On Thu, Jul 27, 2023 at 06:03 PM, Orv Beach wrote:
Wow, that's pretty ugly, Tadd.
NCPACKET is not so bad when you consider it in terms of a Maker-space hands-on? project.? The network has to follow procedures that are brought down to the level of the least-common ham.? While the sophistication level of AX.25 is pretty high for somebody who has never cared about digital data at all, the diagnostic tools make it pretty easy to follow.? Every ham can visit any site (digitally over the ham-radio-only network) and inspect plus run the diagnostics tools.? When all the links are working (about 80% of the time) we can do a 35-person live chat across the entire 9 county network.?
There is a huge divide between running WinLink and VARA FM on 2m from home, compared to building microwave links at a locked remote site.?
I tried to drum up interest in financing a (free) 600' location in Raleigh on a commercial tower for a Ubiquiti based system and, while there was quite a bit of interest, there weren't enough people willing to pony up to buy the remote hardware and an insufficiency of the interested hams would have been in range of that one site.? I was hoping to use it as a stepping stone to link to other remote sites using 3.3Ghz.? (that was before the 3.3Ghz ham allocation changes) ? I think ARDENmesh must be having its success in places with higher hills, drier climates, and sparser trees.?
The NCPACKET network is also built out of people's houses in an area where the highest mountain is only 1000' above average terrain and most of the region the network is built in doesn't even have that big of a hill.? 900Mhz is almost a lost cause here because of the big trees, high humidity and lack of high places to run from.? 2.4Ghz is much worse.? To do a 5 mile wide 2.4Ghz network in the northern suburbs of Raleigh, where I live, would take about a dozen participants.? From what I've seen, 2.4Ghz radios and antennas are quite different from 2m and 75m radios and antennas. Any ham can start, build, and operate a TARPN network.? They could get a 40 mile wide network with no towers or hills for about $3000 in a thick forest of 100' trees.? In the NCPACKET network, walk-up servicing is available with no security arrangements even in the time of a national emergency but almost all of the nodes are at the house of the operator, so no walking is even required.?? All of this is run with FM transceivers between 51 and 450Mhz. ??
It's a different world, doing things in people's houses where the users own the network.?
So my curiosity, and? the reason I watch this email reflector, is that I am hoping to see VARA-FM evolve into something our local data network can take advantage of.? I think it will as the cost of embedded PCs comes down.? I bought a used Intel NUC at the Shelby hamfest for $75 and the guy had several of them.? MSWindows10, 32GB SSD and 2GB of RAM.? It's a pathetic MSWindows10 computer, but are we getting close??
--KA2DEW?
Stephen W9SK