A Broadband Ham Network

Crosses the Finish Line

A broadband ham network brings long-range video
to the Big Bend 50 Ultra Marathon's finish line.
The Equipment
HSMM-MESH nodes are made from readily
availa ble co nsumer \\' i-Fi routers (sec .. .....',
hsmm -rnesh.org for model numbers that arc
supported by the software ). No internal hard-
ware modification is needed; it's simple to re-
amphitheater, The network is easy 10 set up,
battery powered and far less expensiv e than a
satellite link
' \' "
...
The 50lOOon-a Finish Line Cam
A group of hams from the Austin ARC (JOf
Jelinski. KC2KG; Paul Kinney. KD5VRU;
Milch London. KD5 HCV, and Alan Russel l.
KE5DTR j got the idea 10 deploya hi gh-
speed mulumedia mes h (HSMM-MES HI
net wor k 10 broadcast a live vi deo feed from
an Internet pr otocol vide o ca mera (si milar 10
those used in security applicati ons ) at the fin-
ish line for specl alors gath ere d in the re mote
Each year in the cool weather of January, Big
Bend National Park hosts the Big Bend Ultr a
Run. a 50 kilometer (31 mile ) marathon Ihal
is limited to 150 runners to minim ize environ-
mental impact. Athletes come from around
the world to co mpete,
Lynn Jelinski, AG41U
Big Bend National Park is located north of
the Rio Grande River. which separ ates the
United Star es fro m Mexico. Big Bend, which
is I..rgcr than the state of Rhode leland, is a
remote and dramatic wi ldemess located
within the harsh Chihuahuan Desert .
The Challenge
To support the marathon. ha ms from the Big
Bend Amate ur Radio Club, the Austin
Amate ur Radi o Club and the San Antoni o
Radio Club establi shed a race control and
safety 11(1 OIl 1 meters. The race net had been
used during previous race s and had pr oved
very effective both for coor dinatio n of race
activities and runner safety. However . for the
spectators, somethmg was nussmg.
The fri ends and fa mily of race participants
couldn't watch the ir runners cross the finish
hne beca use they we re cordoned otti n an
amphith eater at Rio Grande Village about 10
mi les away
Fi gure 1 _ The equjpment used t o estabnsh Ih!! HSMM-MESH nodes
are the Linksys rout er. a 12 V batt ery-powered UPS. signal mirror. com-
pass and leather gloves. [Lynn Jel inski. AG4IU. photo]
Figure 2 - From Ihe left are Mil ch, KD5HCV. Joe. KC2KG, and Alan,
KE5DTA. who used a compass to aim the antenna and a sigrtal mil -
ror 10 COflfi rm the orienlati on. The antenna is seCl,Jred wrth guy wires
att ached 10 10 inch steel spikes. The cooler is 10 keep the battery-
powered UPS warm during Ihe night. [Paul Kinney. KD5VAU. photo]
6.
Ju1y2013 ARRL,the
.

Finish Une:
9.1 M iles

Figure 3 - Alan Russell , KE5DTR (L), and Joe, KC2KG, are looking
out from the HSMM-MESH node location atop Ernst Ridge to the lmts h
line 9.1 miles away [Mitch London, KD5HCV. photo)
Fi gure 4 _ Paul Kinney, KD5VRU, adjusting the video display a nd deal -
in9 wilh t he bri9ht TeJ(Bs sun . [Joe Jelinski. KC2KG, phOl OJ
.9 Jul y 2013 _.anl.org
Did you e njoy thi s article?
Ca st Yol,lr vot e at =---
www.a m.orgic:over-plal!IM-po11
viewed wh at went we ll and what could be
improved
The major ghtch of the event was tha t we un-
deresti mated the intensity of the selling Texas
sun. It was so bri ghtt hat it overpowered the
video projecnor. Despit e our havmg erect ed a
canopy over the screen, using a projection
screen with a highly reflectiv e surface and a
high-power ed projector, the finish line vid eo
proj ection was hard to sec (sec Fi gure 4 ).
Next year we wi ll use a TV screen or a CRT
to display the hIe video feed ,
Next Year -Audience Cam
Spectators loved seei ng their runners cr ess
the finish line, but the runners themselve s
didn 't hear (he cheers or shar e in their exhi la-
ration. Nu t j-ear we plan to place a second
vide o ca mera ill the audience - an "a udie nce
cam" - so we can provide a live "ideo feed
to the athletes at the wilderness finis h line .
HSMM-M ESH is up t o the tas k!
Joe Jeli nski, KC2KG; Paul Kinney, KD5VRU;
Loden, KD5HCV, and Alan Russell.
KE5DTR, contributed 10 this article.
Lynn J elinski, AG4tU, an ARRL member, was
nrstncensed in 2000. Lynn and her spouse,
Joe , KC2KG. were members 01 the East Coa st
WatelWsy Net cl urin9 their 11 years operating
mamrn e mobite.lynn helps universities write
grants for research lundln9, Lynn and J oe can
be contact ed at 6406 Hopkins Dr, Austin, TX
76n 4. kc2kgG earthttnk.net
Network Performance
Thanks to caref ul placement of t he nod es.
good ant ennas and the 10 RF noise floo r at
Big Bend National Park, e were ab le to
get 100% copr We placed backup butteries
at each re mote nod e in case we need ed the m,
but the origina l batteries last ed for the entire
10 hours of the race. The batteri es po wering
the video camera last ed for 6 hours and
needed t o be changed durmg t he race .
di sh ant enna at both location s For the 1,8 mile
path to the Rio Grande Vi llage. we us ed a
12 dB omnidirectional antenna paired with a
12dB Vagi. With these antennas and d ear sig-
nal pat hs, we didn't ne ed an RF amplifier.
Prior PlalVling and Testi ng Payoff
OUf gro up spent man)' of our Di gital
wednesday meetings planni ng the operat ion
We studied topographical maps, tested the
nodes and checked the cold-temperature per-
formance of the batte ries. Having planned the
antenna locations, we performed a microw ave
path analysis of the terrain to see how reliable
the paths wou ld be,
Once at Big Bend we validated our planning
wit h on-site testing, We set up the network .
checked ant enna stability and battery inregnry
:! days pri or to the event. In preparation for
the event each of us had climbed Ernst Ridge
wit h heavy bac kpacks nt least thr ee ti mes,
clawing for handholds in the rocks whi le ho p'
ing the temperat ure was too co ld for sco rpi-
ons and rattlesnakes. Each ascent was the
eq uivalent of clim bi ng 400 stai rs

II was dark by the time the final runner, wh o
was b)' then a walker, hobbled across the fin-
ish line. Un der the light of the stars we re-

Deploying the Network
Using microwave path analysis softw are, we
determined we needed IWO nodes, one for a
9.1 mile pat h (see figures 2 and 3) and ano ther
for a I 8 mile path, For the 9, I mile path from
Ernst Ridge to the finish line, we used a 24 dB
As the nodes arc powered up , the soft war e en-
ables each node to disc over other nodes wit hi n
range, for m net work paths and transfer data
automatically
Two of the nodes, the finis h line camera
node and the Ernst Ridg e relay nod e, we r e in
locations so remote that they didn't have eiec-
tri city We chose to usc lightweight (6 Ib)
12 V batt ery -powered uni nterruptable povver
supplies (UPS jto power thes e nodes I see
figure I ).
The Amateur Radio Advantage
These routers normally de Ii\ er only hous ehold
distance operation, This is where Am ateur
Radio comes in, Some of the 802.11 BIG (24
GHz) channels 0 \ erlap the Amateur Radio
bands. If you hold a Technician class or higher
license )' ou may attac h an amplifi er, antenna
or both to the node to Increase its us eful range
Remember, only the operating soft ware tfir m-
ware) in the Wi -Fi router is change d to convert
it to a mesh node.
program the rout er with free software
downloaded from the site, The software con -
verts the standard router to a microwave mesh
node, (A mesh node operates within a mes h
network. Each node in the mesh net work can
acq uire data fro m all external device (such as
a video camera ) and also reb)' data acq uired
b)' ot her nodes. - Ed,) The convert ed router
will still use the factory transmn power of
aooUl80 mW