[OZAPRS] Remote digi/igate

Norm McMillan vk3xci at gmail.com
Tue Dec 17 09:27:34 AEDT 2019


Bit of a fork from the previous thread

While Grey Nomading it through the Centre, Kimberly and Gulf Country, I had
plenty of time to think about this. A lot of it was "pie in the sky"
dreaming, but I did actually lash up some hardware.
RPi 3B (It's what I had!), xastir
Boefang Handheld (IWIH)
OpenTracker running as a Kiss TNC ,,,
3G modem Dongle.
12V 7AH battery, converted Car USB charger (2 Amps)
10 Watts of solar.

Put it upon  the 'van at a number of places while we toured in the ute.
iGate worked a treat except the power budget was negative. Lasted three
days before the rig died of power failure. The effective range of the iGate
was an order o magnitude better than the digi. 50W v 5W. Never heard or saw
another station digi either. Turned off transmit, power budget marginally
positive, a bad day would wreck it!

By the time we started down the Queensland coast we had APRS coverage,
'tho' still a few holes.

Played more at home.
RPi3B (waiting for my Zero)
SDR dongle
3G modem Dongle
pre-built image.
I have it running off a 5V bench supply atm, so I can monitor current etc.

Sure, it's rx only, but "if a tree falls in the forest.... etc" For vast
streches of the Outback, a digi or messaging is a waste of time, money,
equipment and precious power.

Xmas has intervened so the project is on hold 'till new year.

More as it happens

norm vk3xci
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