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AREDN in Washington D.C. - Smithsonian Institute NN3SI

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K9CQB
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AREDN in Washington D.C. - Smithsonian Institute NN3SI
Our Nation's Capital now has a few AREDN nodes hanging out on Smithsonian Institute's facilities. 
We've emplaced these nodes specifically in time for the Marine Corps Marathon. I'm sure Mark WA4KFZ will post about that later.
The Fairfax County EC, Brendan KM4HRR and I installed these nodes on the National Museum of American History. We used a modified Ubiquiti 120 degree panel with a Rocket M2 for tactical 2.4GHz coverage out to about 15 km south-southeast of the Mall (including the Mall). We also have a tiny 5Ghz MikroTik SXTsq5HPnD that shoots out to the west across the river and connects to 2 AREDN 5GHz nodes, one in Arlington and one in Crystal City. Both nodes sport the Smithsonian Institute's resurrected callsign of NN3SI, which in itself is very exciting. 

We need to give a shout out to the staff at the Smithsonian Institute for their diligence in getting these nodes up. Thank you John Weise N4NPG (also custodian of NN3SI callsign), Michael Carrancho KV4RC, and Mark Edney of SI.

-Damon K9CQB
K9CQB
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AREDN in Washington D.C. - Smithsonian Institute NN3SI
Here are the photos:
 
Image Attachments: 
K9CQB
K9CQB's picture
Final site checks for AREDN along the National Mall
Here is some of the AREDN crew walking the National Mall. They are doing some hearability and throughput checks for the AREDN network running in and around Washington D.C. before the Marine Corps Marathon.
I'm just posting this because it was taken at night and is such a cool photo of the fellas walking like 'Reservoir Dogs' down the Mall with a gorgeous shot of the US Capitol in the background. They have two AREDN nodes on a mast, a PowerBeam M2 and a NanoBeam M5 that you can faintly see are battery powered.

-Damon K9CQB

 
Image Attachments: 
W6GSW
W6GSW's picture
This is so cool!

Damon,

This is so cool!  Quite an accomplishment, congratulations.

We've spent quite a bit of time at various Smithsonian Institution museums and facilities over the years.  We used to visit each year for the Smithson Society Weekend activities.

73.


de Gary W6GSW
 

KM4DC
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Nice
Wow, thant's great. BZ to all.
Ai6bx
This is fantastic!
Will these nodes remain in place?
K9CQB
K9CQB's picture
We'll do our best to help the folks at Smithsonian to keep them.
AI6BX,
We would like to donate an entire suite of solar-powered AREDN node systems that could be installed on Smithsonian's rooftops. We will continue to try to work with them to see if they would like to make these nodes, and many other nodes, a permanent system on their facilities for their Emergency Operations Center. We will maintain that dialog with them even after the MC Marathon.
We think it would significantly help them in a time of emergency to have these solar-powered nodes linking them with high-bandwidth IP links. It would also connect them to the other AREDN links at the neighboring EOC's (Arlington, Alexandria, Ft. Washington, etc.).

-Damon K9CQB
Ai6bx
That would be
that would be fantastic! Let me know if you need any assistance!

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