7mi WiFi connection
 

The apartment I'm at has included internet, and it's quite good compared to what my parents can get. They live 7 miles away as the crow flies.

What are my chances that I could get a decent connection 7 miles away to my parents house by mounting a directional antenna from the 3rd floor balcony of the apartment to my parents house on a hill?

What are my methods of determining if there is line of sight? I have a fairly powerful green laser. I've also got a telescope.

I'd be willing to climb one of the large doug fir trees and mount a directional antenna and router to it. Got any antenna recommendations? I've got a couple satellite dishes laying around.

Seems like a fun project anyhow.

EDIT 1:

Just found this website for determining line of sight:

https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-p...line-of-sight/

Here's the analysis based on the GPS coordinates I took from Google Maps:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-re...tion-study.jpg

The blue point is my apt, and the green point is my parent's house. This does not factor in that I'm 30ft up in the apartment, or that I would be mounting to a tall tree on the property. It seems my biggest priority is mounting as high as possible at the apartment.

Apparently there is a product from Ubiquiti Networks called the PowerBeam M5 AC that is rated to 25 km.

EDIT 2:

The elevation chart shows a ground level at the apartment of 70.4m. The first hill peaks at 84.75m. The tallest hill is at 88.27m. My parents at the ground are at 84.83m.

I figure the balcony is about 10m from the ground, which has me just 4m short of clearing the first hill. Perhaps I could get the antenna at my parents house 30m up a tree. It would be darn close to clearing that first hill (and all the rest of them).

EDIT 3:

Better website for determining line of sight:
https://airlink.ubnt.com/

Could you mount the antenna on your end to a pole on the balcony, or do you have neighbors upstairs? With that hill so close to you, any gains you can make on your end would be worth several times the increase at your parent's.

What's on the tops of those hills? Trees and buildings blocking the view won't help. I doubt the 25km range of that antenna includes such obstacles.

I wanted to help but you answered your own question.

Are those intervening hills barren dunes or are they populated with apartment buildings and trees?

I imagine the hills are farm fields, as I'm in Silverton and my parents are in Salem (on a farm). I've got a Wilco and Safeway between me and them looking out in their direction. I'll have to get a telescope out and see what is beyond all that.

I'll have to see what I can get away with in regards to mounting a 17" dish on a pole and hanging it off the balcony. I'm on the top level, but I'm sure the owners don't want ugly things extending out of their complex.

Seems this is unlikely to work, although it's right on the edge of practically impossible. Projects that are almost impossible are the most fun to work on.

Chances are ZERO

If you and they lived at the top of mountains yes

If you had a repeater at the top of their hill
Maybe

I found a better website:

https://airlink.ubnt.com

My immediate problem is the wall of trees obstructing my view of any hills. This website shows I'm either 3m short on the apartment end, or 13m short on my parents end.

I've communicated with FRS radios with someone in Silverton before. I had forgot to turn my radio off, and heard someone talking in my room. Found out they were in Silverton.

Put solar repeaters on the trees in the way? :D

Reminds me of my idea of building a cellular network that used other people's phones as repeaters to reduce the number of required cell towers. Repeat through as many handsets as necessary to reach the nearest tower.

The tallest tree I can see is in the cemetery across the street. Looks to be about 200ft tall. A large dish and solar panel would be very conspicuous up there.

Paint them green? I have pointed out cell phone towers disguised as trees, cacti, and palms as I have driven with people. Either they insisted they were trees, cacti, or palms, or they said they did not see it, which is a bit weird, when I say "Hey! Look at that!"

They probably did not look up from their phone.

I imagine you think a tethered custom helium balloon designed to look like a flying saucer would also be conspicuous.

Perhaps this will help?

https://slashdot.org/story/02/02/08/1912256/cringelys-bank-shot

I have never tried to beam 2.4ghz like that before, but given enough amplification and restricting it to one direction I would think 7 miles isn't too far.
https://www.solwise.co.uk/images/ima...mounting-3.jpg

I did think about painting the dish in camo, but the solar panel needs to be angled in a specific way to capture the sunlight.

Helium balloons were among my first thoughts for mounting an antenna, but there is no practical way to stabilize the orientation, which would make for a very flaky connection.

My next thought was to strap a long pole towards the top of the tree and mount the antenna to that. Stability concerns arise again. These trees already sway a lot in the wind. Being atop a pole would multiply the effect.

The distance should be no issue at all. The objects in the way is another matter. I'll try to get a more precise measurement of how far off the ground I am, along with precise GPS coordinates so the mapping can be as accurate as possible.

Now I know what I'll be doing for Thanksgiving... mapping the GPS coordinates of the tallest tree, and then measuring its height.

Right. Trees sway. That is very inconsiderate of them.

A helium balloon would definitely do worse.

That 200ft tree has to be a conifer, right? It needs an inflated gold Mylar pentacle about 8-10ft across on top. It could be installed and serviced by drone, and lighted in season.

Six cable to three anchor points to eliminate rotation.

Here's the cemetery tree that I'd use if I could.

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.0059...7i13312!8i6656

I believe that hill is what is in my way. Perhaps I can shave a little off the top.

Could you put a 20ft antenna on top of the house/garage/barn? How high can you go at you apartment?

I can go at least 100ft up a tree at my parents house. At the apartment where height really matters, I probably can go another 8ft from the floor of the balcony.


http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-re...2-img-4328.jpg

This is the overhang of the 3rd floor balcony looking out towards that large tree in the cemetery above the Wilco sign. My parents are approximately straight through the telephone pole in the middle of the photo (left of the tree).

There is no getting over those trees, so the signal would have to push around/through them.

(EDIT: Found out Ecomodder orients all photos with the longest side horizontal, so it screws with portrait photo orientation. Adding white space on the sides to make the width 1 pixel longer than the height corrected the orientation.)

Interesting. I guess that explains why some pictures have been submitted sideways.

Playing with the simulator linked above, it shows that if I can just peak above the hill, I can expect 25 mbps on 2.4 Ghz. I'd be happy at half that. Not sure that is realistic through trees though.

Their highest gain antenna shows that I could get 200 Mbps, which I'd be happy to get 10% of that.

Pringles can slung under a drone.

I've had my eye on one of those too. My preference is to build one, but at the rate I complete projects, I'd just have a box of parts until something better comes out.

Slickdeals listed a drone with most of the latest bells and whistles for $350.

What I really want to get into is powered paragliding. My parents already have a barn to store it in, and the land to take off and land.

I like your Pringles can idea though. Perhaps I should start by making my own antenna to get proof of feasibility with a faint signal, and spend real money only when it will improve results. I've got a coat-hanger TV antenna I built out of parts laying around, and it works pretty darn well. It needs a little beefing up to pull in signals in Silverton though.

I use the nanostation Loco M2's, I have several pairs and a set of three running at a few locations.
They have better range than the 5 ghz more expensive radios in foliage, ironically.
Wet foliage is the downfall. I shoot through some trees and it works till you get enough rain stacked in there, then those leaves become handy dandy reflectors.
If you knew somebody who could "see" both endpoints, you'd be golden.

If you look at the story about Robt. X. Cringley in Permalink #10, you'll find that back in the 980s he used a telescope to identify a house he could see downtown. Then he went down there and offered to pay for their Internet access if they would pass through uphill to him.

You want a clear line of sight. Foliage grows with time.

To Save Net Neutrality, We Must Build Our Own Internet
We must end our reliance​ on big telecom monopolies and build decentralized, affordable, locally owned internet infrastructure.

2.4 ghz is the same frequency as microwaves to heat up your food. So water absorbs the signal.

If 2.4g is a no go you may have to get a 900mhz bridge.

It apso reflects somewhat nicely off glass and mirrors.

I took a walk with my wife yesterday to see what route to take to her work. If we hop a short fence at the apartment, cross the railroad tracks, cross the intersection, and take some stairs that lead to a short field in front of her work, it's a 4 minute walk. I'd estimate her work is a good 40ft in elevation compared to the apartment.

We then walked to the Oregon Garden, and I'd estimate that is 100 ft higher than the apartment. I might be "volunteering" at the garden soon. Perhaps they have some tall trees that need some pruning, and a solar panel with antenna. I can see the valley from up there.

A repeater on the high ground would indeed solve your problems. 4 of the ~$50 Loco M2's would do it.

I've used the Loco M2's and my experience has been the same. They're wonderful until you have a wet tree in the way, and then you get nothing.