[MLB-WIRELESS] Shove it...

[Andy Freeman]

Hi Guys,
            For those who asked to hear the results of "shoving the
Compaq Access Point up a pole" here they are:
 
Dave and I spent another 3-4 hours "fiddling" with the external AP box
this arvo.  We filled it full of polystyrene and mounted a power-supply
fan in the case to provide some air-flow over the components.  The whole
box was then covered on the sunny-side with a sheet of aluminium to help
reduce the direct heat and allow the fan to blow without letting the
rain in.  Down side is that now we cannot see the pretty flashing LEDs.
 
It was then mounted on the top of the 50' pole on my roof (thanks for
the help guys!) and we have run 30 meters of Cat5 cable to it.  We then
aligned the 2km hop from home to Dave and tested the signal strength.
 
This morning:
            Compaq AP 
            25 meters Andrew CNT-400 (LMR-400)
            2 fairly suss N-type connectors
            best signal -74dbm
 
Tonight:
            Compaq AP
            Power Over Ethernet
            Best signal -62dbm
 
1 2 d b m   I M P R O V E M E N T
 
That is a huge gain in signal over a 2km hop.  Tomorrow we will test
further to see if we can get to Geelong's newest node which is running a
very cute omni.  The other good news is that my notebook still works
around most of the house (radiated down from the mast) and I can ping
the remote machine from my front yard.
 
 Things to do in MACH II
Mount a power light on the bottom of the AP so you can see that power is
there (I forgot to do that!)
Mount a light in series with the fan so that you see when it fails
(forgot this too in all the excitement)
Add some sort of temprature guage (still thinking about this)
Add a web cam!
Any other suggestions?
 
Cheers,
               Andy.
 
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