Updated 2/1/2024
What is AREDN?
AREDN is an ad-hoc TCP/IP mesh network that links nodes to each other automatically, can self-organize, is self-healing, auto-routing, and operates on ham-specific frequencies. AREDN Mesh networks can run virtually any “Service” that can be run over the internet, such as IP telephones, email, video and audio streaming, FTP servers, websites, etc, all without any internet connection at all. AREDN hardware is typically commercial routers and Wi-Fi devices that have been flashed with AREDN ham-specific firmware. Any Technician Class licensee or above can build or participate in an AREDN Mesh Network. Best of all, hardware costs are very low, with some AREDN nodes costing under $35.
What is the Grand Valley AREDN Mesh?
The Grand Valley Mesh is an AREDN Mesh network connecting ham in Grand Junction, Fruita and Orchard Mesa to others in Gateway, Delta, and Montrose. Approximately one third of the mesh is linked via RF, the remainder via IP tunnels through the internet. Our goal is to be 100% RF-linked in the future.
Services on the Grand Valley Mesh include the Grand Valley Mesh website, video camera feeds, FlightAware, a PBX, providing IP Telephone service, both for IP telephones and soft-phone apps such as LinPhone, a TeamTalk server for real-time collaboration and file sharing, and the K0DZ-10 Winlink Gateway. There are approximately twenty nodes on the Grand Valley Mesh.
Is this even ham radio?
For many years amateur radio has been undergoing a transition from traditional analog equipment and modulation schemes to digital ones. AREDN is just another type of digital radio system, with some incredible bandwidth advantages over other types of digital radios. AREDN does not replace traditional radio, rather it complements.
If all you want to do is to set up a radio and antenna, key up your microphone, and talk to someone like you would with any other ham radio, AREDN can do that. But it can also do virtually anything the internet itself can do! With AREDN, you can transmit conventional AllStar, DMR, YSF and other ham radio traffic, and can link VHF/UHF repeaters. You can even remotely control and talk on your traditional HF radio over the Mesh!
AREDN networks operate in the Amateur Radio portions of the 900 MHz (33cm) band, 2.4 GHz (13cm), 3 Ghz, and 5.8 Ghz bands, which means licensed operators can operate freely on uncongested WiFi channels.
Okay this might be cool after all. How do I start?
We’re relatively new to AREDN ourselves, so this is a great time to jump in and to learn along with us. Contact Steve at delaloye@swbell.net or Bill at K0DZ@arrl.net to get access to the Grand Valley AREDN Mesh. We can give you some pointers to get you going.
Take a look www.arednmesh.org to see what others outside the Grand Junction area are doing. AREDN has been around for a number of years, and some larger cities have enormous and sophisticated mesh networks. We have been building the Grand Valley AREDN Mesh for a couple of years, but we are still learning hardware best-practices and how to add more services from our more-experienced fellow hams.
If you’re mostly interested in the hardware side, here is the list of supported hardware. A number of devices by Mikrotik, Ubiquiti, TPLink, and GL.Inet are supported, with more on the way. AREDN is only compatible with certain firmware versions of certain devices, so pay close attention before you buy. A Mikrotik hAP AC Lite (under $60) is a great first node, and offers very useful functionality.
If your interests lie more on the software side, we could use your help! We’d like to improve the website inside the mesh to aid folks in reaching services, build out an APRS server (do you do Java?), build an email server, and so on. There are many, many services that can run on the mesh, and we are building more out as we learn them. Perhaps you have an idea for something we’ve never thought about. We’d love to hear from you!
What if I want to experiment on my own, or with just a buddy?
No problem! There’s no reason you can’t build a small AREDN Mesh at your home, or at a campsite, or between a few ham friends in your neighborhood. Once your hardware is configured and powered on, your local AREDN mesh will create itself automagically! You can always do an IP tunnel to the Grand Valley AREDN Mesh to see what’s going on with us, but feel free to create your own mesh. We’ll help you get started no matter which direction appeals to you.