On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 11:32 PM, Michael E. Fox - N6MEF
<n6mef@mefox.org> wrote:
(Please trim inclusions from previous messages)
_______________________________________________
I agree with you about not having the perfect locations for microwave
frequencies. We have some nice sites on mountains and some not-so-nice
sites with trees. So I was originally excited to read about the UDR56K.
*BUT* I, for one, am really disappointed that the UDR56K is also a linux
machine. I think they screwed the pooch on that (although I understand
about 300 pre-orders would disagree with me). Why do I say this? Because I
already have a linux machine running JNOS (and a bunch of other stuff). I
was excited about the prospect of switching our current backbone from 1200
to 56K. I was hoping to just plug it into another serial port on my
existing linux machine. But it has no serial ports for my other
TNCs/radios. (and adding multiple usb-serial adapters and a powered usb hub
is just trouble waiting to happen). And I'm betting it doesn't have the
horsepower that my existing linux system does, which runs an amprnet
gateway, mail gateway, lots of iptables rules, spam and virus checking,
etc., plus some automated network testing stuff. Whatever processor it does
have, will be aging along the processor aging curve (speed doubles every 18
months) and to upgrade, you would throw out the radio, too - a bit of the
baby and bathwater approach. In fact, forget about upgrades. If anything
fails -- radio, modem, linux system memory, linux system storage -- I've got
to replace the whole thing. All things fail at some point. So this just
seems strange to me.
I wish they had just made the radio/modem and provided a serial port so I
could connect it to whatever machine I want. I would have bought one for
each of our machines, plus a spare (7). But I don't know what to do with
what they built - namely a fast modem and radio hard-wired to a very
limited, non-expandable linux platform. But again, I guess I'm in the
minority because I understand they have about 300 pre-orders.
Oh well.
Michael
N6MEF
-----Original Message-----
We don't all have mountaintop microwave sites....
We have homes and ham stations in compromise locations with city lots,
restricted antennas and big RF absorbing trees... 25W of 440 MHz
will probably get through where less power at higher frequencies
won't. The UDR56K is a good compromise real world solution that is
probably the last best hope for AMPR data...