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Site Summit MESH Adjustment – hold on to your hat!

KL7MD and KL5T trekked up to Site Summit again late yesterday afternoon to make some antenna alignment adjustments for the MESH node.  We weren’t satisfied with the signal levels between it and the EARS Clubhouse node.  We had actually lost connectivity for a few hours during the day during a very bad weather period.  We reviewed the path study and determined that we needed to make some changes to the tilt angle of the installation.

Well, we got the work done and improved the signal, but wow, it was a trying effort.  The wind was howling, and accompanied by rain, sleet, and eventually snow.  It was a fine time atop the mountain.

Next step will be to conduct some connectivity tests around the area, and hope that we’ll demonstrate good connectivity from Wasilla locations.  We’ll be testing with a Ubiquiti RocketDish with Rocket M3 Radio installed.  This is the big gun of the array of equipment and should do the trick.

Here are a couple screen shots that show the signal levels before the adjustments and after the adjustments.  Looks like we gained about 5 db.

EARS Clubhouse Node as it hears Site Summit. Note the lost signal period, followed by a regaining of the signal, then a higher signal level after antenna adjustment at Site Summit.
Site Summit node as it hears the EARS node. Note the increased signal level following adjustment of the Summit node.

More to follow.

73,

Kent, KL5T