Gould Creek Build Report

The Air-Stream Gould Creek site is located on the side of the hill with excellent views looking across adelaide. The site underwent an upgrade on mid october 2009. The site previousley was running two RouterBoard RB433's with a 2.4ghz Backbone to Air-Stream EARC and 5.8ghz to Air-Stream Osbourne. The site also had a Superpass 8db 2.4ghz Omni. It was decided that this site desperatly needed an upgrade from reports of less than dialup speeds.

Starting around 8am the new mast and many antennas were loaded up on the trailer and we headed out to the Gould Creek Site (bypassing Bunnings on the way). When we arrived, other Air-Stream members were eagerly awaiting to get started.

The old boxes and mast were removed to be reused elsewhere in the network. Once the existing setup was removed, construction on the new awesomeness was started.
The new and current setup at Air-stream Gould-Creek consists of:
  • Wall-Mountable IP66 Enclosure
  • 2 x RouterBoard RB433AH
  • 1 x RouterBoard RB433
  • 4 x Mikrotik R5H
  • 1 x 2.4ghz Card
  • 4 x 26db 5.8ghz Parabolic Grid antennas
  • 1 x Superpass 8db Omni
  • 1 x 24v Switch Mode Powersupply
  • Assortment of MMCX and U.fl Pigtails
  • Plenty of LMR400
  • About 80000 Cable Ties
  • and plenty of self amalgamating tape
The New equipment was assembled in the following order:
  • Mounting Brackets for new mast
  • Routerboards, Powersupply, cableing and Pigtails Mounted in box
  • Antennas were attached to the new mast
  • Coax measured, cut and crimped
  • Coax Attached to top antennas + Self Amalgamating Tape
  • Mast attached to mounting brackets
  • Wall box bolted to the wall
  • Antennas connected to pigtails and taped.
  • power run to box
  • Alignment of antennas - This takes quite a while to get right
  • Configeration of routerboards.
  • Data cabling
The Gould Creek site has various backbones to other key Air-Stream locations:
  • 5.8ghz - Air-stream EARC
  • 5.8ghz - Air-stream Paralowie
  • 5.8ghz - Air-stream Sailsbury East
  • 5.8ghz - Air-stream Osbourne
  • 2.4ghz Omni to Various clients

Overall the day was long but a huge success, with much better speeds reaching clients now.
The majority of the installation was funded by Air-Stream, with some members contributing antennas and wireless cards and of course their time.