Intent

Put Up a Node Night is intended to grow the SeattleWireless network. It is a monthly gathering of SWN members and other Seattlites who are interested in

Attending

If you are interested in attending one of these events, join the "talk" list from the MailingLists page and/or show up to the event itself. We will post upcoming events and their respective locations near the bottom of this page. Please list yourself as an attendee for the event you wish to attend.

Hosting

If you are interested in hosting one of these events, edit this page, let everyone know you're going to take charge, and make sure you have everything you need beforehand. Alternatively, you can contact CJCollier, and he will schedule a night for you.

We expect a certain amount of technical expertise of NodeAdmins. However, there is quite a bit of expertise in the community that is not being used. You will likely be able to convince some knowledgable admins who don't have a good LineOfSight from their location to another to run the technical bits of your node. Currently, we are heavy on technical folks and light on buildings with roofs.

Checklist

Upcoming Events

Contact CJCollier to schedule one!

Past Events

December 2003

Host

Location

Date

JohnHaws

8309 Fremont Ave N

12/13, 10:00 a.m

Attendees:

Comments

John

PUaNN II was a success -- DxNode up and running by 4:30 same day. I've got photos which I'll post soon.

It was definitely a community effort --

TomMarshall provided the needed technical expertise and helped me get everything configured; JeffLamoureux donated his very professional contractor services and installed the equipment, and did a damn fine job; DennisHanson provided lots of debate on the location of the antenna. Tom donated a 60ft run or so of old cat5, and ChuckSimmons donated an extra waterproof box, so I saved a good $50 or $60 there. And the my PoE worked perfectly, thanks for the tips CJ.

We didn't even need a trip to Lowe's or RadioShack.

A lot of discussion revolved around where to actually put the antenna. Aesthetics were a bit of a concern, so we settled on putting the antenna at one end of my house at the apex of the roof, and didn't use a mast. The AP sits inconspicuously under the eave. It's a pretty nice installation -- I'll post pictures on the Wiki soon.

I was a bit concerned about my roof interfering with the signal for people downhill from me, but coverage seems pretty good. I have not gone out with netstumbler nor done any formal test of the signal, but an informal survey of my neibors suggests coverage is at least okay.

Next step will be to find an appropriate mast and get perhaps a yagi up as well, and move up to a CxNode. In the mean time, I'll work over the holiday toget NoCat up.

November 2003

Host

Location

Date

TomMarshall

10747-C Greenwood Ave N

11/22, 10:00am

Attendees

Pictures

Comments

Tom

So things came together pretty well considering I made pretty much zero preparations for the event. After everyone arrived at about 10:15, I went over to my neighbors' houses to borrow a ladder. The only ladder we could get was too short to reach the roof, so we split into two groups: Todd and Matt went to find a longer ladder while the rest of us went to get hardware. We went to Radio Shack to buy an antenna mount and a mast. Then we went toLowe's and got a waterproof plastic box. By the time we got back it wasgetting close to lunch, so we ordered pizza. I decided that I'd rather not cut up the original wallwart for my RG1000 (dunno why, not like it's valuable) so I went out to get a replacement transformer for PoE (and some sodas while I was out). In the meantime, Todd (who brought the climbing gear) got two ropes thrown over the roof and anchored on both ends.

By this time it was about 1:00 or so, and a couple people had to leave. Todd also had to leave. He showed us how to use the gear before he left.We spent a couple hours putting together the rest of the equipment. We disassembled an RG1000, drilled holes in the box for the u-bolts, cut some foam to put into the box for padding, made the PoE cable (CJ did this by memory), and other various preparations. CJ went up into the attic and found a vent pipe with a rubber seal. The Cat-5 wire with PoE fit quite nicely beside the pipe.

Finally we assembled the antenna mount. It turned out that the mount was only designed to hold a 5 foot mast and I had bought a 10 foot heavy duty metal mast. It was obvious that the mast needed some guy wires to stay upright. Turns out that my antenna was already mounted on a perfect mast: a 4 foot wooden dowel. This fit into the mount perfectly and wasn't tooheavy or too tall. But the mount did not come with screws, and we had also forgotten to get sealant for the antenna-to-pigtail connection. Another trip to Lowe's and Radio Shack.

CJ and I went up to the roof just as it was starting to get dark. We mounted the antenna but it turns out the screws weren't quite long enough to get through the shingles and into the wood (the shingles are very thick at the peak of the roof). I'll have to go back up tomorrow and put some longer screws into the antenna mount to hold it more securely.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. The antenna is mounted and the node is functional. Yay! :-) A great big thanks to everyone that helped out.

C.J.

I think the event went very well. There's still a bit left to do on the 23rd, but the majority of stuff got taken care of.

Lots of trips to Radio Shack and Lowes.

I now know what the insides of an RG1000 look like.

I built my first Power over Ethernet (Cat5, really) setup.

ToddKutzke was a great help. Tom and I would have surely fallen to our deaths if it were not for his climbing equipment and instructions. Plus, he rented a ladder for us and brought it to the event tied to the top of his wife's car (Thanks, Patty!).

MattTowers showed off his Soekris box. It's neato. We discussed building Soekris kits. More at HackNight, I'm sure.

I tied the ladder to the roof of my car with one of Todd's ropes and returned it to Handy Andy's after I left Tom's place.

CaseyHalverson

When you guys are finished completing your node installs, make sure you read the top of WhereToGetOn so we can add your new node to the node list.

PutUpANodeNight (last edited 2008-04-13 16:36:49 by localhost)