"Charles Brabham" wrote in message
m...

"news" wrote in message
...


Can you point me to reflectors/forums for WiFi ham band networks? I would
like to catch up with what people are doing in this area.

I can give an overview of what's being accomplished in this area...

Summary: Lots of hot air, accompanied by little or no action.

We have done some test links, to verify path issues.
Then we did the cost analysis.
About $2k per endpoint for the paths we need to cover.
So we have some short links, but any interesting links require
investment from a group of hams instead of a single ham.
That has not happened.

As far as I can tell, nobody has utilized the WIFI/SHF stuff in a
substantial way. There are lots of "mini-networks" here and there, but I
have yet to hear about anything of an established, permanent nature that
"rings a metroplolis" or even a small town. Another common networking task
that has gone unreported is linking packet nets in two cities via WIFI/SHF
links. Nobody has stepped forward to even claim to have accomplished that
basic task.

The problem is cost.

The ARRL HSMM group has been around for years and years now - but there is
no substantial WIFI/SHF amateur radio network - anywhere - to show for it.

The same applies to the dozens of WIFI/SHF reflectors and forums that have
popped up over the last decade.

Lots of speculation and nit-picking technical arguement - but no usable
network. ( On any substantial scale. )

The technical issues are simple to solve, they just involve money
to buy amplifiers, coax, antennas. The money issue cannot be solved.

There is really no particular reason why these things could not be done.
It is all well within the realm of possibility, but for some reason there
has been no particular effort to utilize WIFI/SHF equipment for these
basic networking applications, except on a small, local scale. I've noted
that even the small LANs that pop up from time to time utilizing WIFI/SHF
gear seldom stay in operation for very long.

It's money.

Why? - My explanation for this is that the same amateurs who tend to be
interested in WIFI also tend to disparage the idea of established amateur
radio digital networking. - They all appear to believe that we would be a
lot better off to just use the Internet instead of building independent
amateur radio infrastructure. - So they don't do it.

That has not happened here. We just don't have the money to do it.
Note that the Portland Metro area is broken up by many large
and small hills. We need at least two dozen sites to cover the
whole area. At a few $k per site we are talking total investment
greater than $50,000. We have had 9600 in place for years,
but those sites will mostly not work for WiFi. Think "wet trees".

--

... Hank

http://home.earthlink.net/~horedson
http://home.earthlink.net/~w0rli