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
- This camera is mounted on the antenna pipe, facing approximately west-southwest towards downtown Oakland.
- 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.
- 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.
- This device in the indoor rack manages the available WAN networks (connections to the internet).
- This is the "ORCA-Repeater-Phone", at BAM/SFWEM WIMETS extension x6722
Backbone
- 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
Backbone Connections
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.
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.
- More branch trimming at the edges of the view.
- Replace NanoSwitch with EdgePoint-R6 (on hold, since not needed right now).
- Upgrade / add camera(s)?
- Add backbone links - Mt Diablo? Roundtop?
Completed Work
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
