Writing

We call it Poitito, little Poito. It sits on a rocky flank of Poito Mountain, a short walk from Dave Metts's radio compound but not on it. Ever since we placed the main Poito repeater at the tower site, I have wondered whether sitting so close to all that existing radio equipment was causing interference. I ask the same question about McClellan Peak. It is slowly becoming confirmed through empirical data that co-locating on a radio tower is not always the best option, even when the option is available. The problem comes down to ideal placement, not proximity to steel.

When we deployed Russell Peak, Ruslito stayed behind as a soldier node. I wanted to compare two vantage points in close proximity and see which one performed better. I never meant to leave both nodes up for long. The comparison gave us useful data. Then Ruslito needed to come home.

That first Russell Peak trip I had almost no gear with me. Ruslito got the full jank treatment.

I was exhausted after several days of working the Reno backbone out to Gerlach and the Black Rock Desert, and I wanted to go home. One of my goals for the trip was range testing from Fox Mountain to see what coverage gaps a node there could close. I had been exploring around Soldier Meadows and playing around in the Jeep doing range tests out that way when onX Offroad told me I could get to Fox Mountain from where I was. It might even be true. Sometimes it sends me down the worst roads just because they are the shortest path on paper.

For a long time we could not get a response from Russell Peak. I assumed the worst. Maybe a storm had ripped the node off the mast, or wind and vibration had finally finished what desert summers start. The peak sits on a lonely stretch of the backbone toward Poito Mountain and the Black Rock corridor, and when a site like that goes dark you do not get many clues from Reno.

McClellan Peak rises in the Virginia Range above the Comstock country, and yesterday Willow and I went up together to get a node on the air at Dave Metts's High Sierra Communications site. We had a Father's Day epic in mind: this install plus two more sites before the sun went down. The peak had other ideas.

Toulon Peak sits in a beautiful range just west of Lovelock and provides coverage for the greater region around there. I set out yesterday morning to install a node at Dave's tower site on the summit. The universe had other plans. I discovered a leak in my rear differential and did not want to make things worse miles from civilization.

Today we planted a node at Desert Peak, a High Sierra Communications site east of Fernley in the Hot Springs Mountains. From the summit you can see for miles in every direction. The Carson Sink and the old lakebed country spread out below in pale, cracked playa that looks like dry salt beds no matter which way you turn. That kind of horizon is exactly why a backbone node here matters. One radio on a peak like this can light up a whole basin that otherwise has almost nothing between it and the sky.

Today we planted a fence node at Patrick Tower, a High Sierra Communications site east of USA Parkway in Storey County. This was an initial site visit: get from zero to one, learn what the location can do, and improve from there. With Dave Metts' generous support, we have another live foothold on the industrial corridor between Reno and the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. That stretch is filling in fast with logistics, manufacturing, and data center construction. A mesh backbone node here extends coverage toward the Truckee Meadows and the I-80 corridor communities that already depend on Patrick Tower for public safety radio.

Virginia Peak now carries a MeshEnvy backbone node at the High Sierra Communications facility on the Pah Rah crest. That single placement matters more than most. From one of the highest summits around Reno, we can start tying the Truckee Meadows to the desert basins, playa country, and ridgelines that surround it.

Tim and I hiked Flowery Peak on May 22 to stake a repeater on the crest above Virginia City. The node is on the air now. It fills in the east side of town and works alongside our repeaters on Davidson Peak and Ophir Hill to give the Comstock corridor close to full mesh coverage.