Training Log Archive: edwarddes

Radio testing at Townsend.
Exhausted by the end of it, carrying gear around in the heat was a lot of work, and I hadn't brought any water. Half way through I had to pack everything up and head into town where I bought a gallon of gatorade and drank most of it immediately.

First started work on the link to the day 2 start. Thick pine forest and uncooperative terrain with a drop right at the end. I didn't even bother testing any 2.4 gear and went straight to the 900 kit. With a 10ft mast at the arena, and a 10ft mast at the far end using 3mhz channel width and just the internal antennas I was able to get a decently reliable (-83) link within cat5 cable distance of where the start is going to be. The final drop was killer though, I couldn't get anything right were I wanted to be. I think with 20ft on both ends, and using the yagis instead of the internal 8dbi antennas, I can make a very reliable link with a final cable run. This just has to be good enough to sync the start clock times over the network and update the chasing start clock display with any start time changes. I was lucky and the 900mhz noise floor was showing -103. Being right next to a police station with a big tower, you never know what scada systems, or pagers, or smart meters you will run into that are trashing the spectrum.

Next up was links for the radio controls. The master plan was to get a pre warning link, and then links to two sites 1.5km into the woods. I had picked out a clear site 100m from the arena for the tower, with a plan for a really short easy hop back to the timing tent. 30ft tower set up with the rocket and sector antenna on it. This was in a clear area shooting out over a swamp which I though would be good to avoid some of the trees.

First link to test was to the pre warning. Simple nano station on a pole worked, but just barely. Not a good sign. Turns out there are 400m of super dense pine forest between here and the tower, large mature trees with very dense trunks and branches.

I headed up the trail towards the first radio control site. At the end of the swamp the signal was good but not as great as I wanted. Although I was partially aligned with the swamp, that few hundred meters of thick pines was right on the path that I wanted to the radio control. Kept hiking up to the site and set up a 10ft pole and plugged in the laptop to look at signal strength. Nothing. Too many trees and not enough prominence. Moved around for a while looking for a nearby clear spot or cliff or anything to get through the trees. No luck, so back down to see where the limit of the signal is. Found a small hill along the way that was ~700m from the tower and was able to get a link.

Overall a disappointing day, but its really unrealistic to expect this stuff to work the first time on the first sites you choose before you've even seen what the veg along the path is like. With obstructed fresnel zones and NLOS links, its really hard to predict what is going to happen without just going out and trying things to see how that area is going to react. This is also a really tough area due to the lack of large clearings and prominent hills/cliffs.

The plan for the next time I go out is to move the main tower to another clearing 400m from the arena, but in the correct direction of the radio control. I have a couple of options then. Try the 2.4ghz from there to the control, find another intermediate repeater site and keep brute forcing my way through the trees with hops, or try the 900mhz gear here. I only have one pair of 900mhz radios though, so I may have to get another set. I really want to try a pair of the rocket900s with the 17dbi dual pol yagis.

If I can make a good link out to this one radio site, then I am in good shape to get a useful intermediate control on the courses, with options for more radio controls that can see this site depending on how much time and equipment we can devote. At least in the fall I can be sure that the reception will be better as the veg dies back.

C • Reception in the Fall 2

Rolling time: 41:26 15.16mph avg

Into work along the river. Still haven't fixed my flat, so I stole the rear wheel off of Alex's bike (Don't tell her). If I just put my flat wheel onto her bike, do you think I can trick her into fixing it next time she wants to ride?

This is cool, I figured out how to email the data directly to AP from my phone. Weird that when I do it this way it took out my stopped time, but when I upload the gpx file it includes the stopped time.

C • emailing to AP 4

Drafting all afternoon today finishing yesterdays fieldwork.

C • nice! 7

Got a purple pen file from Magnus for the Townsend meet, so I was able to finish off some test print layouts and get a better look at shared controls for radios. I'm headed out to Townsend on Saturday to test potential links for day 2 from the arena to the start, and the arena to intermediate controls, and to the pre warning control. 4 links to test in all. Best case is that all the radio controls could hit the same 2.4Ghz sector antenna in the arena, and then I could sneak a 900Mhz link under the pines to the start.

Peabody School in Cambridge and surrounding small parks and tennis courts. Also got the other side of the underpass of the tracks so I can almost connect it to Danehy for some fun map hopping between Fresh Pond -> Danehy -> Peabody School