But you need a T-Beam where the antenna socket is not fixed …
73 Martin
OE5REO
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Well done John, your tracker has made its first “dx”:
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Cheers Ross. I was shocked at 25miles. The tracker was sat on the dashboard
Thanks for your assistance as well as anyone else that assisted.
Now I have 2m APRS iGate and one on 439Mhz
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The Highland DMR group have now moved all of their trackers to 439.9125Mhz (or should have). I had to upload the latest firmware to mine and update the tracker_config.json file using VSC (Virtual Studio Code). While I was at it, I gave myself three configurations with different symbols, a bike, a pedestrian and a jeep (aka Land Rover).
Good fun, this LoRa APRS!
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Dave M0JKS dropped off a LoRa digipeater last night. I ran it on test at home overnight and it was being received by G3SMT near Oswestry (just under 50 miles). I woke early this morning and it’s now installed at my remote site. It’s already been received in Wales. It should give improved or new LoRa tracking coverage to many of SOTA’s most popular summits. I’m hoping if it’s a success, Dave might be encouraged to add a Meshtastic digi here too. Cheers Dave!
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That looks good how much power does the solar panel give?
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250 Watts
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I did quite well while being mobile the other week, I was picked up by G3SMT - A distance of 25miles.
I am guessing G3SMT has some height.
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The LoRa error detection and correction isn’t very robust.
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So it appears 
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I trust the solar panel is wired to a battery and then to the LoRa unit via something like a buck converter. Is there any MPPT?
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Im testing a new LoRa digipeater today. It’s about 1550ft asl. Should give good coverage in GW/NW, GW/MW and SP/WB. It’s just on batteries so it should work for a couple of days. If it works well, I will be investing a more permanent solution. If anyone wants a “cheap as chips” tracker programmed, let me know and I will bring a laptop to the Hog Roast.
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I was out on the slopes of Winter Hill this morning (but not as high as the SP010 summit) and was picked up by even more LoRa IGates:
My tracker isn’t set for WIDE digipeating, so these nodes must all be receiving me directly.
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The new node from GW4WND is clearly in a cracking location!
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As Richard noted, North Wales, Mid Wales, Cheshire and the Welsh borders are now covered by a good number of LoRa iGates and digirepeaters. I was on Pen-yr-ole-wen, Carnedd Davydd and Carnedd Llewellyn (GW/NW-002) yesterday, and as these summits are the closest the North Wales coast, it’s great to see that your iGate on the Wirral picked the tracker (which I have actually borrowed from Richard) up.
I’m having a break today, but wx permitting I hope to do some more LoRa testing tomorrow on Tal-y-Fan and the Great Orme… These summits are even closer to you, so I would expect your iGate will be the best located.
Sadly there’s not too many LoRa iGates or digirepeaters North of you John, so coverage of the Lake District and the Forest of Bowland is pretty poor. As Richard posted a few weeks back I built an outdoor digirepeater/iGate based aound the cheap Heltec V3 LoRa board. It has 3 or 5 18650s Li-ion cells, and is capable of being trickle charged from a PV panel. Here’s MB7UWS-10
M0JKS-3, G3CWI-2 and G3CWI-4 are the same.
If anyone living in North Lancashire or Cumbria would like to host one, to help improve coverage up North, then please get in touch. I have three up for grabs.
Dave
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I can host one my friend! IO83XN, im about 800’ASL, i am a bit blocked to the south but have coverage across all the northern north wales mountains, alot of the south pennines and of course the city centre (manchester), liverpool, the wirral ETC ETC…
Cheers
Alan
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I think those areas are already covered Alan. That being said, all anyone needs to set up a home igate is one of these. Amazon.co.uk. That’s literally the whole thing bar the antenna.
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