On Thursday (02/07/2002 at 04:03PM -0600), Austad, Jay wrote: > Well range isn't that big of an issue. It's line of sight. A 40 foot mast > is about $70, which should get you above the trees in most areas. Using a > 24db dish ($130), you can do about 23 miles with no amplifiers. > > You might run into zoning problems with an antenna that tall though. That's > why I'm going to get my ham radio license this weekend. The FCC license > overrides local ordinances on antenna height. :) ah... not quite. I'm glad you're getting your amateur license but it is not true that having said license gets you any exception from these local ordinances. There is a federal ruling called PRB-1 which states only that these municipalities must afford "reasonable accomodation" for amateur antennas. This still means you must get permits and most cities still have height restrictions at 30' (some are even 20' or 10' above the roof line) and you must battle with the city to get around these limits. It's a sad situation but we are not yet at the point where an amateur license gets you anything more than some additional consideration unfortunately. Also, you may sometimes have to deal with CC&Rs (covenants, conditions and restrictions) which are private contracts between the property owner and the neighborhood developer. These have absolutely no override support at the federal level w.r.t. amateur antennas. Only broadcast TV antennas and 18" (actually up to 23") satellite dishes have been federally preempted from these. It would be my position that any successful deployment of this kind of network would depend on finding good, high, public sites for repeaters rather than at people's houses (since there will be only a few of us with towers or the ability to install towers). The majority of the sites should plan on using small antennas such as loop yagis, grid reflectors or flat panels and point them at the repeaters. Then, wireline access is provided from people's houses or other facilities and put onto the network via these directional antennas. A repeater is perhaps two APs tied together with an ethernet crossover cable or something more fancy like a single AP with an antenna switch that allows it to automatically switch between an omni and a directional antenna depending who the packet is for. But it doesn't neccessarily provide access to the wireline network. It simply extends coverage of the wireless network. I have a 40' tower here (45.056N 92.978W 1073MSL) in Mahtomedi and I have line of site to Wisconsin... but a somewhat less than ideal microwave view to the south and southwest. Count me in for playing along too. I have lots of RF test equipment for building, tuning and testing antennas and microwave systems and a fair amount of experience installing said gear. As I mentioned, I am in Mahtomedi-- which is just south of White Bear Lake, a northeastern suburb of St. Paul-- and NOT a suburb of Duluth inspite of what Andy Warner will tell you. Chris ARO N0JCF -- Chris Elmquist | mailto:chrise at pobox.com | http://www.pobox.com/~chrise