Slashdot Mirror
Build Your Own 10Mbps Microwave Data Link
Rob writes: "I found this site called The Microwave Data Link Project where a guy is attempting to link 2 LANs (2 miles apart) by a 10Mbps Microwave Data Link. I've seen the plans for these links, but never wanted to learn all that amateur radio stuff, but this guy is going to lead people step by step how to build it, including how to get your FCC License, and more. Should be interesting to follow the progress!"
... referenced in the article, at http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx.
/.-worthy. The response came back in about 5 minutes:
:-)
:-)
Amusingly, I submitted the project page to Slashdot myself about a year ago, when I first got the link working. When the submission was rejected, I wrote to one of the well-known admins at Slashdot asking what I needed to do to make it
I just didn't think it was interesting enough.
Sorry.
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| http://slashdot.org/ | Just want to be a moody man,
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| flove*lovemachine*wr | --Pete Townshend, Misunderstood
Dejected, I was forced to admit that my news-for-nerds quotient just couldn't compete with the guy who built a PC case out of Zebrano wood, or whatever the story-of-the-day was at the time. Consequently, Rob gets major props from me for doing a better job writing up the submission than I did.
Now for the bad news: out of many thousands of hits my site's received over the past year, only one guy, an EE professor at a local university, has successfully duplicated my efforts. In my mind, that somewhat validates the unnamed Slashdot admin's decision not to publicize the project in the first place. People, this is not a project for beginners or casual electronics buffs! In the year since I finished the project, a couple of excellent alternative solutions for RF data links that make good use of off-the-shelf hardware and homemade antennas have come to light. For instance, there's a good page on the topic of modifying Proxim Symphony cards for long-range service at Low-Cost Wireless Network How-To. I would have to say that this is a better approach for 99% of the people who have looked at my microwave link page and thought about building it. Heck, in retrospect this is what I should have done, instead of putting in all that engineering time on a 100%-custom solution.
My own 10-megabit link has been running great since last June with only a couple of hours' downtime for maintenance and tweaks, and it's easily the most 'educational' project I've ever tackled. But I think it's important to temper peoples' expectations. If you are an experienced electronics hacker with access to a very well-equipped RF test bench or a university EE lab, and you just want to spend a lot of time and money building something something cool, then I highly recommend my microwave link project. If not, do yourself a BIG favor and check out the various wireless-Ethernet card tweaks that have been springing up on the Web.
-- John Miles, KE5FX
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
p.s. Do you have any information where I can get a free counter for my website?
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