LoRa APRS Tracker (Part 11)

[G8CPZ]

@2E0CPX

There was a comment on the mobile APRS thread about " we should be concentrating on putting LoRa digipeaters in SOTA regions" I think this is a bit blinkered for several reasons, aside from the fact that only East Anglia isn’t a SOTA region, I can’t see the point of sticking LoRa digipeaters on the sides of hills and mountains if they are SOTA summits because the likelihood is they won’t hear any LoRa signals from the summit as they will be shielded. when you would be better placing them at more of a distance

The post was mine but your quote in parenthesis isn’t mine. Paul, as Richard @G4TGJ pointed out [on the other thread] you misrepresented what I actually said, which was about placing LoRa APRS iGates in “summit-rich” SOTA regions. The deployment of carefully-placed digipeaters is for mountainous regions like G/LD where adequate coverage cannot be achieved from QTH-based iGates alone.

Here’s a link to my original post for anyone who wants to confirm what I said …

Mobile radio with APRS

Yes, but one can now buy an off-the-shelf 439-MHz LoRa tracker from the SOTA shop fully configured with one’s callsign. And incidentally, although 2m has better range there’s plenty of evidence both theoretically and anecdotal to show that UHF is a better choice in built-up areas like towns and cities, or for densely wooded or hilly area. On recent tests I’ve been amazed how my 70cm 100mW LoRa tracker managed to penetrate dense wet woods to iGates and digipeaters some 30-40 miles away. And p…