[HamWAN PSDR] East Tiger Mountain cell site on the air

Mon Jun 22 14:47:50 PDT 2015

Nah, we'd need some beefy self-supporting thing that can withstand ice 
loading.  It's a serious mountain in the winter.

--Bart

On 6/22/2015 1:06 PM, Rob Salsgiver wrote:
>
> Do you have any use for Rohn 25 sections, or is that too small?
>
> *From:*PSDR [mailto:psdr-bounces at hamwan.org] *On Behalf Of *Bart Kus
> *Sent:* Monday, June 22, 2015 12:49 PM
> *To:* Puget Sound Data Ring
> *Subject:* Re: [HamWAN PSDR] East Tiger Mountain cell site on the air
>
> Hi Dean,
>
> I think it would help in discussing these comparisons if you were to 
> express the RF power not in terms of absolute power, but in terms of 
> power spectral density (W/Hz).  The 1W modem is set for 5MHz bandwidth 
> when communicating, so its PSD is 0.2uW/Hz.  Your 0.1W handheld is set 
> for 25kHz bandwidth, so its PSD is 4uW/Hz.  That's 20x higher power 
> density.  If the noise floors of both spectrums were equal (which they 
> aren't) that would mean a 13dB increase in the ability of the FM radio 
> to discern a signal, compared to the modem.
>
> So 70cm FM has a lot going for it here.  It has better NLoS 
> propagation combined with a theoretical 13dB PSD boost.  On the flip 
> side, you have the 30dBi gain of the modem dish helping you to 
> compensate for those losses.
>
> This weekend I'll be running our first tests of the 900MHz gear in 
> NLoS conditions.  I did some lab tests on it over the weekend, and it 
> looks like @ 5MHz bandwidth it transmits just about 1W.  The signal, 
> being OFDM, isn't very tight, so we'll have to be very careful with 
> 900MHz repeater co-location. We'll also have to watch out for 
> colocated 800MHz users.
>
> Regarding you linking to ETiger, there's a bunch of trees in the way, 
> but give it a try!  The mountain tower unfortunately does not clear 
> the surrounding tree line.  If someone feels like donating a 60ft 
> tower for up there, I'm sure that'd help.  :)  Also, keep in mind that 
> due to the tree issue, ETiger was only installed as a single sector 
> site.  Sector 3, aimed at 240 deg.  Have you tried aiming @ Haystack 
> yet? Nigel just moved and is linked up to it now from Everett.  We 
> need to do some tree pruning @ that site to raise its signal levels.
>
> --Bart
>
> On 6/22/2015 11:04 AM, Dean Gibson AE7Q wrote:
>
>     Recently I noticed that I can access the WA7HJR (444.65MHz)
>     repeater on East Tiger, from my home in Mill Creek, with the Icom
>     and Yaesu handhelds at *0.1W*.  Reports are that it is a bit
>     scratchy, but pumping the power all the way up to *0.5W* gives a
>     reported clean signal.
>
>     OK, that's 70cm, not 5cm.  However, I've long been able to access
>     KB7CNN (1292.2MHz) at the same site with *1W*.
>
>     All antennae above are omni.
>
>     Meanwhile, my connection to the Paine site has dropped in the last
>     month from -77dBm to -84dBm.  If last year is any indication, I
>     have about 30 days until I lose the connection to Paine for
>     another six months.  Originally I thought this was due to seasonal
>     foliage growth, but since reception didn't come back until late
>     February, I think it's something else.  Just to one side (a couple
>     hundred feet) of my direct path to Paine, is a *huge* water tower
>     just south of 132nd Street, and I'm wondering if that was serving
>     as a reflector when it was full, and not so much as it emptied
>     during the summer (or maybe partially resonant or energy
>     absorbing?), and not refilled until the winter.  That hypothesis
>     fits the timeline better than foliage ...
>
>     Anyway, when I get the time this summer, I will try moving the
>     5shpn & antenna to the south side of my house and try to connect
>     to the HamWAN site at East Tiger.  Using Google Earth, I see that
>     the bearing from my house to East Tiger is 156 degrees.  I also
>     see that the bearing to the Baldi site is 160 degrees, a *four
>     degree* difference.  Google Earth's elevation plot shows a clear
>     path to both East TIger and Baldi, the latter path *barely*
>     clearing the terrain just west of East Tiger.  VE2DBE's Radio
>     Mobile Online ( http://www.ve2dbe.com/rmonline.html ) plot agrees.
>
>     This brings up the subject of common sector frequencies.
>     Theoretically, the narrow beam of my antenna dish (isn't it about
>     3 degrees?), coupled with East Tiger being only 28.3 miles away
>     compared to Baldi at 47.8 miles, I would think would resolve any
>     interference.
>
>     Thoughts?
>
>     On 2015-05-31 19:50, Bart Kus wrote:
>
>         We put a new cell site on the air this weekend.  It's @ East
>         Tiger Mountain, and radiating @ 240 degrees (Sector 3) only. 
>         It's linked directly to the Tukwila datacenter, and has a
>         second link to Snohomish DEM ("Paine"), but that's not yet
>         configured for routing. This site is 1500ft higher than our
>         existing Mirrormont site, and will serve to replace it.  It's
>         superior location and superior connectivity are a double-win. 
>         Mirrormont has been re-configured to be on the Sector 2
>         frequency temporarily so as not to conflict, but will go off
>         the air at some point in the near future.  If you're in the
>         coverage area try to give it a go and report back!
>
>         --Bart
>
>
>
>
>
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