Park tower was the first and is still the primary anchor node in the CAREDN network. It is located at the north end of lake shore drive, has an elevation of 520’ AGL, and provides CAREDN coverage to the majority of the near northern Chicago suburbs.
Site
Located roughly 520 feet AGL on top of the Park Tower condominium building.
DMS: 41° 58’ 48.6912 N -87° 39’ 16.6752" W
DD: 41.980192 N, -87.654632 W
Nodes
Park Tower currently houses a single node.
NS9RC-5G-PARKTOWER
Description
This is the anchor node in the mesh system, and was the first permanent node to be deployed in a publicly accessible location.
Equipment
Transceiver - 5GHz - Ubiquiti - Rocket M5 Antenna - 5GHz Sector - 19 dBi - 120 degree - Ubiquiti - AM-5G19-120
Coverage
Antenna is pointed at roughly 305 degrees and down 1 degree. Coverage should be up to 20 miles between ohare and the lake front.
Services
There is currently a camera hosted on this node. This camera is a proof of concept only, and is sitting in the rack pointed at the front of the winlink server. This may be moved to a more useful location at a later date.
Power Source
This site is covered by the NS9RC repeater system battery backup power.
Future Plans
CAREDN plans to add a second node at park tower pointed southwest to cover the gold coast and near west sides of downtown. This project is pending funding.
Images
Images taken of and from the Park Tower site. They may be helpful in identifying if you have line of the site to the tower by locating landmarks in these photos.
