Lately, I’ve been working a lot on the update to my No-Nonsense General Class Amateur Radio License Study Guide and haven’t really been doing much experimenting or building. That changed a bit this week, as I finally downloaded the mesh networking software for the Linksys WRT54GL router I bought several months ago.
The software and—information about amateur radio mesh networking—is available from the Broadband-Hamnet website. If you don’t recognize that name, it’s because this project started out as High-Speed Multimedia, or HSMM. You’ll still find references to HSMM here and there.
Downloading and installing the software was pretty straightforward. The instructions for doing this are well-written, and I had no problems turning my Linksys router into a mesh networking router. After rebooting, the Broadband-Hamnet screen appeared, and I set up my node as kb6nu.local.mesh.
Then, something strange happened. I’m not sure exactly what I did, but I couldn’t seem to get back to that screen. I did a couple of power-on resets, but still no luck. Of course, the problem was operator error. I needed my Internet connection to download the software, but didn’t turn off the wireless connection. Once I turned it off, I was able to repeatably access the router.
On Saturday, Dinesh, AB3CD, joined me at the Hands-On Museum, and we set up a mesh between his routers and mine. We didn’t do much else, but prove that we could do it, but that was certainly a step in the right direction. We also talked about some things that we might like to do with this, including:
- Test how far away two routers can be.
- Test various antennas to see how they affect the range.
- Get some apps, such as irc and ftp running on the mesh nodes.
- Figure out how to connect an IP camera to the mesh.
The upshot is we haven’t done anything really cool yet, but there is some potential here.
New tubes
For all of you who thought that vacuum tube technology was dead, think again. KORG, a Japanese company is now manufacturing a vacuum tube, the NuTube 6P1. Their press release says:
KORG INC and Noritake Co., Limited are proud to announce the successful development of the ground breaking technology, Nutube, a new miniaturized and high performance tube. In cooperation with Noritake Itron Corporation, KORG INC. has developed the Nutube to offer incredible reliability and efficiency while still generating the same rich harmonics which vacuum tubes are known for. The Nutube 6P1 featuring this innovation will be on display at the Korg USA Winter NAMM Booth.
KORG has used vacuum tubes for many years in products such as VOX-branded guitar amps and effect units, KORG-branded dance/DJ products such as the electribe MX/SX and keyboards such as the SV-1. Vacuum tubes have played a major role in shaping the sound of VOX and KORG products, and have been a crucial element in their distinctive character.
As with previous vacuum tubes, this newly-developed Nutube is structured with an anode, grid, and filament, and operates as a complete triode tube, generating the same rich harmonics that are distinctive of conventional vacuum tubes. By applying technology from Noritake Co., Limited’s vacuum fluorescent displays, the structure of the vacuum tube has been modified, dramatically reducing its size and allowing it to consume less power. Production is carried out at the cutting-edge Japanese production facility of Noritake Itron, a subsidiary of Noritake Co., Limited., significantly raising the product quality in comparison to previous vacuum tubes.
They claim that the NuTube is only 30% of the size of a 12AX7, uses less that 2% of the power required by conventional tubes, and last up to 30,000 hours.