From various locations in Frederick you could connect to the 5 GHz MAIPN broadband backbone network (either via Braddock Heights, Damascus or possibly Gambrill Mountain). This supposes you have a location with a line-of-sight view to one of those spots. We can check easily enough if you supply lat/lon and height AGL. This will generally require a mounting spot 80-100 feet AGL to clear trees or, in some wide-open locations with a view of the horizon, a lower perch will do.
The MAIPN network reaches Bull Run Mountain (Virginia) which also has a node of the NOVA Mesh. We could program some port forwarding (or a VPN connection) between the MAIPN network and NOVA Mesh by way of some routers that are already in place. A similar network gateway arrangement would be required at the Frederick end.
Are you planning an AREDN mesh within, or around, Frederick itself?
Hi Mike,
I'll echo Ken's comments above. Tell us a little more about what you have going or planned in Frederick and we can see how we can work something out. I don't see anything on the AREDN map on this website.
Ben N4CV
Altitude: 321 meters
Surrounded by big trees, with no real opening to anything.
Problem 2:
Looking to provide IP coverage for the MD Horse trail site-
Loch Moy Farm, LLC 1235 Park Mills Rd, Adamstown, MD 21710, USA Latitude: 39.265977 | Longitude: -77.43441
Altitude: 98 meters
Local area net is kind of easy ...
Problem 3:
Getting anyone in Frederick interested in playing in the sand box. Keith has fought for MAIPN a long while. It would be very nice to get some things hooked up and working around here. I wanted to reach out to the Elk's clubs to see if any hams might be interesting in adding the club locatioin to available networks.
let me know your thoughts.
location 1 would have great access to the town of Fredericksburg if you could just put something up higher than the trees. I know this is easier said than done. But these wifi antennas are not large so the support wind-load requirements are minimal.
location 2 - can you clarify what you mean by "IP coverage"? If you are wanting to provide point-to-point broadband coverage of a leafy area, you can do it by standing up a large number of low-height nodes that can see each other between or below the trees ("AREDN-in-the-park" approach).
If you are wanting Internet connectivity, that is a very low area - it would be best if the farm subscribed to one of the local providers: https://www.inmyarea.com/internet/21710/providers
alternately you could use a satellite internet service like Hughes (not great) but, if someone visiting the horse trials had an RV with the satellite antenna on it, that is all you need.
Item 3 - the trick here is to find two hams with fixed towers and convince them to hang a (relatively) tiny antenna on each. That would get things started.
I like the idea of having a presence at FrostFest. We could do a forum or even just a group table (link) and schedule a meet-and-greet time. Would anyone else be interested in participating in one or the other?
Thanks KF4HJW for requesting a table and forum slots. I am planning to attend this year and would be available to help out with this effort.
I can put together a few slides of the work we've been doing in Northern VA for the forum if you'd like. There is/was also a group in the Shenandoah Valley who may have some local information to share (please chime in here). If the forum slot is only an hour, maybe we could do a short "AREDN Intro" and present Virginia-specific topics then have a Q&A discussion about AREDN technology and how we have or could use it in our region.
As for a table, I think the trick will to make sure we have enough people available to staff it all day, especially during the allotted forum time; answering questions and keeping an eye on the gear. I have a mast and a couple of nodes I could bring and set up. I also have a webcam that we could set up and stream at the table. Probably would be a good idea to have a half page flyer for people to take home.
Has anyone on the forum done an AREDN table at a hamfest and care to share their experiences? I think familiarity with AREDN is growing in our region but it's not universally known. I expect that we'll have a range of visitors from those who are already on the air to those who have never heard of AREDN. Hopefully we will find some people who are familiar with networking or software development who fill some of the skill gaps we're facing in our infrastructure deployment.
The AREDN team has done a lot of presentations at various hamfests across the country, Some of the presentations are posted on our website under the Docs main menu item. I see that I should post a few more that I have given which address many of the questions usually raised by a general audience. I am working on an presentation to describe the long list of improvements we recently released.
I can send you a small number of our printed AREDN Advantage brochures for your table. Please contact me directly via email if you have any questions or if you would like to discuss your plans.
- Randy WU2S
Ben,
As we've spoken before, I'll be joining you at FrostFest and Gump (KC5CG) will tentatively be joining us as well to work a booth. Gump and I both have a couple masts each and can run a decent net around the facility so that attendees will see MikroTik, Ubiquiti, and Altelix equipment in a few different places all with the large AREDN decal on the front. Yes, I bought a bunch more decals for our display equipment.
I can also bring my AREDN 'Go-Box' node with the folding dish with 5GHz LDF on it and also my 'backpackable' AREDN node. We just have to load the MikroTik devices prior to that.
It would be great to set up a VOIP capability - even if only a LinPhone PBX (or perhaps I'm being too enthusiastic).
As you have probably found out, your main obstruction to the south is Ridge Hill which is at heading 202 degrees and a higher elevation than you. Useful headings will start several degrees east of that - say 185 degrees and less. We have actually made a connection from Gambrill to Ida Lee park in Leesburg because - even though that is a really low spot - there is nothing blocking to the north. The area north of the park is largely free of trees as well. We were using only a 40 ft telescoping mast at that end. Clearing the trees at your end will be a bit more of a challenge.
I was talking with Gump (KC5CG) about hitting Frederick, MD from NoVa-Mesh. We could look at being able to use Gump's house as he lives on the eastern side of the first hill in the Catoctin Ridge north of Leesburg. He lives about 80 ft down from the summit, which itself has about 60ft pine trees. I'd love to bring a temporary dish and see if we could hit some high ground north of Leeburg from there. We're certain we can hit high ground in Loudoun county from there as you can nearly see Sterling and Ashburn from the front of his house. He may need to use the DirecTV/LDF 2 or LDF 5 trick due to his HOA. But I'm excited now that we have that option. Those MikroTik LDFs mounted on a DishTV or DirecTV dish are going to allow us to build links easier now that we can have PtP links in key locations regardless of HOAs.
I have not heard back from the frost fest committee I will follow up with them this week to see if they have any updates and will have space for us I just checked their website and it appears there still is Room.
Mike
From various locations in Frederick you could connect to the 5 GHz MAIPN broadband backbone network (either via Braddock Heights, Damascus or possibly Gambrill Mountain). This supposes you have a location with a line-of-sight view to one of those spots. We can check easily enough if you supply lat/lon and height AGL. This will generally require a mounting spot 80-100 feet AGL to clear trees or, in some wide-open locations with a view of the horizon, a lower perch will do.
The MAIPN network reaches Bull Run Mountain (Virginia) which also has a node of the NOVA Mesh. We could program some port forwarding (or a VPN connection) between the MAIPN network and NOVA Mesh by way of some routers that are already in place. A similar network gateway arrangement would be required at the Frederick end.
Are you planning an AREDN mesh within, or around, Frederick itself?
I am very aware of Keith's brain child. I helped in the beginning (just a tiny bit). Now I am playing with AREDN also a venture in the past.
Problem (1)
Latitude: 39.444039 | Longitude: -77.490564
Altitude: 321 meters
Surrounded by big trees, with no real opening to anything.
Problem 2:
Looking to provide IP coverage for the MD Horse trail site-
Latitude: 39.265977 | Longitude: -77.43441
Altitude: 98 meters
Local area net is kind of easy ...
Problem 3:
Getting anyone in Frederick interested in playing in the sand box. Keith has fought for MAIPN a long while. It would be very nice to get some things hooked up and working around here. I wanted to reach out to the Elk's clubs to see if any hams might be interesting in adding the club locatioin to available networks.
let me know your thoughts.
Regards
Mike
location 1 would have great access to the town of Fredericksburg if you could just put something up higher than the trees. I know this is easier said than done. But these wifi antennas are not large so the support wind-load requirements are minimal.
location 2 - can you clarify what you mean by "IP coverage"? If you are wanting to provide point-to-point broadband coverage of a leafy area, you can do it by standing up a large number of low-height nodes that can see each other between or below the trees ("AREDN-in-the-park" approach).
If you are wanting Internet connectivity, that is a very low area - it would be best if the farm subscribed to one of the local providers:
https://www.inmyarea.com/internet/21710/providers
alternately you could use a satellite internet service like Hughes (not great) but, if someone visiting the horse trials had an RV with the satellite antenna on it, that is all you need.
Item 3 - the trick here is to find two hams with fixed towers and convince them to hang a (relatively) tiny antenna on each. That would get things started.
Perhaps we can get a Space if we ask earlier enough.
I like the idea of having a presence at FrostFest. We could do a forum or even just a group table (link) and schedule a meet-and-greet time. Would anyone else be interested in participating in one or the other?
Ben N4CV
Keep me informed, please
Regards
K3MMB/Mike
for Frederick to Fredericksburg local. I can investigate node placement.
Location two would be in the park kinda thing. Just need msg and cam traffic. If the organizer wants internet as well, I would use hotspots.
I would be interested in Frostfest, also.
Yes a group Table would be great Idea and I can request that as well .
Would need some support for being a the Table I believe that has already gotten off to a good start.
Will Update soonest
Thanks KF4HJW for requesting a table and forum slots. I am planning to attend this year and would be available to help out with this effort.
I can put together a few slides of the work we've been doing in Northern VA for the forum if you'd like. There is/was also a group in the Shenandoah Valley who may have some local information to share (please chime in here). If the forum slot is only an hour, maybe we could do a short "AREDN Intro" and present Virginia-specific topics then have a Q&A discussion about AREDN technology and how we have or could use it in our region.
As for a table, I think the trick will to make sure we have enough people available to staff it all day, especially during the allotted forum time; answering questions and keeping an eye on the gear. I have a mast and a couple of nodes I could bring and set up. I also have a webcam that we could set up and stream at the table. Probably would be a good idea to have a half page flyer for people to take home.
Has anyone on the forum done an AREDN table at a hamfest and care to share their experiences? I think familiarity with AREDN is growing in our region but it's not universally known. I expect that we'll have a range of visitors from those who are already on the air to those who have never heard of AREDN. Hopefully we will find some people who are familiar with networking or software development who fill some of the skill gaps we're facing in our infrastructure deployment.
I can send you a small number of our printed AREDN Advantage brochures for your table. Please contact me directly via email if you have any questions or if you would like to discuss your plans.
- Randy WU2S
As we've spoken before, I'll be joining you at FrostFest and Gump (KC5CG) will tentatively be joining us as well to work a booth. Gump and I both have a couple masts each and can run a decent net around the facility so that attendees will see MikroTik, Ubiquiti, and Altelix equipment in a few different places all with the large AREDN decal on the front. Yes, I bought a bunch more decals for our display equipment.
I can also bring my AREDN 'Go-Box' node with the folding dish with 5GHz LDF on it and also my 'backpackable' AREDN node. We just have to load the MikroTik devices prior to that.
It would be great to set up a VOIP capability - even if only a LinPhone PBX (or perhaps I'm being too enthusiastic).
screen prints of path from my qth south and west ..
I need to get a about 100 above ground, I think.
regards
mike
As you have probably found out, your main obstruction to the south is Ridge Hill which is at heading 202 degrees and a higher elevation than you. Useful headings will start several degrees east of that - say 185 degrees and less. We have actually made a connection from Gambrill to Ida Lee park in Leesburg because - even though that is a really low spot - there is nothing blocking to the north. The area north of the park is largely free of trees as well. We were using only a 40 ft telescoping mast at that end. Clearing the trees at your end will be a bit more of a challenge.