Good evening,

I have been working on bootstrapping hamnet in my community for several weeks now. We are now engaged in purchasing and testing equipment and so I recently acquired this hardware from Ubiquiti:

• RocketM5
• Sector Antenna
• NanostationM5

I was up to a good start with a flawless installation of the broadband-hamnet firmware on the RocketM5 equipment but the NanostationM5 (with the XW.v5.5.9 firmware) is giving me trouble with a message saying "Firmware image check failed. Error code: -6".

The project is great and I thank you very much for the time you guys are putting into it. I am hitting what seems like a massive roadblock though and I too wonder if it would be possible to get an idea of when there might be support for the XW flashing.

I would be happy to contribute too if you can point me to the most recent source code on git, svn or anywhere.

Regards,

Marc VA2MVC

Montreal, QC, Canada

I was also wondering what to do with the extra antenna connection.

The video at http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/documentation/146-hsmm-mesh-details-at-hamcomm-2011.html shows a WRT-type router with what appears to be two different antennae plugged in. One is directional and the other omni-directional. The speaker says that nearby stations can connect through the omni-directional antenna and the directional antenna is pointed toward a somewhat distant convention center where a lot of other stations are located, and that this allows stations near this thing to connect to the rest of the network that is too far away for them. It starts at 0:23 and the picture of the antenna connections are at about 1:28.

I haven't used any of the "radio controller" stuff before. Do they let you tune to the frequency you want? Does the app_rpt program perform any kind of authentication (allow Alice and Jim to use my radio but not Bob?) I saw the "USB Radio Interface" (http://www.dmkeng.com/URI_Order_Page.htm), but if I'm reading correctly, this is an "audio only" solution, and doesn't do things like tune the radio.

For Rx only, I suspect an RTL-SDR ($20) plugged into a RaspberryPi or Ardurino (both ~$35) USB port would work. Allstar link might implement a SIP endpoint, but it appears to be an entire linux distribution rather than just a daemon to run on whatever you have. They also seem to like BeagleBoard, which seems to offer (and charge for) many fancy perks not needed by a remote unattended station. Even if one has to write a SIP endpoint daemon from scratch, I found a library (live555) which may speed the process along. Not volunteering. Just assessing.

To add Tx, can substitute a software defined radio board like the bladeRF ($400+) for the RTL-SDR. Would need an amp too.

I like the SDR route because of the ability to design the guts of the radio in a clickey-pointy way using GNU radio. I don't like the price so much.

How about Allstar? It doesn't require a server connection. It's just Asterisk and app_rpt. In a local configuration, you would set up the radio as an extension, manage it as a remote base, and then call in to the radio as you would any voip device. For that matter, many hardware devices exist that take a lot of the network black magic out of the problem. I've personally used the gateway devices made by voice interop to remote-control a radio over a network. (www.voiceinterop.com)

I'm brand new to this and enjoying the challenge of sorting things out, however I'm stumped on something.  I have three Linksys WRT54GS routers (v2.1, v3, v4).  Each is flashed with the latest firmware (v3.1). I can access all of them without issues using the localnode URL and all have been setup with a node name and a new password. I can hang a laptop off any one of them and log into the node just fine, and see the entire mesh (3 nodes).  So all works good - they are linked.  Now...  I change one of the nodes configuration to make it a Gateway (simply checking the option). I then connect my home Internet to the gateway router via Ethernet cable.  I can now access the Internet with the laptop plugged into the gateway node, and I can also plug the laptop into the other two non-gateway nodes and successfully access the Internet over the wireless mesh via the gateway node.  But once the gateway is set and Internet applied - I can no longer use the laptop to log into any of the nodes via the localnode URL. I have to unplug the Internet cable from the gateway, reboot the nodes, and then I can log into them as I did before the gateway was connected to the Internet.  Is this how it is supposed to operate?

I'm brand new to this and enjoying the challenge of sorting things out, however I'm stumped on something.  I have three Linksys WRT54GS routers (v2.1, v3, v4).  Each is flashed with the latest firmware (v3.1). I can access all of them without issues using the localnode URL and all have been setup with a node name and a new password. I can hang a laptop off any one of them and log into the node just fine, and see the entire mesh (3 nodes).  So all works good - they are linked.  Now...  I change one of the nodes configuration to make it a Gateway (simply checking the option). I then connect an Ethernet cable to the gateway node.  I can now access the Internet with the laptop plugged into the gateway node, and I can also plug the laptop into the other two non-gateway node and successfully access the Internet over the wireless mesh via the gateway node.  But once the gateway is set and Internet applied - I can no longer use the laptop to log into any of the nodes via the localnode URL. I have to unplug the Internet cable from the gateway, reboot the nodes, and then I can log into them as I did before the gateway was connected to the Internet.  Is this how it is supposed to operate?

Basically you're looking for echolink or IRLP type interface, except "direct" without the use of their server.  I've been looking for the same thing literally for years.  The echolink mission statement specifically states it will "never" be a remote base platform which is a shame, I'd even pay for that.  Lots of VOIP options out there if you don't mind throwing a PC at it but I would prefer something more diminutive, both hardware and software wise. 

At face value it might be possible with a linksys router.  I recall seeing a USB soundcard plugged into a WRT at Hamcom last year, where it was described to me it was for streaming audio.  The WRT also has a hardware serial port which could be used for carrier sense and PTT, though if USB is available that could be used for both sound and radio control.  All that's lacking is a software genius to write an app to schlep the audio back and forth, and issue PTT and optionally serial channel control (BCD, up/down, whatever).

K5KTF has an application paper that interfaced an IP phone with an old phone patch, WRT router and used the serial port for radio control.  This is a bit of a long way around the block but on the right track:

<http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/applications-for-the-mesh/158-remote-control-hf-rig-over-mesh.html>

I found that very same phone patch at Hamcom this year and already have that same IP phone interface, so it's a project for me to see if I can at least duplicate what's there and see if there's any opportunities for improvement and optimization.

For "RX only" there are linux utilities to just start streaming from the system sound device, so that might be a way to start with something along the likes of a raspberry pi or even a USB modded WRT. 

Mark K5LXP

Albuquerque, NM

Thanks! Posted a request for info. It may be close.

I was thinking more "simplex", in a nutshell the objective is to position a remote-control narrowband FM VHF/UHF transceiver within a valley, and use the network provided by Mesh to relay the message to...well..wherever. If this were shared infrastructure, receiving a transmission on a frequency owned by the fire department could initiate a VoIP call to the fire dispatcher. Same to law enforcement. Mutual aid channels (i.e., "gold") could initiate a conference call to all connected dispatch centers (and the uninterested ones could hang up). If any of the shared-infrastructure participants prefer, their transmissions could be patched through to a repeater under their control.

If FRS toy radios actually had a designated emergency channel, that could be monitored and forwarded to the appropriate place.

Hams could dial up other hams via dtmf, or a particular ctcss tone code could route their call out to a repeater.

The biggest problem I can see with this setup is detecting when the device is in use. It may be transmitting on a frequency you're not monitoring.

Over the years, I've learned not to assume I'm the first person to think of something. It's far better to ask who else has done something similar, what problems they ran into and how they worked around them. :)

73, Bryce AF7RQ

A first goal might be a unidirectional antenna at someone's home that has some elevation. Around North Utah County here that would be Suncrest or maybe Cedar Hills. Does anyone here live in a spot that a few others could aim at?

I agree it could be interesting to grow the mesh. I have given routers to my neighbors for this :)

I want to have IP camera, weather sensors that we could connect to. It would be pretty amazing to have those at a remote cabin we could mesh into. I've got a huacam on order that can do onvif video and also easily serve out jpeg still images. I haven't played with the weather sensor stuff. In any case we can bring this up at the microcontroller meetup. We've discussed mesh network in this group. http://www.meetup.com/MakeSaltLake/events/221721572/

It seems, at least for the networked logging programs I've seen thus far, the programs rely on the PC's networking or filehandling services which really aren't suited to be fault tolerant.  Maybe it's expecting too much of a "free" program to handle these kinds of network issues.  To go through all the setup and then keep a network and application tech on hand during Field Day to handle the issues doesn't sound like it's making life easier. 

Maybe at some point there will be a logging program that will be as easy to set up as the mesh nodes, without going through machinations of fixed IP's and accommodating latencies.  Now that mesh is becoming a popular Field Day activity maybe these issues can be adequately addressed going forward.  I know one group that used N3FJP software via mesh and "lost" a number of contacts.  N3FJP has addressed some of this with his newer TCP based method but it still doesn't sound like it's quite there yet.

Mark K5LXP

Albuquerque, NM