Connecting Radio and Control Boxes without actual internet?

[NZ5E]

I run a TS-480 head remotely with the Remote Rig system from my house that is only 4.14 statute miles from the tower by utilizing a 5 GHz Ubiquiti bridge on a completely line-of-sight link.  Occasionally, the cable internet service is erratic causing dropped packets and at times hanging up my system.  Is there such a thing as a link that communicates with IP that will function with the Remote Rig boxes without the need for actual internet?

[KP4TR]

Portions of the 12 channels on the 2.4GHZ spectrum routers use fall within the ham radio bands. You may want to look into this site: http://hsmm-mesh.org. I recall a group of hams in Texas who were using modified routers with amplifiers to create a "network" to be used a few miles away. At 4.7 miles, you could setup a yagi or dish and connect directly.

[dj0qn]

If the remote RRC is connected to the control RRC through a normal WLAN link, then it is within the
same local network, unless you manually placed it in a different subnet. In that case, no internet is
needed. All you do is to address the remote RRC through the local IP address, e.g. 192.168.XX.YY,
and don't use the external IP address or Dynamic DNS address. Then it makes no difference whatsoever
if the internet goes down.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[KP4TR]

But his RR radio is 4.7 miles away. A very long cable?

[dj0qn]

I have one remote station working using 5 GHz Ubiquiti Bulltets nearly 50 km bridging to
the network (two mountain tops). Works fine!

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[g4swx]

You can re-flash the firmware in Ubiquiti Bullets to give you channels right across the 2310-2400MHz range, getting clear of ISM band QRM. As long as there are no major obstructions 4.7miles is relatively easy.
Depending upon the exact version of the existing firmware you can either use a much older version of Ubiquiti's own firmware that has 'Compliance Test' available as a country code or use one of the versions of ddwrt http://www.dd-wrt.com/

73
John G4SWX

[N6IE]

This is exactly what I'm doing here in Northern California.  My remote site is 4.8 miles away over a "near line of site" path with a tree or two in the way.  I'm using an Avalan 915 MHz system that can be seen here:

http://www.avalanwireless.com/product-details-900_mhz_outdoor_wireless_ethernet_bridge-5.htm

Even though we have a lot of interference from Pacific Gas & Electric's 'Smart Meter' system that lives on the same frequencies, 15-element Yagis, 5-Watt amplifiers and inexpensive bandpass filters to knock out nearby cell interference on each end fixes things nicely.  The result is that the system and the RemoteRig are quite stable with only a very occasional, almost undetectable audio drop-out every few minutes due to the audio being sent by UDP instead to the more reliable, but slower TCP/IP.

The biggest compromise in such a system is bandwidth, which is about 900 KBPS throughput after the Avalan's overhead, but it's plenty good for ESSB quality TX and RX audio (setting #2) and a remote desktop link on a computer I use to control the ACOM 2000A, the Green Heron rotator, SteppIR controller, N8LP Remote and LP-100 Wattmeter.  Average ping time is about 6 to 15 ms.

The Avalans, amplifiers and filters are not inexpensive, about $2,200 USD, but there are no monthly bills to pay!

Ron
N6IE