[HamWAN PSDR] Intercept a HamWAN Station

[Jesse Victors]

I'll give this a shot.

First, I do want to make it clear that HamWAN nodes are in fixed locations. They are attached to buildings or certain locations on mountains. With a short database of the current nodes, and your current GPS locations, you can easily identify the exact azimuth and elevation needed to point your dish at the nearest node.

HamWAN nodes operate on specific frequencies depending on the sector, basically the direction. This ensures that a node with a sector facing south does not interfere with another node with a north-facing sector. So your dish should also be targetting for these specific frequencies in order to identify the HamWAN signal.

In MikroTik gear, you can configure the dish to use the exact frequencies and protocols used by HamWAN. Then, when you get a signal, it'll look pretty much identical to picking up an 802.11 WiFi signal; you'll see the name of the station and the signal strength. Maximizing that signal strength is the key, as the higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) means that your dish will be able to distinguish tiny changes to the signal's modulation, which means that those detectable changes can now carry data, which means that you will have a faster link to that other station, a faster link speed.

I would recommend using your laptop to connect to the administrative settings of your dish so that you can view its configuration and see any other stations that it sees. HamWAN uses MikroTik gear, and in MikroTik you can directly log into to your dish using a web browser. Then as I said you can configure your dish to receive HamWAN signals and you can then see the list of stations that it sees, if any.

--
Jesse Victors




------- Original Message -------
On Monday, April 17th, 2023 at 1:23 PM, Jerry N7YGE <n7yge at hctc.com> wrote:


> Hello,
> 

> I have a concept I want to try to see if I can intercept a Hamwan signal using my Hamwan dish connected to my notebook in my truck. I built a Hamwan dish system that attaches to the trailer hitch of my truck that can remotely scan the sky in a xyz position searching for a Hamwan signal (Yes line of sight). I planned on trying this before the Hamwan was removed from Green/Gold Mountain and I never got to try it.
> 

> Since I am driving in the dark to try this with zero experience, I would like to see if someone would be kind enough to answer the below questions?
> 

> 1.       What software do I need to install on my notebook for doing the search for a Hamwan station and to receive a Hamwan transmission?
> 

> 2.       Can you provide a screen shot of what I would see when I receive a Hamwan transmission?
> 

> 3.       For me to transmit to a Hamwan station do I need to use some code or special transmission script?
> 

> 4.       How often does a Hamwan station transmit or can I ping the Hamwan station as the dish moves to get aligned?
> 

> Thank you for any help.
> 

> Jerry N7YGE
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail01.fmt.hamwan.net/pipermail/psdr/attachments/20230417/6405d879/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 509 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://mail01.fmt.hamwan.net/pipermail/psdr/attachments/20230417/6405d879/attachment.sig>