My wife and boy were gone for the night… I decided to play with my wireless setup. (Complete wireless setup details.)
I mounted one 13dbi 900Mhz yagi to my television antenna pole… on the rotor. I threw TAIL in my van with the other yagi and my laptop to SSH into it via a crossover. I knew trying to point these antennas at each other by myself would be a long shot but I didn’t have anything better to do. I drove to the corner, stuck the yagi out the window and started swaying it back and forth while I drove slowly east. Within 20 feet I got a signal!!! If I pulled 10 feet back or forward the signal was lost. Very tight directional antennas I have to say. I stopped in the middle of the road where the signal was the best and connected to the apache web server running on HEAD and proceeded to download a MP3 at 100KB/s.
Needless to say, I’m geeked now.
This was just a half-assed test. I was holding the yagi in the van with my hands… a no-no when it comes to signal loss. Plus I was 4 feet off the ground which really mucks up the fresnel zone.
Now I just need to talk to the folks at the blueberry farm and beg them to allow me to pay for their DSL!!
Griminal Grim's Ramblings
I gave the blueberry farmer a couple of days to discuss my proposal. I haven’t heard anything back so I’ll give them a call this afternoon to see what their thoughts are. I’m going to offer to do any their I.T. work they need… custom programming, web page, server setup, etc. I don’t think they can beat that… plus getting their DSL paid in full. I plan to dink around and do a half-assed site check this weekend to see if it’s possible to get service.
Griminal Grim's Ramblings
I gave the blueberry farmer a call as soon as I got home. I did do a drive-by to get the lay of the land before I called. It looks highly possible that I can get a link from their location. I talked to them a bit to find out that one building can get DSL where their house which is right next to the building can’t. I told them I could EASILY get that problem fixed via a 802.11g link. Their supposed to give me a call tomorrow at work. My fingers are crossed!!!
Picked up our windows Sunday. Had to make two trips to get them all in the van. It was still cheaper doing that than making one trip with our pickup.
I took a couple more pictures of the house…
Griminal Grim's Ramblings
The special order windows that I ordered came in. Of course we have around 3 inches of snow.
The weather was so nice last week that I did some brush cleanup in the back horse pasture. I’m now the proud owner of a nice case of poison ivy. NICE! I said screw it and went to the emergency room and got a shot Saturday night. With my insurance, it’s actually cheaper for me to do that than go to a regular doctor.
I had another brilliant idea about how to get high-speed Internet. The Covert, MI exchange borders our area… about 1.5 miles out. Covert folks can now get Verizon DSL @ 3 megabit. It’s time to start knocking on doors. Unfortunately Covert is a “poor” community. A lot of run down houses, etc.
Griminal Grim's Ramblings
Wouldn’t you know it. We have beautiful, dry weather for the last three weeks here in Michigan and as soon as I make plans to do something, the weather turns to shit. Just my luck. I’m not going to be able to take down the tower this weekend… which means I won’t be putting it back up at my house either.
We ordered new windows for the house 2 weeks ago. They are supposed to be in soon. We’re going to be replacing siding as well. I’ll be having to rebuild the eaves too. That’s going be just downright fun.
Here’s a picture of some of the progress. At the time of this picture, I have shingled the main roof (all but the ventcap) and got the porch ripped down to the planking. At present, the roof and porch are all complete. It looks great if I do say so myself. How do you like my use of an old satellite dish? Cool huh?
Griminal Grim's Ramblings