Broadband calling Tandrige

Update: Godstone was finally ADSL enabled... but I'll leave these details here for now. Because it was fun!

Ok here in South Godstone in Tandridge we are in a bit of a broadband blackhole.... The nearest DSL enabled exchanges are in Oxted and East Grinstead. After several days perusing the skyline with a telescope (see below), compass, and OS map. I've found East Grinstead hurrah. Visible, with a clear line of sight to a target building.

The target in East Grinstead is actually 8.4km away (5.2 miles).

So the plan is if the mountain (top right) won't come to Mohammed (middle left) we can probably get a 802.11 wireless link working at least.... or something like that anyway.

The target:

Shot showing the intended target. 8.4km in the distance.

So where is it... well with the aid of:

and the home made theodolite:

A reasonably accurate location is determined.
Looks like its this building:-

Next whats the topology like:

And line of sight:

Another advantage of driving all over the area is finding interesting things... like this tree:-

Test Equipment

So how do you test a link and play with different aerials without expensive test kit?

The answer has to be.... video senders. They operate in the 2.4GHz band and with a litte tweaking (see below) should be able to put out enough power.

Power increase mod.	External antenna hookup.	The finished sender.

The first experiment with the video senders has worked over a distance of about 1 mile.

The Aerials

Right, two home made cantennae to try out. One is the tried and tested dog food tin. The other (Campari tube) actually appears to be a much better theoretical size for the 2.4GHz band.

The Bridge

Dlink AirPlus 900AP+'s seem ideal for the job. The latest firmware supports adjustable power output control and antenna diversity selection.

As can be seen the unit actually has two aerials. So if need be we will probably be able to use a multiple aerial setup to stay within UK radio emissions regs. Using a low gain antenna for transmit, and a high gain for receive.

More to follow.....

Other bits:

DWL-650+ linux drivers - binary drivers for various linux kernels for acx100 based lan cards.