So Cal Free Net.org

Today (2/14/04) the SDWUG/SoCal FreeNet crew met up at Influx in Golden Hill for our monthly install day where Golden Hill residents are welcome to come to Influx and ask questions and get advice and even have members come to their houses to help them get online.

Today was interesting, as we also had a scheduled site survey for possible expansion of the Golden Hill network to the rooftop of a house at the intersection of 26th and Broadway. Myself, Drew, and Steven broke from the influx group to scope out the situation. Structurally, the house is just begging to have some antenna masts, LMR, and CAT-5 run all over the place! There is even a small, unused room at the back of the house that could house some gear, and an attic/crawl space to run CAT-5. The roof has several places that would make great mounting positions for a varitey of antennas. The owner (Jay) has already given us an indication that he would be willing to put a tall mast and a parabolic grid antenna as well as an omni on the roof. (click "read more" for the rest of the story)

We didn't get as much time as we would have liked, as the rain started coming down about 15 min after we got there, but we had enough time to set up a tripod with a 16 dBi yagi. Drew braved the steep roof pitch and set up the tripod and we ran a length of LMR400 down to my laptop. Long story short, it looks like this expansion is very possible!