Outernet in Alaska

Had anyone have any luck with Outernet in Alaska? Using both the Americas and the Asia sat I never go about 0.9 dB with 1.2 dB is the highest recorded. In three months I have not received any packets. With an elvation of only 12 dregs and with all the trees/mountains there is no “clear view”. Any helpful ideas?

Since you are pointing so low the only option I see is to get as high as possible to get over the trees, or mount in a tree. :slight_smile: You could try a different antenna, such as a helical, but since you have so much obstruction I doubt that will help.

What is the best RSSI?

The clear line of sight is pretty important. We have a Norwegian friend who is at a latitude of 70 degrees. Something like 7dB SNR.

@Knut_Kristensen had good success in n Norway. We Moved!

Quick update. After watching about 40 YouTube videos on L-Band antennas I came across the “cooking pot” antenna using a 40 cm pot for a reflecter. I thought the “BBQ Lid” as a reflecter. So I lifted the lid and put my setup in the corner. Looking a 2.73 DB, RSSI -112.69, A pm r 13.84. SO 4. Offset 960 ± 30 hz. Sold 2.45 dB (runing mean):only 48 packet loss after 1 hour!

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That’s awesome. I will have to remember that.

Please don’t tell us that is a summer photo!

Not a summer photo. The grill refector idea is working great. Pushing 1.65-3.45db overall. And that is only three feet from above ground. Does cut the wi-fi from the Raspberry Pi a good deal, but still workable. Looking at about 2.5% drop packet rate.

That is actually not very good at all… with a similar antenna setup I get a PER of 5.60962e-05 or 0.005%.
(but of course I am more towards the south so I have about 30deg sat elevation, will be less for you)
Do you have some noise source? Did you try to put the thing at another location? Here I see some
effect of nearby objects like my rotatable sat dish.

I know its not the best, but my location is just on the outer rim of the satellite foot print. No high in RF noise, but do have high mountains all around. This spring I will be mounting it on a mast (ground frozen as hard as concrete right now) and see what I can get with that. Also will be taking it up on a mountain range during my summer camping trip and compare. Do you know how often the files rotate?

Ah ok… I have not calculated the elevation.
I get new files all the time, only some of them come back (the weather file, for example)

I get 3-4 snr from my location here in Anchorage AK. Pointed towards chugach range 8 degrees pitch give or take. Need to be outside though in clear open view.

Pushing 3.5 to 4.06db in Wasilla ONLY after sunrise. Two hours before and three hours after sunrise I drop down to 0.0<>-1.5db . Sun flood I would guess. As I am pointing almost at the sun rise point on the horizon. I hope this will change as the season moves on. I lose about five hours of data collection due to this.

Possibly the wobble from the satellite. It is in a slightly inclined orbit.

Update on Outernet in Alaska, Wasilla. Founf out that if I move my reflector, i.e. BBQ Grill Lid :slight_smile: , just by five derg. to match the pointing of the patch antenna I have increased my db by 1.6 db. Looking at 3.45 to 5.35db at sunrise. My set up is Patch antenna/LNA/Raspberry Pi3 with a 3.1 amp USB charger feed off A/C mains.