Core Node

Aligning the connection to Bedford Park. Could also pick up Modbury North.

This is our first real-world trail of the F20-Pro - 2.4Ghz 802.11b/g and the F50-Pro - 5.8Ghz 802.11a mini PCI cards produced by Dbii Networks which will soon be installed at two new core nodes in the South Metro Network marked in red below.

The new site at Seaview Downs will provide a back-haul link between Melrose Park (marked Blue) and a large commercial building at Bedford Park which will significantly increased coverage in Marion area.

Skye is undergoing an upgrade today and will be offline from approximately 1pm until further notice. This upgrade should improve the quality of service to Skyes client, all backbones will remain unchanged. My apologies for any inconvenience caused.

[UPDATE]

Skye is now back online with two dedicated sector antennas for client access. AP name and WEP keys have stayed the same.

The Skye-Walker backbone underwent some upgrades today, the interface was upgraded to a Mikrotik R5H - and the CM9 that was there before it was unceremoniously removed from duty.

The upgrades have already displayed an increase in link quality (Tx CCQ within Winbox), as well as a more accurate reporting of the Noise floor between the links.

The Walkerville end will also be upgraded shortly - it is currently running a CM9 and will be upgraded to a R5H. The CM9's were installed in 2006 and were originally connecting Skye-2 to Walkerville, the cards came along with the site relocation (current site is technically Skye-3) which occured in 2007.

Skye and Highgate will be down today whilst they undergoe routine maintance and upgrades, which will hopefully improve reliability and performance.
They should be back up later this afternoon.

Cheers,
Duncan

I have a small quantity of chimney antenna mounts. These are all 'as new' condition. Very quick and easy to setup. No drilling required. Best and easiest way of mounting an antenna on older style houses.

I have used one of these at a setup for the last two years supporting a 3m tall mast with a 15dB antenna. It has proved to be strong enough to survive through the storms in winter.

Each kit comes with:
antenna Bracket
wire strap
wire clamp
x2 I-bolts
x2 U-bolts
x6 nuts
x6 washers

$15 each (normally around $33 at Bunnings)

Pickup from Seaton or DryCreek (depending what time/day)
Delivery *may* be available for little to no extra charge depending on your location and amount purchased

Air-Stream Grange is in the process of being rebuilt. A new pole was installed in November 2009 to facilitate backbone links. Access is via an 8db omni-directional antenna which will be online again very shortly.

Currently Grange has a link to Air-Stream Seaton which has been strong for 5 years. Also one client connects to Grange.

Latest image of the current set-up. this is the original pole that has been there since August 2004.

Skye has moved once again to have a new home approximately 600 Metres to the North East which not only provides good LOS to existing nodes within the network but also greater coverage and better redundancy between the CBD and northern suburbs.

The core router of Skye is the 3rd location to bare the name 'Skye'. It was originally deployed in May 2007. It currently runs a 'standard' Air-Stream Core router configuration; comprising of a Routerboard 433, two 5Ghz backbone links and a 2.4Ghz Access Point. The original setup made use of the Air-Stream FreeBSD distribution, running off a CF Flash card, however this was upgraded to the current configuration in early 2008.

SPLAT! is an RF Signal Propagation, Loss, And Terrain analysis tool for the spectrum between 20 MHz and 20 GHz. It provides site engineering data such as the great circle distances and bearings between sites, antenna elevation angles (uptilt), depression angles (downtilt), antenna height above mean sea level, antenna height above average terrain, bearings and distances to known obstructions, path loss based on the Longley-Rice Irregular Terrain Model, and minimum antenna height requirements needed to establish line-of-sight communication paths absent of obstructions due to terrain.

Below is the predicted LOS for OHalloran Hill, it assumes both up and down tilt and no signal path loss, only path obstruction.

These installations are to be considered the property of Air-Stream Wireless Incorporated, and are carefully administered under the guidance of the Network Team, to comply as closely as possible to the Technical Documentation.

Referred to as 'Core Nodes', they are designed to create a reliable backbone of connections upon which all other Air-Stream nodes interconnect.

Air-Stream APs have the following characteristics: