[HamWAN PSDR] Thanks for the info (Was: A non-line of sight connectivity vendor replied)

[Stephen Kangas]

Kingsley, I agree that others' experiences at 5GHz are relevant datapoints
regardless of whether they are RF compatible protocols, albeit no guarantee.
I noticed your desire for "general home internet usage" comment; you should
be aware that it is not legal to use encrypted communications on amateur
radio frequencies (HamWan uses the 5GHz ham band for client connections),
which nearly all websites today do (TLS/SSL encrypted traffic, indicated by
the "https" and padlock symbol showing up in your browser address bar) as
well as any VPN connections you may do.  Thus, my ARES team uses HamWan for
UNencrypted communications, specifically Winlink email and DMR ham hotspots,
and it performs very well for such emergency communications.

Cheers, Stephen W9SK

-----Original Message-----
From: Kingsley G. Morse Jr. <kingsley at loaner.com> 
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2021 5:27 PM
To: Stephen Kangas <stephen at kangas.com>
Cc: 'Puget Sound Data Ring' <psdr at hamwan.org>
Subject: Thanks for the info (Was: A non-line of sight connectivity vendor
replied)

Hi Stephen,

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.

I find I often benefit from other peoples' points of view, and unless I'm
mistaken, now is one of those times.

I was unaware Ham WAN uses a proprietary RF protocol from MikroTik.

You asked how other vendors' equipment might be relevant.

Maybe you know better, but it seems to me that another tech, at least in
theory, might let people whose line of sight to a 5GHz Ham WAN tower is
blocked by trees to reach it.

But, maybe we agree, there remains the issue of installing compatible gear
next to the 5GHz Ham WAN tower.

In theory, I can imagine connecting the 5GHz Ham WAN gear on Lookout
Mountain to tree piercing FreeWave gear with something like an Ethernet
cable.

But even if that's technically possible, Greg at FreeWave candidly revealed
their throughput is limited to around 1.5Mbps for a single point to point
link, which isn't going to be fast enough for general home internet usage.

I suppose other unknowns are

    how wide their antenna's angle is, and 

    how many 1.5Mbps users the cost could be
    shared by.

Thanks again for freely sharing your thoughts!

Kind regards,
Kingsley

On 07/24/2021 20:37, Stephen Kangas wrote:
> Hi Kingsley,
> Please clarify for me what relevance the comments from your below vendors
have to do with 5GHz HamWan.  
> 
> In case you aren't already aware, I understand that HamWan here in the PNW
requires MikroTik equipment because HamWan uses their proprietary (read: not
available from anyone else) RF protocol.  Therefore, comments from other
manufactures or their vendors about their capabilities should have little
relevance.  What should matter is what MikroTik and their experienced
installers say about link path interference, and our PNW HamWan install
experts say that trees in the LOS path interrupts the signal.  Tests that I
and another HamWan buddy of mine have performed with our portable client
MikroTik equipment seems to bear that out.  I have a single cedar tree top
that used to be in my fixed home QTH path from the Rattlesnake sector 2-3mi
away, and moving my fixed client antenna up on a taller mask to clear the
tree for direct LOS now makes it possible for me to get acceptable
performance for WinLink email and my DMR hotspot.
> 
> If I'm missing something here (which I well may be), please inform me.
> 
> Stephen W9SK
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PSDR <psdr-bounces at hamwan.org> On Behalf Of Kingsley G. Morse Jr.
> Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2021 8:13 PM
> To: psdr at hamwan.org
> Subject: [HamWAN PSDR] A non-line of sight connectivity vendor replied
> 
> I asked GNS Wireless, RadioLabs and FreeWave Tech.
> if their gizmos could reliably communicate between
> 
> a.) A HamWAN antenna on Lookout Mountain and
> 
> b.) computer users living in a treed neighborhood
>     roughly a mile away.
> 
> Greg Corey at FreeWave Technologies replied
> 
>     "We specialize in long-range, non-line of
>     sight connectivity for industrial processes.
>     We can most likely achieve a link to the
>     locations you described but the connection
>     speed would be very slow. Our maximum
>     throughput is around 1.5Mbps for a single
>     point-to-point link. Generally speaking, this
>     isn't going to be fast enough for general home
>     internet usage."
> 
> The others didn't reply.
> 
> I hope that helps, or is at least interesting.
> 
> Comments welcome.
> 
> So,
> Kingsley
> 
> --
> Time is the fire in which we all burn.
> 
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--
Time is the fire in which we all burn.