gain antenna, and maybe get through all the buildings/trees to KD2DLL's node in Rotterdam.

David,

You make a great point that ERP is definitely worth taking into consideration with high gain antennas.

If you have any links or reference material to pass along, that would be great -- I'll be reviewing my Handbook and Extra manual as well. Will report in when my node is online! :)

73

Mike

Node is online here in Clifton Park! Its just sitting here on my desk, but as far as I can tell it is online!

Just using the stock antennas as well on the 54g.

KD2DAS-1

All,

My Raspberry Pi node is on the air here in Averill Park. It's been running happily for a day or so now at 1W with the stock antenna. I'm hoping to add a 'real' antenna before winter (did I say that out loud?) but looking at some Splat! output, my location may not be that great for 2.4Ghz. I believe the Alfa Wifi USB adapter I have can do 2W output, but I haven't gotten around to fudging the network module configuration to do that.

$ iwconfig
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"HSMM-MESH" 
          Mode:Ad-Hoc  Frequency:2.442 GHz  Cell: EE:A9:05:D8:0D:AD  
          Tx-Power=30 dBm  
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on

I went with Scott Kidder's (KK6DCI) HSMM-Pi software for the Pi. It was easy to install and configure. Scott has a blog online here which has some interesting reading. I will probably add a GPS to the Pi node to provide NTP-ish services to any other nodes ... should I encounter them in the future!

http://hsmmpi.wordpress.com/

I should be bringing a node online in downtown Troy next week; that one will be a stock WRT54GS node, with no opportunity for improved antennas. I'll just try to get it as high up in the building as I can!

73

Mike K2MTS

K2MTS-1 and -3 are both online.

-3 is currently at my QTH for some testing, but will be moved to its permanent home in downtown Troy this week. Both have been added to the Google Map here on hsmm-mesh.org. I don't know how successful this particular location will be, but since it's a place I'm free to set up a node, I figure I may as well! If I can ever get it on the roof of the building, I will, however this is probably unlikely.

I have much more exciting plans for the -1 node, however... Where is -2, you ask? Coming soon!

73
Mike K2MTS