I'm happy to report a very successful use of HamNet with the San Juan Capistrano, CA RACES and CERT teams.    Joe Lopez WGBGR,  the local radio officer, myself, and several RACES members supported the San Juan Xmas tree lighting event.  This is an annual event which includes a high school marching band, singing groups, and much more through out the town center.    The tamales are my favorite.  

With a combination of cams, nodes, trucks, poles, and cat5 cables (with special note to Don KE6BXT for loaning equipment), we assembled everything just in time.  The purpose was primarily to introduce HamNet as a technology for use to the city. 

They are reverse polarity TNC- just search for RP-TNC adapter on ebay.

(although, it will be cheaper to just buy a Ubiquiti Nanostation M2.  You'll be much happier with it and it comes in an enclosure, with a gain antenna, 600mw output, and performs much better)

What are the specific size of the "n" connectors on the back of the linksys wrt54g routers and where can you buy like 3 or 4 foot lengths from your weather proof box to the antennas like mounted on the tri pod design? If I can get a cable with same connectors on each end made up then when I build my verticle antenna I can get the right size connector. Thanks for the help...any on Ebay? or Amazon already made up?

73's

I tried searching for an answer to this, but couldn't find anything definitive.  Is there a procedure for doing firmware updates on remote nodes?  It seems the firmware update is easy, but after the flash the node needs to be completely reconfigured, which requires either wired or wifi access from a computer.  Is there some other way of doing this so that the config isn't wiped and the remote node remains in the mesh and not need reconfigured from scratch?  How are people managing firmware updates with a large mesh?

I am glad to hear you finally got connected. In the case that other people have the same problem, what did you do to solve the issue you were facing?

You've just made that small step into the relm of mesh, friend! There is still a lot to learn. In my opinion, installing an IRC server is a more difficult task than streaming video. If I were you, start with video, then move to an IRC server, and then onto VoIP (at times, not necessarily for the faint of heat).

However, if you want to start with an IRC server (the first thing I did when I got into mesh), take a look here: http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/applications-for-the-mesh/118-internet-relay-chat-irc.html

During testing, you should connect locally to each node (thru its LAN port) just to make sure that each node is properly configured to communicate with your laptop via ethernet.  In production, once you have connected to your local node through its ethernet port, you can "pass through" it to reach any other node on the mesh by clicking on the Mesh Status button, then clicking on the name (or IP address) of the other node.

Hi guys! A bunch of us in Ottawa and Gatineau are working on getting Broadband Hamnet nodes set up. We now have links running between Aylmer, Kanata and downtown Ottawa.  I've put them on the map:

http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/gmap.cfm

We also have a web page with some information about what we've set up so far:

http://ve2zaz.net/BBHN-Ottawa_www/

We'd love to have you join us!

73, Clayton VE3IRR

I was wondering if an open RF output (i.e. no antenna) would cause the Rocket M2 transmit stage to fail. Or would it be prudent to attach an RF load while the Rocket is powered up?

I would not like trashing a Rocket M2 unit just because it needed an antenna and I neglected to attach one while changing the firmware from airOS to BBHN.  Make sense?

A new BBHM 3.0.0 node is now operating in midtown Albany. The K2ALB-CENTRAL node utilizes a Ubiquiti Bullet M2 HP into an 18 db gain whip antenna. The setup is at the top of the elevator penthouse of a three story commercial building with a generally unobstructed view so an omnidirectional pattern should be achieved. The node is at low power in a testing phase but is expected to be turned up to full output next week.

Remember, to communicate with the node your device must be on the 3.0.0 firmware. 

Coordinates are: 42.665107 N, 73.77317 W or roughly at the intersection of Central Ave. and Quail St.

Reports are greatly appreciated. A quick screenshot of your node's connection and your exact location would be very helpful as we try to figure out the coverage. Send reports to km2o@arrl.net

Thanks

Dave KM2O

The San Diego group will be meeting again on Monday, 12/8.  Due to building security, we will be gathering in the lobby at 7pm and moving to a conference room at 7:05.  If you are not in the lobby by 7:05, then send me an email at callsign@arrl.net and we'll have someone let you in.

Qualcomm Bldg Q,

Sorrento Valley

6455 Lusk Blvd.

See you all at 7pm.

Andre, K6AH

Joseph, You can install the firmware and run the initial setup using wifi or ethernet. Once you've completed steps 1-4 of the installation procedure, you have a working mesh node, and you can only connect to the node via ethernet cable. Even though you see "BroadbandHamnet-20-v3" in the list of wifi SSIDs, you cannot connect to any of the nodes from your laptop while using wifi because the nodes are using a different wireless protocol that is only compatible with other nodes.

My theory is that even though you had an ethernet cable hooked up from your PC to the router, you still had wifi enabled on your PC and actually were using wifi instead of ethernet to install the firmware and do the initial setup. Hint: during steps 1 and 2, the SSID of the router would be "Linksys", and you would connect to the router at http://192.168.1.1. During step 3 and 4, the SSID would be "MeshNode" and you would connect to the router at http://localnode:8080. After you complete step 4, the SSID becomes "BroadbandHamnet-20-v3" and you can no longer connect via wifi because the node is using the mesh protocol, so "http://localnode:8080" will return a "not found" error.

Since you have completed steps 1-4, you have a working mesh node. You cannot connect to the node except via Ethernet.

1. Disable your wifi connection

2. Enable your ethernet connection. Configure the TCP/IP properties to use DHCP

3. Connect an ethernet cable from your PC to one of the LAN ports on the node

4. Make sure that you have an IP address in the 10.x.x.x range by opening a command prompt and enter the command IPCONFIG.

5. Open a browser and enter http://localnode:8080

6. The login name is "root". Enter the password that you setup during the installation process.

If you are talking about using a Raspberry Pi micro computer with a USB wifi adapter and making it work with the various Broad Band Hamnet (BBHN) networks may I suggest:

https://github.com/urlgrey/hsmm-pi

As Conrad said, what the developers support on this site is mainly Linksys and Ubiquiti gear.