HANDBOOK // MICROWAVE LINKS

Microwave Links

Point-to-point links over dishes: carry APRS, direction finder bearings and telephone calls between sites.

Microwave Radio

#
Microwave Radio

A Microwave Radio links two or more sites over microwave dishes. It carries:

Stations join it by touching it or by data wire; so do the site's other microwave radios. Dishes go on its coax.

BUILD Microwave site

Drag to turn it, scroll or pinch to zoom.

Top-down view
GGGQrVlRw0aaDjPddT
  • G Solar Panel
  • Q Charge Controller
  • V Large Battery
  • r Wire
  • 0 Microwave Radio
  • a Coaxial Wire
  • D Microwave Dish
  • d Data Wire
  • T Telephone
  • l Wire
  • R Wire
  • w Wire
  • j Wire
  • P Phone PABX

Solar power runs the radio; coax takes it to the dish, and a Phone PABX touching it serves a telephone on its data wire, fed by a branch of the power wire. Build the far site the same way, its dish turned back towards this one.

Above, the build in 3D; below the 3D view, a top-down view of each layer. In game, press Visualize on this page of the handbook to see it as ghost blocks.

Setting up

It runs on power (26 FE/t while on). Press POWER, then SETUP: [C] a call sign, [I] a four digit ID, [F] a frequency from 5925 to 7125 MHz in 10 MHz steps. Each call sign and ID pair can only be used once.

Both ends of a link must be on the same frequency.

Linking

One end is the master: on STATUS press [B] to broadcast. The others are subscribers: press [S] to search, and [Y] to confirm the master it finds. A master can have many subscribers, and they reach each other through it.

A confirmed subscriber finds its master again on its own after a restart. Both ends must be loaded.

ShapedMicrowave Radio
ABACDCEEE
  • A Gold Ingot
  • B Encased Pure 144 MHz (VHF) Crystal
  • C Coaxial Wire
  • D Ender Pearl
  • E Iron Ingot
ShapedMicrowave Dish
AAAABACA
  • A Iron Ingot
  • B Copper Ingot
  • C Wire

Aiming Dishes

#
Microwave Dish

A new dish faces back at whoever placed it, level. Place one at each end facing each other and they are close already. A dish reaches about 1500 blocks and needs a clear line of sight: hills and buildings in between block the path.

SETUP lists the dishes on the coax with their azimuth (0 is north) and elevation; the arrow keys turn them a degree at a time.

The ALIGN page

Press A for ALIGN: the signal in dBm, a graph and a beep that rises as it gets stronger. Peak your dish with the arrows (half a degree, shift for five), then peak the far end's the same way.

  • -90: it decodes; the far call sign shows and a link can come up
  • -75: GOOD

Below -75 the link is marginal and phone calls break up.

Trouble

  • Another microwave radio within 30 MHz in your dish's beam is interference: bearings and APRS get through half the time and calls break up. Move a frequency.
  • A solar blackout shortens every link a little.
  • The large Microwave Horn reaches six times as far as a dish, but cannot be crafted: it is only found in structures.