ORCA
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Oakland Radio Communication Association
Site located in the Oakland Hills, above the CA Route 24 Caldecott tunnel and near the KPFA transmitter tower (map, photos), at about 1500 ft elevation. This site is hosted by the Oakland Radio Communication Association (ORCA, ww6or.com), Oakland's amateur radio club and ARES/RACES group.
ORCA hosts its WB6NDJ repeaters at this site, which includes the repeater container and a wood utility pole supporting antennas. The mesh installation includes several radios about half way up the antenna pole (mounted on a 10 ft long, 2" diameter pipe), as well as a rack in the container with switches, routers and battery backup power devices.
Nodes
KJ6WEG-OAK-ORCA-Sector-SW
- Radio: Ubiquiti Rocket 5AC Lite
- Antenna: 19 dBi, 120 degree sector (Ubiquiti AM-5G19-120)
- Location: 37.86478 -122.21996
- Altitude: 1500 ft (457m)
- Bearing: Southwest, approximately 210 degrees
- Installed 2023-03-08, this sector antenna points approximately southwest toward downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt, providing coverage from southern Oakland, all the way up to the visible section of Berkeley. Note that most of Emeryville and much of North Oakland are blocked by terrain.
KJ6WEG-OAK-ORCA-PBM5-WSW
- Radio: Ubiquiti PowerBeam M5 400
- Antenna: 25 dBi (built-in)
- Location: 37.86478 -122.21996
- Altitude: 1500 ft (457m)
- Bearing: West-southwest, approximately 240 degrees.
- Moved from old to new mounting pipe on 2023-03-08. Previously named: KJ6WEG-OAK-ORCA-PBM5.
- This dish points WSW at San Francisco, primarily for a mesh connection from the nodes on Twin Peaks.
KJ6WEG-OAK-ORCA-HAP2
- Radio: Mikrotik RouterBoard hAP ac2
- Antenna: built-in / internal
- Location: 37.86478 -122.21996
- Altitude: 1475 ft (450m)
- Bearing: n/a
- This devices is located in the repeater container, and acts as a tunnel client, Wifi Access Point, etc.
- Installed February 2023, this was an upgrade for the previous device: KJ6WEG-OAK-ORCA-HAP.
Previous Nodes
- KJ6WEG-OAK-ORCA-NSM5 - REMOVED March 2023
- Radio: Ubiquiti NanoStation M5
- Antenna: 15 dBi (built-in)
- KJ6WEG-OAK-ORCA-SectorTi - REMOVED March 2023
- Radio: Ubiquiti Rocket M5 Titanium GPS (radio disabled)
- Antenna: Shielded, Adjustable Sector (Ubiquiti AM-M-V5G-Ti)
Other Devices
- Ubiquiti G3 Flex Camera
- This camera is mounted on the antenna pipe, facing approximately west-southwest towards downtown Oakland.
- Ubiquiti NanoSwitch
- There is a NanoSwitch on the antenna pipe, which brings in the Ethernet with 24v PoE and distributes it to the Sector, PowerBeam and Camera. We plan to replace this with an EdgePoint R6 in the future.
- MikroTik Wireless Wire
- This small 60 GHz radio is mounted on the secondary (metal) antenna pole behind the repeater container, and points at an identical device at the FishRanch site (KPFA tower), to provide a backbone link between the sites.
- Ubiquiti EdgePower 54v 72w
- This device in the indoor rack is both the primary power supply and UPS & charger for the battery backup.
- Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 8 150w
- This device in the indoor rack provides data connections and PoE power to the ethernet cables going out to the radios, as well as for some of the other devices in the rack.
- Ubiquiti EdgeRouterX
- This device in the indoor rack manages the available WAN networks (connections to the internet).
- PolyCom IP Phone
- This is the "ORCA-Repeater-Phone", at BAM/SFWEM WIMETS extension x6722
Backbone
ORCA-AF-to-Wolfback
- Radio: Ubiquiti airFiber 5XHD
- Antenna: 30 dBi dish
- Location: 37.86478 -122.21996
- Altitude: 1500 ft (457m)
- Bearing: West, approximately 265 degrees.
- Installed 2023-03-07, this dish points approximately West across the bay, towards the Wolfback Ridge site above Sausalito in Marin County, and forms part of the backbone network.
Site Details
Backbone Connections
- Wolfback - ORCA connects to Wolfback using the ORCA-AF-to-Wolfback device, an airFiber 5XHD with 30 dBi dish.
- Fish Ranch - ORCA connects to FishRanch using a pair of Wireless Wire 60 GHz devices (Mikrotik RBwAPG-60ad), which provide a 1Gbit Full Duplex connection over a distance of about 375 ft (115 m) between ORCA and the KPFA building.
- San Bruno Mountain (INDIRECT) - The nearby FishRanch node also has a backbone connection via airFiber to San Bruno Mountain (Building 7).
Port Configurations
ORCA hosts the non-AREDN devices listed below, some in a rack in the repeater container. The tables below list their VLANs and port configurations.
| Device | IP | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ubiquiti airFiber 5XHD & 30 dBi dish | to Wolfback | |
| Mikrotik Wireless Wire RBwAPG-60ad | to Fish Ranch | |
| EdgeSwitch 8 | 192.168.100.21, (AREDN LAN) | X.21 address is on VLAN 25 |
| EdgeRouter X | 192.168.100.20, (AREDN LAN) | Used to provide failover WAN |
| EdgePower 54V | Not yet added to the mesh |
| VLAN | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | AREDN WAN |
| 2 | AREDN DtD |
| 3 | AREDN LAN Griz |
| 5 | MultiWAN |
| 6 | INET-ORCA 192.168.0.1/24 |
| 12 | Fish Ranch XLINK |
| 25 | Management |
| Port | Description | VLANs | PoE | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | airFiber | 2, (3) | 24v | data & power for airFiber backbone link to Wolfback |
| 2 | AREDN node | 2, (3) | 24v | |
| 3 | AREDN node (unused) | 2, (3) | 24v | |
| 4 | AREDN node (unused) | 2, (3) | 24v | |
| 5 | AREDN node (unused) | 2, (3) | 24v | |
| 6 | hAP ac2 DtD | 2, (3), 12 | Off | |
| 7 | EdgeRouterX Port 0 | 3, 5, 25 | 24V | VLAN (4) is currently excluded until failover wan is debugged |
| 8 | SW-KPFA via Wireless Wire 60 GHz | 2, 5, 12, 25 | 802.3af/at | |
| 9 | Management | 1, 2, 3, 5, 12, (25) | - | |
| 10 | (unused) | 2, (3), 12 | - |
| Port | Description | VLANs | PoE | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Switch Port 7 | 3, 5, 25 | 24v in | |
| 1 | ORCA Box Net Internet | (6) | - | "Landlord" internet, DHCP-in |
| 2 | (unused) | (5) | - | Multi-wan out |
| 3 | (unused) | (5) | - | Multi-wan out |
| 4 | hAP ac2 Port 1 / WAN | (5) | 24v | Multi-wan out |
| Port | Description | VLANs | PoE | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (unused) | - | Off | |
| 2 | hAP ac2 LAN port | - | Off | to access & manage EdgePower |
| DC out | 54v DC output | n/a | n/a | Power ON, to EdgeSwitch |
| VLAN | Notes |
|---|---|
| 3 | DHCP Client 192.168.0.1/24 |
| 4 | DHCP Client |
| 5 | DHCP Server: 192.168.5.1/24 |
| 6 | DHCP Client |
| 25 | Static: 192.168.100.20/24 |
Future Plans
- Add backbone links - Mt Diablo? Roundtop?
Completed Work
August 2023
- Replace airFiber radio with new hardware. Suspected issues with old radio.
- Branches trimmed
- Repointed backbone dish as Wolfback
June 2023
- Hooked camera to it's own ethernet so it can use 802.3af. Now operational.
- Added ventilation controller to box to manage fans.
March 2023
- Replace current mount (which was temporary) with a better engineered solution
- Move current nodes onto new mount
- Add a dish similar to the Fish Ranch <-> Bruno dish and point it at Wolfback
Contacts
Site Admin
- Chris Adams - KJ6WEG - kj6weg@arrl.net
Mesh Admin
- Chris Adams - KJ6WEG - kj6weg@arrl.net