Greetings stargazers!
This year we have made lots of changes/upgrades, some small, some big. It’s as good as we can make it this year now, but each year is an opportunity to evaluate and improve.
On the core network side, we have a newer better firewall that can actually handle the 1 Gig Internet service from PTCI along with all our traffic. We also upgraded our core L3 switch for better performance, more PoE support, and more ports and uplink options.
We also invested in some higher gain 5 GHz antennas for our mesh network. These double our power to drive signal from the field to our Base AP’s at Okie-Tex Hall and also our Base station near the bunkhouses. But doubling power is not enough when you have trees and RV’s in the way, so we added 3’ to our field towers using fiberglass extension rods (fiberglass is strong, but also does not create any RF interference that can alter the performance of antennas). With that extra height, we also added guy-lines using reflective high-visibility line and also red solar lights to mark where those guy-lines hit the ground. Around each tripod, we marked with green paint a circle which is really the guy-line distance, but also a warning not to setup too close to a tower site.
So far, things seems to be working well, and noticeably better than previous years with regard to throughput testing to the mesh towers, We also have WiFi into almost all of the bunkhouses - one AP (WiFi radio) short of being able to do that - we’ll try to do better next year,
One major issue that surprised us was that our Ethernet link between the old building and the bunkhouse area was cut (when CBJ upgraded the water system and added a fire hydrant, the conduit for the Ethernet was hit) so we had to scramble and thanks to the quick ideas and action of our OTSP leadership and especially Jody’s Husband Fred who brought out a trencher so we could quickly lay out some line for a new link and get things running again. There was no time to get new conduit into the ground for it, but it is outdoor rated cable and should get us by this year at least.
Also, thanks to all our volunteers to helped setup this year, Mitch, Kinney, and Raymond - if you helped and I am forgetting here, forgive me! It has been a blur! We were short handed due to missing a couple of our regular volunteers, but we made it through.
Clear skies!
