digital connection BY DON ROTOLO,* N2IRZ

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hirty years ago, packet networking was the worldwide email system that, while slow, worked
new in thing. Many of us marveled at our reliably and is credited with saving many lives in
ability to communicate digitally over hundreds bad situations.
of miles using little more than an HT, computer ter-
minal, and TNC by traversing the network. Net/ (3--
ROM, TheNET, TexNet, and ROSE were the choic- Later, HSMM (high-speed multimedia) networking
es available for firmware, and each had its advan- became a thing, and folks started using low-cost
tages. Later, such systems as Germanys FlexNet and readily-available consumer-grade 802.11
increased the utility of these networks, and hams (Wi-Fi) equipment to traverse short distances at
by the thousands were drawn into the digital age. very high speeds. Several standard 2.4-GHz Wi-
Commercial competition was in the form of dial-up Fi channels are on frequencies shared with hams,
bulletin board systems and pay services such as so the modems could be modified to operate under
CompuServe, America Online, and others. FCC Part 97 rules rather than the more restrictive
Around that time, the internet formed, and the Part 15 rules. The idea was that for temporary sit-
rapid rise of reliable and inexpensive broadband uations, hams could offer excellent compatibility
access to the World Wide Web proved too tempt- with existing applications and equipment, deliver-
ing. Tunnels through the Internet were used to ing last mile connectivity in a seamless and
expand packet networks (to their eventual detri- transparent manner. Larger networks could be
ment), and some decided that 128 kb/s DSL built, since deploying many devices wasnt a finan-
access was far superior to 1200 baud. And so, the cial issue, unlike packet.
radio was leaving packet radio networking, as The problem, as it always has been, is finding
were its users. enough sites to make the network usable. Sure,
But packet never really died. It proved valuable there are a few hams in almost every town, but not
for emergency communications (EmComm), even everyone is interested in participating. Consumer-
at 300-baud speeds on HF bands, because it was grade Wi-Fi networking equipment also has a lim-
far faster than anything else available. The APRS ited range not because of power (tens of milli-
(Automatic Packet Reporting System) phenome- watts), but due to built-in 802.11 networking
non had many hams repurposing their terminal firmware that requires the receiving station to
node controllers (TNCs) to mobile and tactical acknowledge receiving data within a certain time-
uses, including EmComm. And WinLink 2000 frame. If the ACK doesnt come soon enough, the
combined internet, VHF, and HF radio to build a sender assumes it was lost and re-sends. Thats
good, unless the ACK time is shorter than the
speed-of-light delay well encounter over dis-

CO#1MAGAZINE tances of, say, 2 miles, in which case the link can-
%MAIL.)2: CQ AMATEUR RADIOCOM not work.

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To get past this inherent distance limit (unrelated to trans- prevent them from being a good choice for anything greater
mit power), some employed Wi-Max equipment (802.16), than a few hundred yards, or what I call shouting distance.
which is built to have links of several miles. But two issues And if you can shout, who needs a network?
led to a low acceptance: These are Part 15 devices, and so
there were limitations to be accounted for, and the cost, which !2%$.
could be several hundred dollars per device. Commercial Enter AREDN, the !MATEUR2ADIO%MERGENCY$ATA.ET
users can afford to spend a lot of dollars to save even more WORK. As you can see from its name, its purpose is not build-
dollars, but hams are pretty price sensitive. ing a network for fun, or to deliver alternate access to the
And all this bypasses the idea that these 802.11 devices internet, but primarily for EmComm. AREDNs approach is
were primarily intended to connect a house full of users to a much like what came before indeed, some were members
Wide-Area Network (WAN), such as the internet, and not of the Broadband Hamnet team except they have focused
meant to form their own network. on a newer generation of outdoor-mounted, high-power, and
low-cost commercial-grade Wi-Fi gear. As before, new
"ROADBAND (AMNET firmware is loaded into the device, changing it from a Wi-Fi
This problem was easily addressed by entrepreneurial hams access point to something else: A mesh network node.
at HSMM-Mesh (now known as Broadband-Hamnet
<http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/>), who leveraged the -ESH.ETWORKS
Linux operating system of some popular 802.11 gear. Just A mesh network is somewhat different from an AX.25 pack-
as TheNET and ROSE were networks written for the Z-80 et network, in that it is self-configuring and self-healing (fault
processors that were found in TNCs, hams wrote firmware tolerant). A packet network was built by a bunch of hams who
for the Linux kernel in the 802.11 gear and repurposed it to had to configure its interoperability with other nearby nodes.
form robust networks. The configuration was critical: Mess it up and it didnt work.
This didnt happen too long ago, but in case you hadnt This wasnt a limitation of the hardware or protocol, but the
noticed, were not generally awash with HSMM networks run- networking firmware itself.
ning on 802.11 gear, are we? Sigh. The problems with con- A good mesh network basically configures itself after it is
sumer-grade gear low power and poor antennas (both for powered up. Sure, youll want to set up specific links using
Part 15 compliance) along with indoor-only packaging still dish or Yagi antennas for good performance, but if a dozen

WWWCQ AMATEUR RADIOCOM *ANUARYs #1s 

hams were to converge on New York Citys Central Park, So whats the process for creating an AREDN node? There
each with a powered mesh device, a robust network would are a few simple steps, which well examine in more detail:
form out of thin air as the devices learned about each other
and configured themselves based on their view of reality. A 1. Buy a compatible device
near-ideal situation if some kind of emergency was in 2. Upload new firmware to it
progress, wouldnt you agree? 3. Configure the node with information such as callsign and
A mesh network is also self-redundant to the extent possi- password
ble. The idea is to deploy many low-cost devices so there are 4. Mount the device and apply power
several connections and paths to other nodes available. That
means that if a particular node stops operating, the network #OMPATIBLE$EVICES
immediately sends data along a different path, seamlessly. You can find the current list of supported devices on
Indeed, the network is always looking for the lowest cost AREDNs website <www.aredn.org>. The list keeps grow-
path (meaning the best performance), and switches to it as ing, so anything I published here would be out of date by the
soon as it is detected. time you read this. Most of these are in the Ubiquiti AirMAX
I encourage you to do your own research, but if youre in M product line. Many can be had new for under $80 on
the EmComm community, this is the next big thing. While some bands, and on the used market for even less. These
technically able to support an internet link, EmComm users are available for different bands, so choosing a band for your
know to not count on one being available. Instead, your backbone link is an important first decision.
AREDN mesh network is intended to restore an intranet net- The lower the frequency, the better the signals penetra-
work connection between operational command centers tion of obstructions like trees. However, the 902-928-MHz
(EOC, Red Cross Chapter HQ, etc.) and their deployed amateur allocation is relatively noisy from Part 15 devices
resources. An unmodified Wi-Fi access point or router (like and some other unlicensed users. If we tune the device down
the one in your house) is deployed for those users, offering into exclusive amateur frequencies, and limit the bandwidth
broadband connectivity both wireless and wired. If a location to 5 MHz, noise is much less of a problem.
is underserved, someone can grab an AREDN device and Moving up to 2.4 GHz, the noise level is even higher, but
put it where its needed, with no technical expertise needed: again there are some frequencies that are outside Part 15
Place it and turn on the power . but within Part 97 amateur allocations. With this capability,

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nobody using AREDN would even think about 9 miles from here, but a hill in the
of using the Part 15 channels the way nixed that idea.
noise is just too high. On the plus side, How did I know?
these devices tend to be the least expen- I went to Radio Mobile <http://www.
sive compared to the other bands. cplus.org/rmw/english1.html>, a site
The allocation at 3.4 GHz is by far the run by Roger, VE2DBE, which lets you
least congested band, but in some loca- calculate the expected propagation
tions the primary military users make between two points on a map. It
this band unsuitable. Tight antenna pat- accounts for terrain, power, antennas
terns and a good awareness of other and several other factors. You need to
users can make this very useful for long- create a (free) account to use the site,
haul backbone links of 50 miles or more. but that takes only a few minutes. After
On 5.8 GHz there is a lot of room, so entering the details, I got the bad news
co-located gear has a better chance of that it just wouldnt work. Sigh, maybe
being non-interfering because there are I can find someone up on a hill.
several ham-exclusive channels avail-
able. The smaller wavelength means 5PLOADING&IRMWARE
that the antenna for a given size has The AREDN website has detailed, illus-
more gain, but this is essentially offset trated instructions for uploading new
by the reduced propagation, which firmware into your Ubiquiti device,
behaves more like light and less like including some warnings about compat-
radio, meaning line-of-sight is essential. ibility. Look for the How-To link and fol-
Large obstructions are out, and even low that. The basic idea is to connect to
trees are problematic. the device through its web interface, take
Where I live, the trees and terrain down some information, and optionally
severely limit higher frequencies, ex- copy the existing firmware in case we
cept for those lucky few on top of a hill ever want to use it for its original pur-
or equipped with a tall tower. I was hop- pose. Then, just upload the AREDN
ing to establish a 900-MHz link to a site firmware file, let the device reboot, and

WWWCQ AMATEUR RADIOCOM *ANUARYs #1s 

reconnect to it at its new IP address. likely to be up to mischief. But in a tac- any big plans to shake up the world, but
Theres also some information on what tical event like supporting a marathon, Im always looking for opportunities.
to do if anything goes wrong. hackers are just itching to get onto your Here in Atlanta, we dont get many ice
The next step is to configure your network and see what makes it tick. To storms, so not many chances for anten-
node. Start by entering your callsign as help avoid problems, even if innocent, na work, but Ill be keeping busy in the
the Node Name, along with a unique use MAC address filtering to prevent workshop puttering around and making
identifier so each node you create has unauthorized Wi-Fi connections: You sawdust. This is a good time of year for
a (slightly) different name (See &IGURE make a list of the MAC address of each planning out your summer, so maybe
 for example). Set a password device authorized to connect, and those find a project and dig in.
remember, you can reconfigure things are the only ones who can connect. If you liked this months column, send
over the air and set the Distance Id like to thank Andre Hansen, K6AH, me a note. Also if youd like to see me
parameter to the distance to the farthest of AREDN for his kind assistance in write about something. As with most of
node you expect to communicate with. preparing this months column, and my my columns, this one was sparked by a
Then save, reboot, and reset your wired old friend Gordon Beattie, W2TTT, for readers comments at the Huntsville
network (by simply pulling the cable and his enthusiastic explanations of AREDN. Hamfest. I already have my hotel room
reconnecting it). Verify that you can So we have a new year now, 2017. at Dayton (Xenia, really) this year, so if
connect to the status screen when Some have big plans for this year, oth- you want to tell me where to go in per-
youre done, the node is ready to use. ers are content to let it slide by without son, you know where to find me. Hope
notice. Im never one to be content with to see you there!
)NSTALLATION things the way they are. No, I dont have 5NTILNEXTTIMEDE.)2:
Now the hard part: Installing your node.
Basically, you mount it to a pole outdoors,
point it in the right direction, and it works.
If only real life went so easily.
Mounting the node many have a
built-in antenna consists of tighten-
ing the clamps to a pole, and running an
Ethernet (Cat5) cable. These devices
use Power over Ethernet (PoE) which
uses some of the Cat5 wires to deliver
power to the device. This saves running
a second cable for power.
When mounting any high-gain anten-
na, pointing it in the right direction is a
little bit of a science, and a little bit of an
art. If you can actually see the other node
perhaps with binoculars then point-
ing is fairly obvious. The beamwidth of
these antennas vary from a few degrees
to 120, so unless you need to squeeze
every last decibel out of the link margin,
close enough is usually close enough. If
you cant see the other node very like-
ly unless you have eagle eyes Google
maps is your friend. Find both points on
the map, identify the line that connects
both sites, then zoom in to orient your-
self with respect to local features
roads, houses, even trees are visible
from the aerial view. (Ive found that
Google maps blurs out trees, while Bing
maps doesnt, so if youre using a tree
as a reference, try using Bing.)
If youre installing your node at home,
maintenance is easy, since youre right
there. AREDN provides ways of up-
grading the software and performing a
reset remotely. The Ubiquiti boxes are
quite stable and reliable, and you have
the option of installing remotely-con-
trolled switches if something really goes &IGURE4HISISANOUTPUTPAGEFROMTHE2ADIO-OBILEWEBSITERUNBY2OGER
wrong. Do you really want to drive an 6%$0%SHOWINGAPROPOSEDRADIOPATHANDTHEASSOCIATEDCALCULATIONS)WAS
hour just to flick a switch? HOPINGFORA -(ZPATHBETWEENMYHOMEANDANEARBYFRIENDBUTALASTHAT
In a real emergency, people are HILLNEARMYHOUSEONTHERIGHT DASHEDTHOSEPLANS3EETHETEXTFORTHEWEB
focused on survival, so hackers are less ADDRESSANDOTHERDETAILS

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