Here is a great website for calculating and displaying line of sight signal coverage on a map view. Very useful when trying to choosing locations for placement of relay nodes:
That is cool!
I used it and there is red shaded areas in the area of my starting point, what does that mean?
Justin
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@ShootAnyAngle this is so cool.
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OK @ShootAnyAngle I owe you a beer for sharing this site. No, seriously I do. This is EXACTLY what I was looking for!!!
(INSERT HIGH FIVE HERE)
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Red areas on the map are in line of sight of your starting point.
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I would like to see this form of terrain based line of sight mapping applied to the Gotenna Mesh map for users who have entered their “height off the ground” elevation data.
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Heck, a link to this in the FAQ would work for me!
Justin
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Excellent!! Exactly what we need to best place stationary nodes.
Thank you.
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Here’s another: http://www.ve2dbe.com/rmonline.html
It’s a lot more task-focused.
http://www.qsl.net/kd2bd/splat.html is also available but hard to use IMO.
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Seriously @ShootAnyAngle I can’t thank you enough for this link. It’s been a HUGE help! You’re a rockstar ham.
-George (KF7OCD)
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First chance I’ve had to play with this. Incredibly useful.
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Here’s a cool tip I learned via WNDW.
- Go to google earth
- select ruler and draw a line
- select path
- check “view elevation profile” (you may have to add a third point to see
Mostly useful for microwave links, but I’m sure you could build a giant dish for the gotenna
Great as this plugs into a lot of other google earth UBNT plugins and whatnot. Urban maps that carriers use for this are much more expensive 
Multihop
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This is a great resource. We’re new to goTenna, and I got four…one for my SO, one for me, and two to experiment with, use with cotravellers on remote trips. But was going to attempt to set one of them up as a permanent relay. Had gone well down the rabbit hole of doing a 3D design for an enclosure to sit atop a 1/2" copper pipe mast, power wire going up the pipe, powered at the bottom of the pipe by a V50 and solar panel. Was going to print the top out of blue t-tglase, so we’d be able to see the LED flashes. Was planning on a 20’ mast, as there’d be almost no mass at the top, and very little surface to catch wind.
But after looking at the area we would “serve”, I’ll pass. We’re in a trough running between two shallow ridges. The only signals that would likely get relayed would be if both goTennas were in the trough…and if so, they wouldn’t need relay.
I also used the OP’s website to work out how tall a mast we’d need an antenna on to receive terrestial OTA TV: 52 feet above ground, probably 20 feet above the peak of our roof. CCRs, here we come!
Consider the possibilities of reaching out to others who are better situated to get your signals out of the rut you’re situated in. If it’s possible to do that, you can overcome the disfavorable topography by offering to place a relay there. Depending on the width of the low terrain between the ridges, you may need the relay on only one location on the neighboring ridges if it is found to provide adequate service out of the valley to those situated on the higher ground on both sides of the valley.
https://link.ui.com/ trumps all.
Just did a 14mile link over two cities beside a cell tower via a drone at 50m message went through in 5seconds
Impressive performance with the use of the drone as a mobile relay tower. It’s unfortunate this week brought news the US government seems bent on denying civilians the use of drones under conditions so punitive there’s well-founded concern about the future of the hobby. Enjoy this aspect while you still can is my philosophy.
Use a kite tethered to ground can lift up large battery. Not sure on height restriction
The problem with kites or balloons is that they are also FAA-regulated. Balloons tend to be better adapted to this sort of things because basic lift is supplied by the balloon’s lighter than air nature.
Simple search shows you are pretty safe
The big rules regarding kites/balloons kick in for a kite “over 5 pounds” or a balloon “over 6 feet in diameter / 115 cubic feet of gas capacity”, and are: You have to keep them at least 500 feet below any clouds. You have to keep them less than 500 feet above the ground
I’d agree they are pretty darn safe, but rules are rules to the FAA and it’s advisable to consider the limits.
Then there’s good ol’ common sense. If the location you do this at is near a medical or other facility that has an active helo pad, then even legal limits could get you in trouble if dealt with incautiously. Anything that reopresents a potential hazard to manned aircraft is something to be very careful about.
The equation between what’s legal and what’s advisable will be skewed even more if you anticipate flying a kite or balloon at night. Unless adequately lit, this could be very problematic around an airport, helo pad or other such facility. There are solutions to this, but they’re not cheap. Merely lighting the kite or balloon at the top also does nothing about the tie line to the surface causing problem down below the top.