LoRa APRS Tracker (Part 7)

Just two left. These are being supplied at cost. Saves you lots of hassle ordering in the parts, assembling and setting it up. DM me if you want one. UK activators only.

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New SMA connectors arrived today. Now to have the fun job of soldering one onto the boardā€¦

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Good luck if your soldering is as good as mine!:rofl:

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Thanks.

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Itā€™s a skill that comes with repeated activity. So unless you have a medical issue with your eyes or fine motor skills, do what everyone else had to doā€¦ practice, practice and practice. :wink:

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Thanks Andy.
Due to two pins being covered by the battery holder, I will have to cut/trim two pins down.
Remove the old remaining 3 pins and hope!

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John, if it is a T-beam you can carve away part of the battery holder with a Dremel or similar. If you donā€™t, youā€™ll likely end up in the same situation again.

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Should LoRa igates be red or black? Do the colours mean anything? Also can SSIDs be letters?

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If itā€™s AX.25 data, no SSID is 0ā€¦15 inclusive where MM0FMF-0 is the same as MM0FMF.

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I think black is RX-only and red is RX/TX.

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It is indeed a T-Beam.
I have a Dremel but its a bitā€¦unwellā€¦

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The good news is, a new SMA has been attached and I didnā€™t dremel the battery. I managed to get three legs soldered on the underside of the board and two other legs(after being cut down to size) soldered to the top side of the board.
The legs are a little thicker than the previous ones.

A quick test on the window ledge and LoRa beacon transmitted. Tomorrow I will take Mrs LoRa for walk and see how she performs.

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A quick test today and seems to perform OK

https://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FM0VAZ-8&timerange=3600&tail=3600

Maybe the lack of signal using an external aerial was due to the SMA breaking away from the board?
I am in the office tomorrow, so i might take the LoRa for drive and see how it goes.

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Is the beacon I received from @M1GEO in the early hours a glitch with aprs.fi?

Nobody else gated it to APRS-IS, and my setup is pretty rubbish.

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I noticed the exact same thing. I wondered if it was aircraft scatter.

For interest, M1GEO-1 is on a X7000 colinear on my house roof. M1GEO-10 is my walking/SOTA tracker, and M1GEO-11 is my car, currently on the rear antenna.

Iā€™ve seen some decent coverage here and there with LoRa APRS. I tried it a few years back and there was nothing about. Iā€™m glad itā€™s gained popularity!

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I think these anomalous long paths are indeed most likely aircraft scatter.

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I have been testing MW0PDV-14 digipeater for a couple of days above
Llangollen. It looks like it could help with coverage of GW/NW summits given the views you get from up there :smiley:
It only had a small solar panel power with enough power for the tracker and very slight charge, so itā€™s finally gone to deep sleep.
I will retrieve it today, hopefully it will charge enough to wake up to do some more testing on the ride up.
I will now try and get permission from the estate to deploy on a longer basis with power improvements.


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I love this kind of solar-radio stuff. It was exactly what my PhD was in (Energy-Aware Decentralised MACs for WSNs), but I never thought Iā€™d be using it for Ham Radio. I spent months of my life working out how to optimise network topologies and settings to match available solar energy, and modelling what solar energy was availableā€¦ Nowdays, just a bigger solar panel and be done with it! :slight_smile:

I run the WebSDRs at GB0SNB (HF and VHF), and will definitely be adding an RX only LoRA iGate to the SDRā€™s features.

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Have DMā€™d you Richard, if youā€™ve any left

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Since fixing the SMA connector and running with an external antenna

https://aprs.fi/#!z=16&call=a%2FM0VAZ-8&timerange=3600&tail=3600


The bit marked with an arrow is the start of Ford Hill and the other side is lower down.

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