DIARY #17
AIRONETS
A Useful Reason for High
Speed Radio
The final work we did was to install and
operate the fastest speed radio we brought - an Aironet BF500.
While Paul Hanson had used an Aironet 100
and a PCMIA Aironet for linking the Big Buoy and its data to
the Internet, and already had rigged a temporary antenna on
the roof of the Trout Lake Station, the newly installed 2.4Ghz
antenna 120 feet up the Tower waited, unused.
We brought, not only the BF500 Base Station,
or Root, radio to attach to the antenna cable, but an Aironet
UC4800-E, an 11Mbps, Client data radio.
After coordinating with Nick Offerman and
Ryan Ludwig on the setups of the Aironets they configured (Radio
IDs, passwords, and IP addresses), Margot and I configured the
NSF BF500, after attaching it to the cable to the 120 foot 2.4Ghz
antenna. Then we configured the UC4800, and both immediately
began talking to each other.
So the 2.4Ghz Radios, antennas, and long
cabling met the test.
Then I turned on the YDI 2.4Ghz half watt
amplifier, which will be used to extend the range of the 100
milliwatt Aironets.
It is not clear just how far through the
forested land, the 2.4Ghz radios will communicate. This has
yet to be tested. However they will communicate across Trout
Lake, the largest and longest lake in the vicinity.
So I consulted with Tim Kratz, PI for the
LTER at Trout Lake - did he think deploying a web-server camera
- which can use the higher bandwidth the Aironet class radios
produce - on the Big Buoy, would be useful? He responded that
it may, but he was sure it would be useful in other lake locations.
So before we parted, I promised to procure
an Axis 200+ Web Server Camera for Trout Lake, and we can experiment
with it. The UC4800-E radio, with its 10baseT Ethernet port
can readily be connected to the Camera, out on a float so long
as both are powered by the battery, and the images can be fetched
by anyone with a browser pointed over the Internet to the IP
address of the camera.
On the next trip, it will be desirable to
configure the Aironet 100, the BF500, the UC4800, and the PCMIA
Card UC4500 into one ethernet speed network. The role of the
BF500 can be as 'relay' radio through the 120 foot mast to any
Aironet, or properly configured (both ends) 802.11 Protocol
radio within range.
We will work toward that end.
NEXT
