January 4, 2018 Club Meeting
Thursday, January 4, 2018 at 7:00 PM Red Cross Building, 60 Hawthorne St., Medford, OR (across from Hawthorne Park)
Program: High Speed Multi Media MESH Networks for Ham Use, John Armstrong, KF7UMK
High Speed Multi Media (HSMM) networking involves the use of the 2.4 GHz amateur band to provide not only point-to-point high speed data links, but also the ability to mesh multiple radios into a network that is resistant against failures. It achieves this by automatically building network routes that can bypass failed radios or RF path outages. John will talk about inexpensive radios and antennas, along with free software that you can use to build your own network node, and to join the existing network in the Rogue Valley.
John Armstrong, KF7UMK is the club secretary for 201, and also a member and founder of the Rogue Hack Lab. He is involved in computer and networking related projects.
Announced in the January 2018 issue of The Repeater.
Meeting Notes
From the February 2018 issue of The Repeater.
The January meeting was held at the Red Cross building on January 4, 2018. Our new president Allan Taylor, K7GT, called meeting to order at 7:05pm.
Visitors who spoke up were Will Morgan from Talent, who is studying for his license, and Tom Miller, N7WQ, a longtime radioman, now from Grants Pass.
Lud, KB2EVN, passed around a photo of his friend’s antique radio at a show in Pittsburg that featured a Harry and David pear in the display.
Darrell Barker, N7CZX, asked about the possibility of a dual-membership option with the CARE club (Cascade Amateur Radio Enthusiasts). Bob, K2GLO, made a motion to look into that, which was seconded by Dale, N7IXS. The motion passed unanimously.
President Allan Taylor, K7GT, discussed results of the presentation planning meeting held at Tom’s house on January 2. There was a long list of potential program topics for 2018 that may be provided in a separate document as we narrow them down to the most interesting and practical ones.
Darrell commented on Bruce Cook’s (KG7TUO) home-brew barbed-wire antenna that worked quite well.
Bob Earl, KD6UIH, and Mike Bach, WB6FFC, suggested seeing about getting a solar power talk by the Home Power magazine folks.
Dan Farris, a new ham and member, asked about emergency preparedness by the club.
The meeting took a break at 7:30 and restarted at 8pm for the presentation.
John Armstrong, KF7UMK, and Pat Cunningham, KD7MPA, gave a presentation on mesh networking in the Rogue Valley on the 9cm ham band, using low-cost commercial wifi equipment. Custom firmware from the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (aredn.org) allowed the wifi routers to operate in the ham band and implement a dynamic mesh network topology. Services such as text-messaging, file-transfer, voice-over-IP, and video camera streams can be provided on this single-subnet private network. Around half a dozen nodes covering over 5 miles distance are currently operating here, and several more are planned. The goal is to have a regional high speed emergency communications data network, operable independent of grid power and the internet. Each node consumes about 5-10 watts and can operate on solar-charged batteries.
After questions, the meeting was adjourned at 9pm.
John Armstrong, KF7UMK, Secretary
