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

[Daniel Ransom]

Tom.
Here is a status update on my efforts at accessing the Gold Mountain HamWAN.  I went out with my two MikroTik Metal 5SHPn transceiver modems, one of my dishes, and a sector antenna this morning.  I tested from the corner of E Collins Road and Babydoll Rd, at 47.548349, -122.5939, here in east Port Orchard.  From this location I can see the flashing white beacon on Gold Mountain. 
I get a good signal on the mesh dish:  -69 dBm.  The vertically polarized sector antenna (SA58-90-17-WB) has 10 dB less signal, but the modem will "associate" with the network.  Pointing is not critical--I've got about 15 degrees each way, a 30-degree sweep where I have reasonable signal (around -80 dBm).  This is at ground level.  It should work when I hoist it into the trees behind my house.
I have two modems; one has a broken back-cover latch and is on v6.12.  It associates well, even on the sector antenna.  Unfortunately, I can't seal the back connection because of the broken latch.

My other, water-resistant modem I updated from v6.12 to v6.32.3.  I did not do a full reset when updating the client configuration from the HamWAN website.  I could not get this one to acquire an IP address from the network, even on the dish antenna.  I went back to my hamshack (I was wet and tired and water was fritzing my laptop keyboard!).  I reset and reloaded this modem to try again tomorrow.   Does RouterOS firmware matter?

When I put the sector antenna/modem into the tree I will use a rope on top from which to hang the combination antenna/modem, and two ropes at the bottom of the sector antenna (one on each left and right side) to steer the antenna.  I have shielded, outdoor CAT6 cable (Ubiquity ToughCable Carrier) as a downlead.
We're hams, we experiment!

73 from Dan at K7MM
509 330 6398
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