Can the Tenda model AP4 be used with AREDN?
New and trying to set up AREDN in N. Al. We have a few interested hams and have no equipment yet.
aa4yb
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Sorry, not currently supported and does not look it could ever be supported It's wireless chip is a "Ralink RT2820L, 2T3R". The AREDN modification to extend into Part 97 freq happened because we have access to the open source code base to the Qualcomm Atheros chipset. Assuming there is open source code available for Ralink, a big 'if', there still wouldn't be a compelling reason to support this device. Check out the Ubiquiti AirRouters, very low cost to do the same and supported.
Joe AE6XE
Tnx,
I had it lying around and thought ;I'll ask.
Larry aa4yb
Joe,
What Ubiquity equipment would you recommend for a group of four hams to start with?
We would us it in a 2 or three block situation at a street entertainment/ arts/craft situation before tackling
a few miles.
Larry
aa4yb
Larry, you have an ideal situation to evaluate mesh - short distances :-) At those distances, pretty much anything would do - Nanostations, either M2 or M5 would work fine, and you could re-purpose them for home QTHs when the street fair is done.
HOWEVER - it's all about line of sight - you need to ensure that you have that - otherwise no equipment will work well.
And, what kind of traffic are you going to move? Good quality links are essential for video, lesser quality links will work for voice, and pretty much any link that will stay up will carry text traffic. Often times getting the services up is as much of a challenge as getting the nodes linked. Test in the garage first before deploying :-)
Orv
W6BI
Each month here the local club participates in what is called "First Fridays". We are invited to set up our tent in the middle of a four block single street affair of music, arts/crafts along with representatives of such as fire dept , Coast Guard Aux etc, We have HF vhf and uhf radios for the public to see operate in real time. We want to integrate the system into the local EMA once they see how it can be used for communications. We are thinking video and digital traffic for interest and demonstration. The affair is growing into 90 deg. off-streets and we would eventually include those streets. We work very close with the EMA and we want to show them the potential for emergency use,
TNX
AA4YB
5Ghz gives the most flexibility of channel options (finding a slot away from any local noise) at the best pricing. Here's an example of a current ebay option:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ubiquiti-Networks-NanoBridge-M5-X-4-Used/152808...
I've seen groups have great success with used equipment, it keeps on ticking. This is <$50 per unit, but doesn't provide POE brick. We've seen new 5-packs for as low as ~$64/unit complete with POE. Keep an eye out and hopefully, we're not all bidding against one another on ebay :) . Don KE6BXT just recently picked up a 10-pack to use locally here in the area and sells at cost to interested mesh'ers. Everytime there is a mesh presentation, the crowd is eager, interested, and all his inventory drys up.
Depending on lay-of-the-land, you may not all be able to link up with only dishes, unless location lines up with the dish coverage area. One or two of you might need a NanoStation M5 in addition or instead to have a wider coverage area that multiple people can connect to. Planning out for the future, the dish would link up to a tower or mountain top hub site and a 2nd NanoStation is used to provide local coverage.
When you get to the point of considering hub or cell sites, the cost goes up and start considering a Rocket M5, then you can tailor the antenna depending on the need in the area. Generally this is an omni or sector for area coverage. I've started to buy the PBE-M5-620 for the P2P links, it comes within ~3dB ERP of the Rocket-RocketDish combo for a lot less $$.
Joe AE6XE
TNX Joe,
I will keep an eye out on Ebay and if you see anything else that would suit our adventure let me know.
We have a line of sight condition
Thanks
aa4yb