Hands On Activity

Upcoming Events

TBA

Ongoing

Experiments are ongoing in becoming IPv6 capable and getting various services and apps working over IPv6 in preparation for this transition particularly with respect to the EWN. When you are ready to go IPv6, announce it on the list to find help and others to connect with. See NetworkingResources for more information on IPv6.

EWN expects to employ extensive use of VoIP. Experimenters need practice configuring, using and maintaining SIP call servers. If you can put a call server online that others can experiment with, please announce it on the list. We have intentions of putting one online at L42 in the future. See VoIP on the NetworkingResources page for information on soft clients and such.

Previous Events

EWN Field Tests

Most hands on work by SVWUX in the past year has been EWN related, though this is not intended to be the case forever. See EWN Connection Logs area for descriptions of past activity.

Wireless Warrior Weekend

Named in jest after the colloquial term for the National Guard, wireless warrior weekends are essentially training weekends. We meet somewhere in the south bay, learn a skill that is useful when deploying a wireless network, and then practice that skill in a hands-on scenario.

Incident Command System - October 28, 2006

At the request of an SVWUX member, we covered an introduction to the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS). ICS is used by almost all first responder organizations, including fire departments and EMS. It can also be used for normal events as a way to coordinate multiple people and organizations in a concise effort.

The training consisted of a classroom phase (two hours) plus a hands-on phase (three hours). Food was provided, courtesy of the Silicon Valley Cisco Users Group.

Attendees came from various different clubs and groups around the Bay Area, including (but not limited to) SVWUX, SVCUG, Cisco and NASA Ames Research Center. Some of the skills that people had included amateur radio operators, medical knowledge, and light search and rescue.

The first hands-on exercise involved a team of five individuals building a set of Legos from the instructions ... the catch was that those with the instructions were outside the room, talking with their teammates who were building the model over the radio. It definitely highlighted a need to have common terminology and to be familiar with your communications equipment.

The second hands-on exercise was a mass casualty incident (MCI) drill. The story was that someone was driving through the parking lot and hit some pedestrians; our first responders were being sent in to find all injured parties and evacuate them to advanced care. Four volunteers from the group simulated our "wounded" and everyone else was a "responder." Afterwards, we had pizza and debriefed on what went right and what would be improved for next time. A key learning lesson was to remember to step back every 10-15 minutes and just reevaluate things.

Many of the attendees finished the day by taking the IS-100 exam from FEMA's Emergency Management Institute. Through EMI, those who passed the exam received the IS-100 certification. Congratulations to everyone who came to the class, and especially to those who passed the exam!

GPS and Compass Headings - June 10, 2006

Most technophiles are familiar with the inner workings of a GPS unit, but few know how to convert GPS coordinates to a compass heading manually.

Starting at Rivermark, we ran down the worksheet created for SVWUX by Chris Verges. (Note: this worksheet is based on Euclidean geometry, and does not take great circle calculations into account. There is a margin of error of +/- 1 degree for every mile between two GPS coordinates used.) Around 11:30am, we split into two teams (Alpha & Bravo) and walked 5 minutes in any direction. Then we called out our coordinates on the radio and calculated the true north and magnetic north compass headings.

After lunch, each team drove to a different location (unknown to the other team) and setup their half of the wireless equipment. After trading coordinates on the radio again, the teams calculated the proper heading to align the antennae. Within the first 20 minutes, both teams were able to establish an 802.11a link and call each other over the VoIP system.

Team Alpha was located in Alviso at the marina's parking lot. Team Bravo was located on the bay between the Sunnyvale landfill and Moffett Field radar. The total distance was between 2 and 3 miles, and neither team could see the other using binoculars.

Photos from the event have been posted on Headnut.org.

Equipment Introduction - May 27, 2006

This weekend was tailored around introducing the equipment being used to the participants. Members from three local groups (SVWUX, Stratofox and SVCUG) attended.

The day ended with a successful three-way VoIP conference call over the network we deployed that day. Pictures from the first weekend have been posted.

Beta ideas

There have been a few ideas proposed for upcoming wireless warrior weekends:

1. A work party at the SVWUX tower in Los Gatos to upgrade the current equipment to the new network standards
2. A long-distance multi-point wireless connection from distances greater than 15 miles
3. "Field day" style deployment

No firm dates or agendas have been developed. More will be posted once these firm up.

-- Main.Andy - 08 Oct 2008