I just tried to open aprs.fi and see what's going on with those "Ad Choice inserts". It turns out, if you just allow aprs.fi, you get an empty site. Below is a minimum list of domains to allow to make aprs.fi work:

1. aprs.fi
2. cloudfront.net
3. maps.googleapis.com
4. ajax.googleapis.com
5. gstatic.com
6. mt0.googleapis.com
7. mt1.googleapis.com
8. googletagservices.com

The website is also requesting googleadservices.com, doubleclick.net and googlesyndication.com which will pull two commercial banners for you, but you can go without them.

My point here is that websites nowadays are often more than just one single domain, they pull parts from all over the Internet (e.g. jscripts and maps from goole, some apps from facebook, etc.), so if you start blocking, things will often stop working.

One other possible approach is to allow (and make sure it works) only ham-related websites without bothering to cut the commercials, or making it fully compliant otherwise. This would be enough to not be interesting for general public, and other hams generally do behave. So as long as there is no conflict or service abuse, there will be no investigation from the FCC and everyone will be fine even when it's not strictly compliant up to the letter.

Hi all,

We have been working on building out a mesh network in our area and have been testing a 3 node setup. All are running v1.0.0 firmware and all mesh traffic is working perfectly. One node is the internet gateway and does provide inet to the mesh. However, I cannot seem to get any TCP port forwarding to work through the gateway node to a computer located on the gateway node LAN port. I have multiple entries in the port forwarding section to provide access of specific ports to the LAN computer.

It appears that the port forwarding is allowing UDP traffic through....just not TCP.

If I log into the mesh node via SSH, I can enter iptable entries into the terminal to allow traffic through, but they do not stay after reboot and seems to be a complicated solution to a simple port forwarding operation.

Any help or thoughts would be excellent right now....thanks.

Ken KD6PGI

Hood River County ARES

AEC - Digital

Folks:

I think it would be a productive activity to begin listing domains that are unambiguously "Part 97 friendy". Frankly IMHO if we cant figure out how to connect Broadband Hamnet to the public internet for some purposes 24/7 we have failed. In order to keep this from just being a drive by suggestion, I am going to throw out some domains how ever obvious they may be. We have got to start somewhere. I think it would be very good if BBHN eventually added a community-controlled and policed sanity list that could be pointed to by node firewalls on a default basis to automagically cover Part 97 internet access:

ALLOW LIST

aprs.net

aprs2.net

iaprs.net

echolink.org

irlp.net

KD2BVA says that aprs.fi should be totally open. While I strongly agree with the utility of that, I also believe that if we are to make aprs.fi "Part 97 pristine" we need to figure out how to punch out those Ad Choice inserts. Same thing with findu.com. Care needs to be take with this.

73

Bob KV4PC

I oversee communications for the Pony Express Trail 50/100, an ultra-marathon held along part of the original Pony Express trail in Utah's west desert each fall. This area is very remote. Most of it has no cell phone service. There is a 2 meter voice repeater that has good coverage of most of the course, so voice communications are not too difficult, and voice is sufficient for coordinating race operations. But relaying the runners' check in times from each checkpoint via voice to our communications center where they can be uploaded to the Internet is tedious and error prone. We have considered using packet radio, but there are no packet repeaters in the area and most of the volunteers that help with the event don't have packet equipment. So I decided to experiment with Broadband-Hamnet this year to see if it could be helpful in this setting.

I put a mesh node with a 19 dBi grid dish antenna and a 500mW amplifier at our communications center, which is at mile 16 on the race course and is also at the finish line for the race. (The 100 mile runners go out 58 miles and then turn around and come back 42 miles.) Thanks to a 3g amplifier/repeater with a yagi and favorable location, we have fairly reliable Internet access at this spot.

I placed another mesh node 17 miles away at the next checkpoint on the course. This one had a 24 dBi grid dish antenna and a 1000mW amplifier. Aiming the antennas was a challenge. The distance made it impossible to see one site from the other even though there was a clear line of sight. I should have brought a compass so we could look at a map and figure out the the bearings between the two sites. A pair of binoculars at each end might also have been helpful. We started with our best guesses and then adjusted each dish while keeping an eye on the S/N ratio shown on the Broadband-Hamnet web interface. This was a bit time consuming, but it worked and we got a reliable connection established. When night came we turned on a big floodlight at the communications center which was visible at the site 17 miles away. That let us confirm that the antenna there was aimed perfectly at the command center. So adjusting while watching the S/N ratio had worked pretty well.

The laptop at the command center was sometimes connected to the mesh network and sometimes connected to the cellular network for uploads to the Internet. I wanted to be able to upload data from the remote site at any time without worrying about the current state of the laptop, so I attached a Raspberry Pi to the mesh node at the communications center and used it as a file server that the remote node could connect to at any time. SSH would have been the easiest way to transfer files to and from it, but I couldn't find a way to disable encryption in SSH, so I set up Samba on the Pi and we used the unencrypted SMB protocol to transfer files.

The mesh network was used for 24 hours and worked almost flawlessly. There were a couple of brief periods when it slowed down, but I was too cold and sleepy at the time to try to diagnose why. I don't think the antennas had drifted out of alignment because the performance returned to normal a few minutes later. There are no homes or businesses out there, so we shouldn't have had interference from microwaves, cordless phones, or that kind of thing. But there is an army base a few miles away. Maybe they were doing something that occasionally gave us a little interference.

I was very pleased with the way Broadband-Hamnet worked for us. I plan to expand the network to cover more of the course at next year's race.

Just thought I would jot down a few notes about some experimenting I've been doing with the mesh.

Here is the scenario:

Mesh node atop 40' tower, surrounded by trees, power lines, and all kinds of other clutter. The "path" is also cluttered with trees that are over 75 feet tall. Trying to establish a connection with another node approximately 35-40 feet up at half a mile away.

The challenges are punching through (or bouncing around) the two-story houses in the area.

First tried using Omni's. Forget about it, not enough gain to get any distance at all. Tried using a parabolic and it was almost as bad as the Omni's. Since I am no expert on the matter the only thing I can deduce here is that the beam on the parabolic is too narrow and has no chance of getting "around" things.

Then tried a pair of 14Dbi, 23 Degree sector antennas. Results showed some promise as I was able to pick up a signal most of the way to the second node (I was in a van with dual mag-mount omni's on top). Still no signal at the second node location though.

Decided to try an experiment using an amplifier, but didn't feel like climbing all the way up the tower to install the new equipment. instead I decided to set up a quick node at about 25-30 feet (this way I could simply stand on the roof-top). Set up a couple of the sector antennas with one having an 8 watt amp on it.

Was able to get an intermittent signal at the second location. Since the parabolics seemed to be too narrow and the sector antennas didn't seem to have enough gain, I've ordered a couple of Yagi style antennas that have about the same horizontal beamwidth but with a bit more gain.

Some things to note, even without the amplifier from the 40 foot tower to a vehicle with a couple of mag-mount omnis I was able to get anywhere from .25 to .33 of a mile through the clutter. The amplifier only gained me a couple hundred feet of distance but feel it helped the "bounce" effect.

I know it is said that if you can't get line of sight, you can't get a signal. Technically this is true. But you also have the bounce effect which can never be planned nor counted on.

The moral of the story is. If at first you don't succeed, try something else. If that doesn't work, try another option. You'll be surprised how much you'll learn about mesh networking and 2.4Ghz propagation during your experiments.

I have two other Hams that are located between the two locations and could have contacted them and tried to get them to set up a node. But that would have been too easy and I may end up having to go that route, but I would much rather have the two nodes functioning, then go to them and say, "See how well this can work". With any luck we can get more Hams in the area interested in the technology and have them bring up some nodes themselves, then it will be a matter of getting these "clusters" all connected.

Have some more experimentation coming where their will be access to some taller buildings. Unfortunately we will still need to contend with the surface clutter (buildings & trees) to get the average Ham tower (30-40 feet) the proper set up to punch through and bounce around the clutter.

Just thought I would share some of the experimentation with everyone and hopefully give some people some ideas for their particular situations.

73's

Jess

KC9QEA

Trying to download the svn for the past couple of day (so that I can add some security and other features to it) -- but the server is down? does anyone have a tarred/gzipped version of the 1.00 release?

I'm kd8rbh from Delaware just north of Columbus. I have a node running V1.0.0 with a raspberry Pi server. Feel free to contact me if anyone world like to meet up and mesh.

Those who are interested in the Broadband-Hamnet effort in the Huntsville / Madison County area are invited to attend a meeting on Wends. 23 October 2013. This will be at the Huntsville / Madison County Public Library on Saint Clair Ave., Huntsville, Ala.

It will be in Meeting Room C which is on the second floor of the library and will start at 6:30 pm.  We will have the room until the library closes at 9:00 pm.

If you have a router, laptop, or other small pertinent item bring it along.

If you go back to the homepage and look at the left side menu, you will find under resources something titled "Applications for the mesh." This will get you started and off in a direction. Maybe try setting up an IRC client.  Take a look at the website.   There is tons of information on what you can do with a mesh network.