AREDN Mesh 5.8 GHz Sector Antenna Added at Anchorage Hillside South Site
A 5.8 GHz Mikrotik MANT19S 120-degree sector unit was added to the AREDN Mesh arsenal at our Anchorage Hillside South site yesterday. It is aligned due west with 120 degrees of coverage so it should cover much of Anchorage and might be reachable from the Nikiski, Kenai, or Soldotna areas. This unit adds to the existing 3.4 GHz capability already at that site.
There is a wide variety of gear available for use on AREDN on 5.8 GHz. See the AREDN page here to see what gear can indeed work: https://www.arednmesh.org/content/supported-devices-0 We’ve found the Mesh exceptionally useful for many purposes including:
- VOIP Phones / PBX
- Linking Winlink RMS stations to a single “Post Office” – VERY IMPORTANT
- Chat Services
- File Server
- DMR Repeater Link
- APRS I-Gate
If you live in Anchorage and can get line-of-site to the South Anchorage Hillside, Site Summit, R1 North (EARS Club Station on Elmendorf), Providence Hospital, or Alaska Native Medical Center, it is
likely you could connect to the area’s Mesh network if you have the right gear (it’s pretty inexpensive compare to amateur radio gear). As a comparison, to install a simple 1200 baud amateur packet station would include the costs of a power supply, radio, tnc (or sound card), feed line, and antenna (let’s say likely in the $200 – $250 range to be really conservative). You can acquire new gear to use on the mesh, in some cases, for under $100 (these units come with their own power supplies…you have to add the Cat 5/6 cable). If you don’t have line of site to one of our existing node, we can even open a “tunnel” connection to something like a Mikrotik HAP (lite, AC2, or AC3) unit. 5.8 MHz 
An additiona 5.8 GHz Sector is to also be installed at the EARS club station and at our Hillside South site in the near future to help with our transition from 3.4 GHz to 5.8 GHz. If you’d like to learn more about the Mesh and how to get started, drop a note to mesh@kl7aa.org. We’d love to help you “flash” your first unit! 73, Kent, KL5T
