On April 19th, the Seattle Wireless crew successfully made a long shot from the TacomaZone to MtBaldi, about 28 miles away.

The MtBaldi Project, now part of the SnowNet project successfully tested voice over ip, http, and ftp file transfers. Pictures for the test are available here and here.

Mt. Baldi has Line Of Sight to Orting Microwave Site, Blynn Microwave Site, Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and mountains that can relay signals into eastern Washington communities.

They used stock Lucent 802.11b cards and a +24dB grid antenna. Casey Halverson explains:

This link test was done in IBSS mode. So no access points were used. Unfortunately, the windows Orinoco IBSS driver does not like IBSS modes higher than 2mbps. So this was the speed we were associated at. The signal strength would have allowed 11mbps.

EIRP is not really an issue at this distance of 28 miles, but 802.11 DIFS/SIFS timing is.

A pair of Senaos and 24dBi parabolics would yield a -62dBm signal strength over a 28 mile distance, which rivals the strength one would see in their own home. We were in the high 70′s and low 80′s due to several less than ideal situations (yagi antennas proped up with rocks, etc), but that is still plenty of signal.

We at PersonalTelco are jealous as hell.

Why not a Seattle to Portland WiMax link. It would be operated as a non-profit, dedicated to public service agencies like the USGS, the Forest Service and schools. It would be dedicated to scientific and educational activities.

How about starting with a 10 mile hop from inside the Mt Saint Helens crater. Currently the Mt Saint Helen’s live camera is maybe 10-12 miles from the crater at Johnson Ridge. Let’s put it inside.

Here’s what I’d do to unwire the CraterCam:

1. I’d plug YDI’s +18dB Amplified Flat Panel Antenna into a 54 Mbps Linksys WET or BuffaloTech’s 54 Mbps, 802.11g Bridge ($189).
2. For the camera, I’d use a Veo user-controlled camera ($200), a D-Link MPEG-4 camera ($300), or a digital zoom camera like the IQEye ($1200). FLIR infrared/thermal cameras could provide revealing imagery. Automated surveillence camera software could be used with digital still cameras, video cameras or network cameras.
3. I’d mount it on a 15 foot mast. A 60 watt solar panel could power it.

Maybe I could put the gear inside an Igloo ice chest (or Pelican case) and cut a window for the camera. YDI’s calculator indicates it should go 12 miles easy.

Total cost for Saint Helens Unwired: a few thousand bucks.

Mount Washington Observatory, on the highest peak in the northeast United States, has some of the worst weather imaginable. The non-profit weather research station installed a five-mile point-to-point webcam using ORiNOCO gear to connect a remote Web cam to the Observatory’s wired link to the Internet. Solar power from SunWize Technologies powers it.

The camera is a Canon VC-C4 pan/tilt/zoom (PTV) model. It’s controlled by an AXIS 2401 Video Server from Axis Communications, which allows an operator to control its angle of view and zoom the lens in and out over the Internet.

Here’s the output from the Wildcat Web cam at the Mount Washington Observatory. To learn more about the engineering project and see pictures of the technology in situ, go to Zakon’s site.

Perhaps a joint venture ($10K each) with the USGS, universities, Intel, FLIR, and tourism as participants. SeattleWireless and PersonalTelco would provide in-kind contributions. It could be matched with another $50K from grants and donations. Then fold in a (standalone) educational component.

Nikon’s new D-2 has a Wi-Fi adapter for automatic FTP. Put it in an underwater housing and power it with solar cells. Steve’s Digicams lists dozens Camera Control Software packages. EZ-AutoCam, for example, automatically snaps a picture, saves it to a PC, deletes it from the camera, and FTPs it to a website. Mate it with a Fujitsu mini-laptop ($1200) and a 5 Megapixel still camera ($699). The Breeze Remote Pro ($129), allows a Canon EOS-1D, EOS-1DS, EOS 10D, 300D, Digital Rebel or Kiss Digital digital SLRs to be operated tethered to a PC using the FireWire or USB cable. A remote PC program could control that. Four to six cameras with wide angle lenses could feed a ZOOM Image Server (gallery). The Seattle Science Center and OMSI could make money on the mountain. Viewers could see big screen displays covering each wall (in 360 degrees) and zoom in for more detail.

The CraterCam is not a toy (really). It could link to a USGS sensor network inside the crater. It would save a ton of money over satellite or cellular relays.

Contributions under $5,000 might also be encouraged with some sort of “package”. That amount is under the “competitive bid” threshold for many agencies. The CraterCam network would target only non-profit scientific & hobby applications.

Real-time seismic waveform data are currently telemetered (via VHF radio) from 12 seismic stations near Mount St. Helens to the seismology lab at the University of Washington and the Cascade Volcano Observatory, in Vancouver Washington. Broadband could support instrumentation like ground penetrating radar, infrared cameras and high resolution photos.

Palm-size sensors, called a mote, consist of a sensor board, a radio processor and two AA batteries. They can record micro-climates. Intel is experimenting with them in vinyards.

Lots of NSF grants are available for sensor networks and it would complement John Delany’s Neptune Project. The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory is playing a key research and management role in Tsunamis.

Consider these sensor networks:

• The IRIS Data Management Center, located in Seattle, Washington, just off the University of Washington campus where the Geophysics Program acts as the host organization. The center receives earthquake and seismic data from a variety of Data Collection Centers and is responsible for the long term archive and distribution of all IRIS generated data.
• The IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee Alliance specifications can relay telemetry for months on small batteries. The Wireless Data Research Group says the market for low power, low data rate wireless technology (LR-WPAN) will increase at a 47%. Wireless systems using ZigBee are capable of multi-year longevity on standard alkaline or lithium batteries, with multi-channel connectivity of up to 250 kbps. Perfect for real-time volcano data collection.
• Sensors Magazine reports a new XML encoding scheme may makes it possible to use real-time data obtained directly from Web-resident sensors, instruments, and imaging devices. By describing sensors using SensorML, anyone can put sensors or sensor data online for others to find and use. Because it’s XML-based, it means all this data will easily be searchable.
• MachineTalker automatically establishes a multi-node wireless, ad hoc, mesh network among nodes. Each MiniTalker carries its own sensors for temperature and vibration, and shares results with other members of its “Community” for collective pre-processing and evaluation. Sensors can be affixed and re-located without rewiring. High schools might do more up-close and personal science than trained professionals.
• CORIE is a pilot environmental observation and forecasting system for the Columbia River. It integrates a real-time sensor network, a data management system and advanced numerical models. Are they aware of SensorML and Wi-Fi networking? Maybe not. The tools are here.
• The NSF reports on wireless environmental monitoring benefit biological scientists for efficient collection, sampling, and communication via the Internet. Hopefully someone reads these reports.
• CORBA is the acronym for Common Object Request Broker Architecture. The open, vendor-independent architecture lets computer applications work together over networks. Thames Water, for example, serves over 21 million people and allows over 1000 system users to communicate from the field and office. Remote users access to data that is necessary to complete the tasks at hand in the field.
• FLIR Infrared cameras use easilying download JPEG images and can see in the dark.
• Wi-Fi could save lives battling forest fires. Wi-Fi trucks, linking to nearby repeaters, could provide live situation reports, track personel, and provide interoperable radio and messaging to other crews. Sensors dropped on a forest fire will be able to form an ad-hoc network and provide data about where the fire is burning the most fiercely.

It may be wishful thinking to believe that various scientific and non-profit organizations would work cooperatively. High school science teachers and community lan hobbyists may, in the end, be best equipped to save the government millions of dollars.

A shared STP backbone could benefit everyone and could be managed by an independent entity.

The DataStorm mobile satellite dish mounts on top of any Truck, RV or Trailer. The dish automatically locks on the DirecWay satellite with mobile access fees a flat $99 a month. There are No-Per minute fees and no extra bandwidth charges.

Ground Control is a Voice over IP solution that uses the Directway satellite.

A “virtual fire lookout” for the Forest Service could save millions of dollars annually. A Wi-Fi Van could provide Wireless Streaming Video, Audio/Video Blogs or even live video in 360 degrees. It might even save lives.

Two 180 degree high resolution netcams ($1800/each), can produce live, panoramic video. Combine it with a 4 Megapixel still camera with a 10 to 1 zoom ($500) for high resolution detail on an area of interest.

Portland-based iMove uses 6 cameras in a cube, while cross-town rival Immersive Media uses 12 cameras in a soccor-ball like camera head. JVC’s HD camcorder ($3000) might also be coupled to BeHere’s bowl-shaped 360 lens which produces streaming 360 degree videos with only one camera.

The Panoscan Mk 3 is the best panoramic camera in the market. VR Seattle uses one. Essentially no post-processing is required since it uses a rotating slit-scan camera. It enable an essentially 1000-1 digital zoom.

A Portland to Seattle link might hop from:

• Portland to Mt St Helens (60 miles)
• Mt. St Helens to Mt Rainier (60 miles)
• Mt Rainier to Seattle (60 miles)

The St Helens link goes the visitor’s center. The CraterCam would be a separate link. I’d stuff an Igloo Ice Chest or a NEMA weather proof enclosure with the following goodies:

• A solid-state mini itx box ($500) or a Soekris box ($300), with dual 200 mW 802.11b cards ($90 each)
• Two, YDI +18dB amplified panel antennas
• One, 125 AH marine/deep cycle battery
• One, 60 watt Solar Panel
• Misc. power regulators, cables, PoE, etc.

Actually, I wouldn’t use 802.11 for this relay. I’d wait until the spring of 2004 and use this basic architecture but subsitite 802.16a radios, probably at 5.8 GHz.

Cisco’s Aironet 1400 ($4995), using 5.8 GHz, 250mW radios, might provide a useful model for an moderately priced backhaul network.

Using YDI’s range calculator, I figure Cisco’s Aironet 250mW, 5.8 GHz radios (with 83db sensitivity), might have a range of 30 miles (using a +30dB one foot dish) and a +20dB fade margin at 10-12 Mbps. With -80dB sensitivity, it’s still a healthy +17dB over the noise level. Each side would need about five to six of these $5,000 units. Redundant radios provide backup. A total budget of $250K might be in the ballpark. It’s beginning to look expensive, but it’s still one tenth the cost of a commercial system and several times faster.

Inexpensive Ka band satellite dishes like WildBlue and SPACEWAY on 4-5 relay points could provide redundancy and a “virtual lookout” for the Forest Service. Scheduled to launch service in 2004, SPACEWAY incorporates packet switching, spot beams, and bandwidth-on-demand, operating in the Ka-band. The Hughes Broadband Alliance qualifies equipment for satellite use like D-Link’s video cameras, Amnis remote controlled cameras or a IQEye digital zoom Netcam.

Two-way Ka dishes ($2,000), equipped with digital zoom cameras (2X $1,000) could anchor a Forest Service monitoring system. Crews could “beam up” when near a mountain-top satellite terminal using commodity 802.11 or 802.16. With live 360 degree coverage of the forests and a redundant ground-based relay network, the Seattle to Portland network could provide useful service.

Maybe we should stretch the budget to $350,000- $500,000 if we include a satellite-enabled “virtual lookout” for the Forest Service. It’s cheap insurance, when the Forest Service spends $1 million a day fighting fires. And we could cut down on some of those redundant ground-based relays using satellite uplinks. Redline says they can go 50 miles. Figure 4-5 relay points on each side. Maybe a total of 10 relays with 4-5 satellite-enhanced uplinks would be about right. Figuring an average of $30K per relay point, that’s ($300K) total with another $200K for good measure. Stopping one forest fire would pay for it, of course. If it works, we could string another line down the Columbia River from Astoria to Richland. Homeland Security could fund that. They can watch for nuclear bombs.

An Alvarion, Aperto, 5Gig/900Mhz Canopy, Redline, Proxim or Trango might provide reliable, industrial quality relays. There’s tons of dark fiber on the I-5 corridor, of course. But none goes up the mountain. The Redline AN-50 supports up to 8 channelized T1 circuits. If a Seattle/Portland T-1 cost $200/month (about $20K/year), it could be a self-sustaining coop.

Northwest Microwave has a system that focuses on the Northwest, with over a dozen points of presence. One termination point is one block south of Portland’s central library. But NWM is point-to-point. It’s competition to fiber. It uses licensed microwave bands and doesn’t deliver a point of presence at “hot spots”. We would.

The 5.8 GHz band might work. The power limit is 1 watt but there is NO limitation (on Point-to-Point) until a maximum of 200 Watts EIRP is reached. With 5 GHz and 1 watt amps into a +23dB panel, a range of 30 miles might be practical.

Maybe ten relays strung every 20 miles or so down the I-5 corridor would make a practical, inexpensive, emergency backbone. You’d need something like Karlnet, or better yet, 802.16a. I don’t know if these kinds VERY long relays would be practical but it wouldn’t cost much to find out, would it.

The Astoria Column, which marks the end of the Lewis and Clark Expedition or the Astoria Bridge might be a good place to put a 360 degree panorama. I’d put two Nikon 5400 cameras ($699), back-to-back with matching 180 fisheyes ($200/each) inside an optical glass dome. The automated capture software, like Easy Pano, could run on a Toughbook locally or at headquarters.

PanoGuide.com and Panoramic.net review software like Panoweaver and their Easypano Batch Wizard which can create a panorama from fisheye images automatically. Updated panoramic images could be microwaved every 10 minutes to the Astoria Maritime Museum and the Columbia Bar Pilots. A 42″ Plasma screen ($3,000) could show Sony’s live, viewer-controlled Netcam, which features a 25-1 zoom and two Type II PCMCIA card slots (for Wi-Fi links). A room with 4 walls could project four views from the column. Zoom in. With continuously updated stills or video.

The Columbia Bar Pilots might prefer a live Pan/Tilt/Zoom Thermographic camera controlled by an Axis 2401 camera server or the SeaFLIR (right) used by the Coast Guard.

Canon’s 11 Megapixel 1Ds ($8000), or 6 megapixel, 10-D ($1500) can snap and downloaded high resolution panoramas every 10 minutes. Nikon’s new D-2 has a Wi-Fi adapter for automatic FTP to a website. An $800 Wi-Fi Fuji S-602 camera or $500 4 Megapixel, 10 to 1 zoom camera on the mouth of the Columbia River could supply detail. Used in conjunction with MGI’s ZOOM Image Server, viewers can zoom into image objects to view fine details. Multiple people can simultanously view different areas by selecting a (very) small section with a mouse. You can embed high resolution FPX images inside low resolution panoramas for incredibly high resolution in specific areas. It’s great for web viewing, since images are always screen resolution and load fast. Newer Digital SLR Systems are likely to have Wi-Fi built in.

Eric Kozowski suggests looking at the leadership exhibited by the amateur radio repeater system. They currently have a path between PDX, SEA and Spokane (among other places). They have towers and mountain top sites. Evergreenintertie.com and lloydio.com/evergreen.html have more.

Federal bucks will install 5.9 GHz ITS relays to connect weigh stations and highway readerboards. Weather, police, fire, schools and tourist information offices might help the feds out by piggybacking on the ITS network at 5.8 GHz. They’d hit the rest stops. The military and NSA already piggyback on commercial satellite and fiber networks. What’s the difference?

Leadership, in the end, is not likely to come from federal bureaucracies. It will more likely come from high schools and from people on the ground who have a job to do. Same as it ever was.

Additional 360 video technology is explored in my Tracking Ship Movements story and Long Haul, 54 Mbps Networks story.

UPDATE: Slashdot reports a guy in Parma Heights, Ohio has a website to promote an idea of linking the east coast to the west coast using standard off-the-shelf 802.11 equipment. He is aiming for a July 4th, 2006 first coast-to-coast ping. I can’t imagine anything like that working, but it’s an interesting idea. I got some nice microwave maps from the SlashDot posting. Here are the early microwave routes linking the Eastern U.S, the Central section, and the Western U.S. microwave routes.

These tower routes were designed to facilitate cross-country communications for the public but they also had a wartime mission–keeping the President in communications during WW3. I have more on cold war communications (and international fiber networks), at my tour of Portland’s Pittock Internet Hotel. GIS Links like the TopoZone, Oregon GIS, Ormap.org, BLM Maps and Washington GIS Maps have more.

The U.S. Forest Service is by far the largest government manager in Washington State, overseeing eight national forests in Washington State covering 9.2 million acres of forestland. The State of Washington Department of Natural Resources managed by the Washington Forestry Department, is the second largest government manager, overseeing 2.1 million acres of forested trust lands throughout the state.

The Oregon Department of Forestry fire program director Bill Lafferty, predicts an average to above-average fire year for 2003. Roughly 450,000 acres in Oregon and Washington have been scorched annually in the past five years.

The Forest Service and other land agencies spent $1.3 billion last year. Oregon spends 1.2 million dollars a day fighting fires. More than $150 million was spent on last year’s Biscuit fire in southwest Oregon, the biggest wildfire bill in U.S. history. Last year, fire destroyed over 1 million acres in Oregon, nearly half from the Biscuit fire. Millions WILL go up in smoke this year. Guaranteed.

The Interagency fire center says 650,000 troops were sent to fight fires in 2002. They won’t be available in 2003. Budget cuts will further restrict the ability to fight large fires.

The military uses laptops and PDAs to win wars. A Seattle to Portland wireless network could pay for itself in a day…and save a few lives.

Vertex Standard got a $2 million order from the U.S. Forest Service for both the VX-4000 and VX-900 Series Portable two-way radios, which will be deployed in Oregon and Washington.

The VX-4000 mobile radios offer multi-channel capacity, dash or trunk mount capability and can send an emergency signal with live microphone audio to alert the dispatcher to a critical situation.

The VHF VX-900 portable radios can be programmed and meet an extensive list of Mil Std 810 C/D/E/F specifications. Two unique features of this Vertex Standard portable are its loud 700 mW audio output and the built-in Emergency microphone feature.

The Forest Service may over-react once it discovers how much money it can save, then install a gold-plated system that excludes the USGS or other public agencies.

Why wait? An in-depth cost/analysis would only take a few months. Millions are going up in smoke every day it’s delayed. Working together for mutual benefit starts at the grass roots. With an e-mail.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2003 at 8:26 am.