Server Addresses
For those of you granted access to the server, you can connect to it using your favorite FTP program at AdamLongwill.DynDNS.org port 14147 for Chalfant and 14148 for Braddock. Enjoy!
Yagi Antenna Field Test 1
I am thrilled to announce the results of my first field test with my Yagi antenna setup. I was able to get a usable signal at 200 feet from the source using only my G2 Android phone as a measuring device. This may not sound like much but consider the environment:
- The yagi was situated on one side of a courtyard where there were light obstructions such as trees and shrubbery in the way
- The signal had to pass through a pair of glass and steel doors which were closed.
- The signal had to pass through a long hallway that I was at the end of with a decent amount of obstructions
- The signal was received by my phone- one of the lousiest receivers there is- at a distance of 200 feet. The phone was using no special dishes or antenna of course.
What this means is that with a proper receiver (a wok lid, preferably because I think Prime dishes are easier to aim) and a second yagi antenna receiving, I believe I could have at least another 100 feet of usable signal. Of course, that is not considering the physics of the setup and is merely a guess. The cost of a transceiver station is about 40$ including a used router. For the money, it can’t be beat.
This is a $2.50 Yagi antenna specifically for wifi signals from China. I tossed on my old wok lid because I expect to use this in the field for a short distance Meshnet connection between my house and another about 1/3 mile away. I did some tests with WifiAnalyzer on my Android phone outside the house. I was a bit dissapointed to see that even with my router Tx power at 250 mW (standard for a Linksys WRT54G is 71mW) I was not able to penetrate the plaster and wood walls with a good signal. Oh well, there’s nothing I can really do to fix that. I’ll just HAVE to have line of sight connections.
To my surprise, adding the wok lid seemed to add a few decibels to the signal which I again tested through the wall. That’s good news.
I’m also happy to have found another router I had forgotten about in my little server closet. Put the OLSR version of DD-WRT micro on there no problem and now I have two ready-to-rock OLSR routers!
I will do long-distance field tests in the near future. Hopefully outdoors but it’s January so who knows.
Today I was accepted in the University of Pittsburgh’s Information Systems BS program! It’ll be my second bachelor’s degree but will open up so many opportunities.
See who else wants to build a darknet node
Here’s a map tucked away in the corner of the internet to anonymously collect interested parties who want to be a node in the Darknet.
One Site to Rule them All
This site has calculators of all sorts to calculate Fresnel zones, topography, and parabolic dish tilt. Pretty snazzy.
Me with the Buzzbee blaster with Humans VS Zombies designs by Max Temkin (Maxistentialism.com) and the rest of the crew at Gnarwhal Studios. Much love to Joe Sklover who bought one with me.
This is a photo showing the amount of decay that has effected the rear of the bike. It may not look bad but imagine a brand new bike with glossy, flawless paint. This bike has seen dozens of thunderstorms, hundreds of feet of snow and countless freezes and thaws. The paint has cracked like an old glazed pot giving it a brittle textured look. The quality of the metal is very good, however, and the only serious damage seems to have occurred on the inside of the rims. That seat post has to go though.
As I thought about this whole dish approach I started to wonder if there would be an easier way to direct the signal than calculating the angle off of the parabolic dish (because that’ll end up being rather difficult out in the field when you’re aiming at another dish over a half mile away.)
Also, a problem I realized may appear in the future at longer distances is the directional problem with having a dish. If my dish network has to bounce a signal 90 degrees or more off of center… how the heck am I supposed to do that? I tried a directional approach with some ductwork pieces here in an attempt to direct the signal just like you would when using your hands to make a mini megaphone.
Tl;Dr: This doesn’t work.
Parabolic Dish Focal Point Calculator
With the use of this little tool I was able to calculate the focal point of my offset dish. I needed to because I took the feed horn off one of two dishes I own. I wanted to do some serious calculation in order to really know the exact focal point instead of just assuming that where the feeder horn is by default is where the FP is.
