In true NOOB fashion I'm going to start a new thread with my first post on this forum. Let the hazing begin. :)

I'm a member of an active Ham community in Southwest Minnesota. Recently we have been looking implementing a mesh network in conjunction with our emergency preparedness team, MNSWEPT. MnSWEPT is a pretty unique coalition of 23 hospitals, 50 nursing homes, 43 clinincs, and 103 EMS groups over a gigantic 16 county area. They currently have VHF radios installed in many of these healthcare facilities that have licensed operators designated to run them. The ultimate goal is to add a node to these existing stations.

First though we'd like to start with a simple network of 3-6 Nodes to cover one of the more difficult points of terrain for proof of concept. The geographic footprint of the organization is huge, covering about 10,000 square miles. However, the upside is that this is relatively flat farmland with a very low noise floor. The hospitals are spaced about 10-20+ miles apart but there will likely be opportunities for nodes in between. 

I have very limited experience with BBHN. I currently have 3 Linksys nodes that I have used to connect computers with logging software on Field Day. That being said, I'm excited to learn more about this and have quite a few questions for those of you who have been at this for a while.

1. Is a network of this size feasible?

2. Will administering such a network be an absolute nightmare? (Updates and such)

3. Would it be better to run on 2.4 or 5.8 Ghz?

4. We are currently looking at the AirGrid as our go-to antenna - Is there a better solution? Is there any reason that we couldn't install more than one of these antennas on the same tower (IE a North/South orientation) and have them connect to each other as well as the nodes in the direction they're pointing?

5. From everything I've been reading we would need to broadcast an SSID? Is there no way to transmit on, say Channel 0? I don't see that option on my Linksys nodes, I was just curious. That's a large area to broadcast over that likely has zero other SSID's present in many places.

6. Any advice/wisdom from those of you who have been there and know things I haven't even thought of yet? Or just let me know what you actually think of such a project and if we're crazy for starting such a task.

Hi Matt,

I'm in MPLS and want to do the same here.  We could share some resources. Go to QRZ to get my email address. 

Thanks,

Pete

KA0PHD

Well, it would appear that MnSwept is going a different direction with their data communications. Honestly, this is kind of a relief for me.

 However, several members of our local Ham community are still very excited about BBHN and are ready to start a much more local network networking between three towns 7 and 12 miles apart. We still need to cover a fair amount of ground, but since this is simply for the love of the hobby I'm really looking forward to it.

 Andre, thanks for pointing me in the right direction with BBHN and Radio Mobile. I just wanted to give you an update since you were generous enough to give me some of your time (especially when you were on vacation) Thanks for your help so far, and I'm sure i'll be back soon with more questions.