Verification of line of sight from
Pawlet Hill to Equinox Mountain.

Stage 1 (theory)

I did a cross section altitude plot, derived from USGS topographical maps.

This showed a probable line of sight. Actual clearance will be different, due to curvature of the Earth. A more accurate paper graph I made revealed that I should just see the peak when I get half-way up the hill. I should have to go higher in the real world. Distance from Hilltop to Equinox Peak is 14.75 miles, line of sight.

Stage 2 (practice)

I climbed the hill with a backpack containing the BreezeCom equipment, laptop, an APC 600 UPS (what a brick!), binoculars and a camera. At the half-way up point, as I expected, I could not see the peak. Three-quarters of the way up, I could see the wind generator towers, but not the tower or building. I began to worry. Scrambling to the top, I sat down and studied Equinox with the binoculars. I could see the tower! And more importantly, I could see the Skyline Motel building, and some of Equinox below the building. Length of Cable run from my house to hilltop: about 2000 feet. Ethernet can run up to 3,000 feet, but if we use just an antenna on the hilltop (probably better), we would have to put an amp inline to make up for cable loss. Another option is to run a fiber optic link, with ether-fiber converters on each end.