Re: [PLUG] Wireless network - Swarthmore

[gabriel rosenkoetter <gr@eclipsed.net>]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2003 at 09:57:18PM -0400, Chris Magnus Hedemark wrote:
> So tonight I got up on top of two of the tallest structures in 
> Swarthmore (off campus).  The disappointing bit was that the trees in 
> Swarthmore, as old and impressive as they are, are awfully big.  In 
> fact, beyond about a half mile there was not much that was visible 
> above the tree line at all.

Especially if you're looking west across the Crum. Bear in mind
that there's *also* nothing you want to hit with wireless in there.
(Well, it'd be *nice* to be part of a mesh with a wireless handheld
while walking through the Crum, but the only way you're getting
there is bouncing through other human's wireless devices at ground
level.)

Could you see Parrish's flagpole up on campus? What about the train
station? (Trainstation's nice because it's a straight shot down the
tracks to Morton; no such lock on the way to Media. Who knows if
SEPTA would go for something like this, though.)

Some of your message got lost last night (cell phone flaked; not
necessarily a good omen ;^>); could you see any part of my place
past 101 Chester? Because if you can get to me, I can get to most of
downtown Swarthmore from Park Ave. north.

> Building Name: "Greylock"
> Roof GPS: 30:53.984N, 75:21.051W
> Roof elevation: 63 feet above sea level (standing on the elevator shaft)
[...]
> View of downtown Swarthmore is limited though due to two other
> tall buildings in the way.

One of those tall buildings (ONE-OH-ONE; yes it's printed that way
on their address sign) houses (used to house?) the Math Forum, a
formerly Swarthmore-associated online-education company (non-profit?
don't recall). I used to know a bunch of people there, but I don't
know who's still left (there was a lot of turnover around the time
the moved out of Swarthmore's environs into ownership by a private
company).

http://www.mathforum.com/ makes me think that they may have moved to
Drexel entirely at this point. But finding out who owns that joint
and if they're amenable couldn't hurt.

> Building Name: "Swarthmore" (yeah, real imaginative)
> Roof GPS: 39:54.005N, 75:21.031W
> Roof elevation: 56 feet above sea level (at roof line)

Huh. I thought that the Greylock was the norther of the two (that
is, to the left when looking from Chester/320). Was I just confused?

> This roof was littered with beer cans & bottles, had some lawn
> chairs on it, and is probably a frequent hangout of drinking kids.
> Vandalism potential.

Don't jump to conclusions. A lot of just-post-college kids live
there, historically anyway. They may very well drink out on the
roof, but if they knew what your antenna was and why it was there
and were making use of it, they wouldn't be too likely to vandalize
it.

In any case, how would Strath Haven kiddies make it up on that roof?
The front door has real security (you either have to break glass,
have a key, or be buzzed in to get in) and the fire esacpes in the
back don't come close to touching the ground.

Weren't you, at one point, considering Strath Haven condominium? I
think it's a pretty poor pick for any back haul stuff (it's on the
way downhill, at the corner of Yale and Harvard), but finding a way
to hit it 

> Swarthmore as a whole appears to be pretty low.  This is probably not a 
> good place to act as a backhaul site to other towns, because you can't 
> really see anything above the trees for miles and miles.

The top of the hill on campus would be great though. You can see
four states from the roof of Parrish (counting PA, of course).

> I think the alternative is to see about using a different freq
> for back haul links (might 5GHz cut through the trees?)

Only in the winter. I'd say it's best to assume that trees are
solid.

-- 
gabriel rosenkoetter
gr@eclipsed.net

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