Direwolf will do that. First topic here at time of writing. On a Raspberry Pi in principle, sadly you need 1.8 which you have to compile yourself, rather than the go install DW in software-install.
Dunno about digipeating, I think Ricardo @CA2RXU igate will do that. I haven’t enabled it because I can’t work out if digipeating=QRM on LoRa, because the dwell times are long. Not that there’s enough activity at the moment, but one day…
digipeating from one freq/qrm to another (VHF ↔ LoRa) can be done, but with many many MANY warning before doing to much: maybe just messages could be enough
Definitely possible, Richard and I had a brief exchange a while ago however the QSO went through digipeaters and wasn’t ‘direct’.
I couldn’t figure out how to change the path to ‘direct’ (instead of WIDEx-y) to make it a simplex QSO - I’m not sure if this is done in APRSDroid or on the tracker? (or both)
Looks like from here it is necessary to change out “path”: WIDE1-1 in the tracker config, in practice it’s probably easier to pack a second unit. If you could change that in the multiple beacon settings you could change path in the field but path is not part of that JSON array.
There’s not yet enough LoRa in the southwest for that to be practical, but it would work in the Lake District it seems
I’m no LoRa expert but Google AI tells me it is possible to program a 70cm LoRa tracker to send messages directly to another 70cm LoRa tracker without an iGate. The LoRa protocol allows for this type of point-to-point communication, enabling trackers to send messages directly to each other within a reasonable range. But what would be the use case?
The number of existing LoRa trackers programmed that way must be vanishing small as most folk actually want iGates and digipeaters to receive their location packets to take advantage of their terrain coverage.
Tracker-iGate distances can be very impressive especially given the 100mW power and small 70cm antennas used. But tracker-tracker distances? Wouldn’t you and your likeminded point-to-point-programmed-tracker-carrying mates have to be in the same region?
I can’t see how it would practical for SOTA (given the rule regarding repeaters) - Using only P-to-P trackers would mean even more of a minority sport than calling CQ on 10GHz. What about the signal report exchange rule?
For non-SOTA messaging, although the number of 439.9875-MHz LoRa iGates & digipeaters in the UK has grown rapidly in the last few years, it’s still patchy or non-existent in lots of places.
As Ofcom have given permission for amateur experimentation using spread spectrum modes it would be interesting to see other applications of this remarkable Chirp technology.
I’m exploring the idea - it would add value to the tracker you already have. I am in a low LoRa region but I have achieved decent ptp distances from a tracker to my own igate, easily enough for S2S contacts from several summits on Exmoor to the Somerset levels. It could be a way to chase people, particularly if it can be made as a menu option on the the tracker they already have/are running.
You get SNR and RSSI information which is analogous to Readability and Signal strength. Since it’s delivered via syslog in the igate it’s available there. In CA2RXU’s tracker code lora_utils.h there is
struct ReceivedLoRaPacket {
String text;
int rssi;
float snr;
int freqError;
};
so it would be possible to get this information… A lot of the innovation in LoRa-APRS seems to be done in the SOTA community, adding an interactive messaging mode, say as option 4 on that shuts down the path on the CA2RXU tracker would let you use the APRS messaging mode to send a G7LEE-9>CQ and to respond to a particular station with G7LEE-9>NOCALL-9 in the usual way. We could do more with the hardware we already have.
You would need a way to enter the message or control the modem - either a phone app or a keyboard.
You can use APRSDroid or a Bluetooth serial terminal to send/receive messages but they don’t display any signal strength information.
Is there a “message” that can be sent to the device (over a BT serial connection) to dump the last few lines of the internal log file?
I’ve just been up Seatallan (G/LD-025) to check on the LoRa digipeater M0MZB-15. The digipeater went off air a couple of weeks ago.
I was pleased to find all tbe equipment still present. The plastic threaded fastening on the waterproof solar panel connector had cracked, and the cable had become disconnected
I didn’t have a spare connector with me…I had not really expected to find the equipment requiring only such a minor repair.
I have brought all the equipment home, and will be inspecting for any other damage.
The digipeater will be back on air, returned to its summit location, in a few weeks.
I was thinking about your digipeater only this morning while browsing the APRS map. Glad to hear it is all still there and only a small repair required!
This is either in the category of a Tip or showing my utter idiocy (no comments please 
), but when charging the SOTA APRS tracker via the USB socket, the device needs to be turned on to actually charge the battery.
I only realised when I had a look inside when trying to figure out why it wouldn’t turn on after several hours of charging. Hopefully the battery is ok after actually charging it. It seems so with a couple of test runs to work and back.
Will have it on all day on Saturday for the Hog roast weekend. Its very useful even outside of SOTA since my wife can see if I will be late home (it conveniently runs out of battery when passing ham radio outlets )
Ian
The manual provides some information about this Ian - page 7, third paragraph.
Great to hear you are bringing your LoRa tracker along for the GW SOTA event this weekend. I updated MB7UBL-2 (Digipeater on Arenig Fawr.- GW/NW-011) earlier today (which is at a height of 836m). This, in conjunction with the high altitude iGate south of Welshpool (GW4BML-10), should provide excellent coverage for the event.
Dave
P.S. if anyone else has a LoRa APRS tracker, and is coming to Wales on Saturday, bring it along and remember to include the callsign and SSID in your Alert. This helps all the chasers enormously.
Ahh, you make an assumption about me and manuals How does the phrase go again – RT… I cant remember the rest.
Ian
I have a SOTA branded tracker and have it switched on in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. On local hills and at home I haven’t yet managed to get my position logged. Only the initial setup about 9 days ago down south.
Ive heard there are more listening stations on the UK frequency in the NW. Im likely not within range where I am. I wondered if there was any coverage maps available, appreciating propagation and other factors vary. Or mapping site that allows a filter for the frequency.
Thanks
Ian
This website shows LoRa stations and will show coverage if there’s enough data available.
73, Colin
Sadly there are not many iGates or Digipeaters in North Yorkshire Ian. See:
https://lora.ham-radio-op.net/?center=54.0602,-0.8542&zoom=9
MB7UNY-10 (LoRa APRS iGate) will soon be operational up in the North York moors. Hopefully it will cover the G/TW summits:
If you fancy setting one up to help build the network in your area, feel free to send me a message. Once one appears, others seem to follow quite quickly.
Dave
You weren’t the first - ahem - and you won’t be the last to discover this.
It’s an easy mistake to make as the tracker powers up (e.g. LCD displays) when you plug in the USB charger with the rocker switch set to OFF. When you flip the rocker switch to ON a red (charging) LED can be seen through some gaps showing the internal battery is charging.
The LoRa iGates and digipeaters are usually operating 24/7 but be careful with tracker trails: as far as I can tell, their ‘ping’ data is only viewable at this website for the previous 6 hours. If you want earlier (up to 24 hours), use apri.fi
Hi, thanks for the info. I will look into the possibility of setting up a station although I’m not even at the stage of having a regular setup at home (permanent antenna). I’ll read through the chapters of this thread for more info.
However, today I walked up a hill for an activation attempt (very flat bands and only 5w…) but the tracker reached 80km away for the highest portion of the walk. It bought some success to the day which was great.
Try this one instead. It’s been down for a couple of weeks recently, but seems to be up permanently now:
http://lora-aprsdirect.sarimesh.net
If you click on “Trail Length” (top left-hand corner) you will see it gives tracker trails for up to 120 hours - although it can take a while to draw them all !
Dave
If you use the following LoRa APRS tracking site, and select “Trail Length” of 12 hours:
http://lora-aprsdirect.sarimesh.net/?center=54.1659,-1.9925&zoom=14
You will see your tracker was mainly being picked up by the Digipeater (M0JKS-1) on Kinder Scout; but also numerous times by MB7UBL-2 on Arenig Fawr (GW/NW-011) - in Snowdonia. That was a distance of 180km.
I only installed MB7UBL-2 on Arenig Fawr yesterday. So thank you for helping to prove it’s working perfectly!
Dave
