ORCA

ORCA repeater container and antenna pole with mesh nodes mounted half way up.

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

ORCA Mesh Network Nodes on the antenna pole.

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

Mesh devices in the rack in the repeater container (before update to new hAP ac2).

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.

Devices

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

VLANs

VLAN	Description
1	AREDN WAN
2	AREDN DtD
3	AREDN LAN Griz
4	INET-K6MPP
5	MultiWAN
6	INET-ORCA 192.168.0.1/24
12	Fish Ranch XLINK
25	Management

Edge Switch 8

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 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, 4, 5, 12, 25	802.3af/at
9	Management	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, (25)	-
10	hAP AC2 DtD	2, (3), 12	-

Edge Router X

Port	Description	VLANs	PoE	Notes
0	Switch Port 7 / INET-K6MPP	3, (4), 5, 25	24v in	Primary internet in, Multi-wan out
1	ORCA Box Net Internet	(6)	-	Backup internet, DHCP-in
2	(unused)	(5)	-	Multi-wan out
3	(unused)	(5)	-	Multi-wan out
4	hAP Port 1 / WAN	(5)	24v	Multi-wan out

Edge Power 54V 72W

Port	Description	VLANs	PoE	Notes
1	(unused)	-	Off
2	hAP LAN port	-	Off	to access & manage EdgePower
DC out	54v DC output	n/a	n/a	Power ON, to EdgeSwitch

Edge Router X IP Addresses

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

• More ventilation work in ORCA box
• Replace NanoSwitch with EdgePoint-R6
• Upgrade camera(s)?
• DONE March 2023: Replace current mount (which was temporary) with a better engineered solution
• DONE March 2023: Move current nodes onto new mount
• DONE March 2023: 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