[HamWAN PSDR] Kitsap County Gold Mountain HamWAN Attempts, Dish and Sector Antennas K7MM

Mon Jan 25 18:12:49 PST 2016

Today I put up my new QRT5 MIMO panel (does MikroTik not know that QRT means to stop sending?!!!).  I have better signal strength at -80 dBm.  The signal strength on the Laird SA58-90-17-WB/Metal S5HPn has been slipping to around -84 dBm today.  So, by going MIMO, I got at least 3 dB better in actual signal strength on the QRT5--should it be more?.  Either the 3dB or the MIMO (or both) give me slightly better reliability on the QRT5, where the Worst times for the hops in the Tools > Traceroute display have less variance than on the sector/Metal combination.
Note:  it's easier to point the QRT5 with my two positioning down ropes (one on each side of the bottom corners).  The RSSI signal strength display is BIG.  I can position the panel with the ropes while peaking for the most bars.  It's like flying a kite or flying those U-line model airplanes (remember those)!

I have attached photos of the QRT5 panel hanging in the tree, and of the Winbox capture.
73 from Dan at K7MM

      From: Daniel Ransom <danra995 at yahoo.com>
 To: Puget Sound Data Ring <psdr at hamwan.org> 
 Sent: Monday, January 18, 2016 9:48 PM
 Subject: Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Kitsap County Gold Mountain HamWAN Attempts, Dish and Sector Antennas K7MM

Bart,The antenna now at -82 dBm is the Laird SA58-90-17-WB vertically polarized sector antenna--the one in the photograph.  At my test reference spot, at 6-feet above ground level, this antenna (Laird SA58-90-17-WB) has -77 dBm as the best LOS signal.  At this reference spot, on the tripod at ground level, the best LOS signal that I get on my (Laird) mesh dish is -69 dBm.  I don't have a reading from my Poynting Antennas K-GRID-003-06
I got too tired (and it's too dark) to traipse through the mini-forest in my back yard.  I will adjust tomorrow (in the morning before it starts raining).
73 from Dan at K7MM

      From: Bart Kus <me at bartk.us>
 To: psdr at hamwan.org 
 Sent: Monday, January 18, 2016 8:10 PM
 Subject: Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Kitsap County Gold Mountain HamWAN Attempts, Dish and Sector Antennas K7MM

 What antenna is giving you that -82dBm reading?  That's quite low for a LoS shot.  I hope we don't have a vertical alignment problem with the sector.

 --Bart

 On 1/18/2016 6:44 PM, Daniel Ransom via PSDR wrote:

  It's working!  I had the sector antenna/Metal S5HPn high in the tree at the peak of the (leafless) canopy with -88 dB signal and lots of lost packets.  I tried a position under the canopy (after a little chain-saw work clearing branches for the positioning ropes)—voila:  -82 dB received signal with good, fast timing and few lost packets.  It's 330 feet of shielded cable into the K7MM hamshack.  When I transmit on 80 meters it reboots the modem--the cable is parallel with my off-center-fed dipole. 
  I ordered the QRT-5 integrated panel and MIMO radio, so we will see how much better is the signal on this new hardware. 73 from Dan at K7MM 509 330 6398

        From: Daniel Ransom <danra995 at yahoo.com>
 To: Puget Sound Data Ring <psdr at hamwan.org> 
 Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2016 6:50 PM
 Subject: Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Kitsap County Gold Mountain HamWAN Attempts, Dish and Sector Antennas K7MM

    Nigel, Of course, now that you explain it, it makes sense.  Thank you.  More to report tomorrow! 73 from Dan at K7MM 509 330 6398

          From: Nigel Vander Houwen <nigel at nigelvh.com>
 To: Puget Sound Data Ring <psdr at hamwan.org> 
 Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2016 6:30 PM
 Subject: Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Kitsap County Gold Mountain HamWAN Attempts, Dish and Sector Antennas K7MM

   Dan, 
  I think there’s a bit of confusion here. From what you’re describing  about pinging google, and the screenshot you provided, the modem is getting an IP from the network  properly, and has full communications. 
  I think what you’re seeing is that your laptop/computer connected to  the modem may not be getting an IP address, which wouldn’t come from the network, but instead from the modem itself. 
  In step 12 of the client configuration instructions we have you disable the modem from providing DHCP to devices to make sure the modem doesn’t interfere  with your home network if you plug it in there. If you plug the modem into your home network, you can give it an IP on your network on the modem’s ethernet interface, or  if you plan on it being a separate network where DHCP wouldn’t interfere, you can add that back to the ethernet interface as well. 
  This latter scenario is described in the “Next Steps” section of the  client configuration instructions page, but we don’t make it the default because everyone’s use  case will be different. 
  Nigel 

  On Jan 17, 2016, at 18:07, Daniel Ransom <danra995 at yahoo.com> wrote: 
    Bart, Thanks for the advice on the QRT-5.  It looks very nice; I might upgrade to that.  With my vertically polarized sector antenna I found -77 dBm this afternoon, and when I rotated the antenna 90  degrees (now horizontal) my best was -88 dBm.  Again, this is a line-of-sight path at 5 feet above the ground (possible Fresnel-zone  problem?).

  Today I had good results with my  MikroTik Metal 5SHPn transceiver modem (reprogrammed with v6.32.3) and the sector antenna.  This time my connection attempt was mostly okay!  I could see network activity on tool > traceroute 8.8.8.8 (see attached), and I could ping google.com, averaging around 80 ms (median about 40 ms).  However, I could not get an IP address from the network. Any ideas why?

  So, next it's up into the trees behind my house (tomorrow).  Already I have a dacron rope there--placed with my trusty KR4LO Air Boss pneumatic line  launcher.  Down the tree and into the hamshack it's 330 feet, so I'm right at the edge of the maximum cable run.  Definitely, I will be injecting 24 Vdc! 
  73 from Dan at K7MM 509 330 6398
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