KJ4AJP-MESH1, a WRG54G v2, is my primary "service" node. An IRC server is installed on it's processor. After trying a few different Chat clients, I settled on HydraIRC and recommend it for anyone setting up their own Nodes in the local area. When you go to the "Mesh Status" page of the localnode you are connected to and KJ4AJP-MESH1 is online, you will see the Chat Server as an Advertised Service link. Clicking on that link will open your HydraIRC client and configure you to the server automagically.



I retired an Addonics NAS 4.0 adapter from my home network and now use it for two 32GB USB thumbdrives. When attached to the Mesh, you will be able to access these to upload and download files.



The small blue box behind the router is a Raspberry PI computer running FreePBX, providing a VoIP telephone system across the Mesh. Each of my nodes has an extension number, 10x, where x is the node number (example, to call Node 6, dial 106). I use an old Lynksys SPA922 phone on Node 1. Each PBX extension has a Voicemail box. Since Node 1 is configured as the Internet Gateway for the Mesh and thus assumed to have connectivity to the internet, I have a Google Voice number for calls to and from public telephones off the Mesh.



If you're a licensed Amateur Radio operator and have a Mesh Node of your own in the local West TN area and would like a telephone number off the KJ4AJP PBX, let me know. You can use it with either a hardware phone like I'm using or with a free softphone client like 3CX or X-lite when we're all on the same Mesh.



The silver box to the left of the PBX is a 2W Broadband RF amplifier, available from Amazon or eBay. North of it is a chassis-mount female "N" conncector on a piece of aluminum L. Since the amp has SMA conncetors in and out, there is a RP-TNC to SMA adapter on the router. Note the second RP-TNC jack on the router has the stock rubber duck antenna on it.



The black box in the upper right is the power for everything. Since commercial power might not be available (and everything runs off DC anyway), I labeled the wall-warts and stashed them away. The black boxes have 30A dual PowerPoles for aproximately 13.8V input and inside have step down convertors. For 12V devices, a single 8-40V to 12V convertor powers the bus to the 2.1mm coaxial jacks. A 40mm fan is connected to the 12V bus for cooling. For 5V devices, individual 8-24V to 5V convertors power dedicated 1.3mm coaxial jacks. Since the two PowerPoles are in parallel, it allows for a 30A pass-through for attaching additional equipment. When tested with a 5dBi rubber duck antenna with N to SMA adapter, the node pulled 1.28 amps from a 13.8V power supply with all devices (including the Lynksys SPA922 phone) runnning. Linksys SPA922