The final one of the latest batch of trackers has been taken. I will announce another batch shortly.
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I am liking the CA2RXU Lora software.
Maybe sad to say, but I found being able to get a SOTA spot from my Lora tracker kind of exciting 
I was using Heltec Tracker with CA2RXU firmware/software, iPhone with APRS.fi app for TNC and messaging to spot via APRS2SOTA
Thanks to all contributors in this thread and the wiki as thatâs where I found all the information needed. Its amazing how Lora has moved on in 12 months 
Paul.
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Do you also find the Heltec tracker has an outrageous power drain when turned off? Mine runs a BL-5C battery which is only 800mAh flat overnight. When off! I canât really moan about the draw when using it, but when off? The solution is simple, put a good honest mechanical switch in series with the battery lead, which solves another gripe of the two-button press to turn off. It will then only charge the battery through the USB-C port with the switch on, but thatâs a small price ot pay.
I have one of these boards (868MHz) on Meshtastic and while the battery while off isnât as great as it could be it doesn;t drain overnight. There was a thread on Meshtastic to the effect that the battery voltage measurement design was funky, they seem to have part worked around it. Or I have a duff board.
Absolutely agreed, in the first round of Lora APRS you couldnât do messaging, apparently because LoRa doesnât have carrier sense, but it seems people have worked around that, messaging seems to work well - great work all on this thread!
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I too found the standby current a problem. Thatâs why the latest batch that I made all had a case that accommodates a switch.
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I have just switched from the T-Beam to the Heltic so I havenât really had time to evaluate power consumption yet. But as you and Richard have done, I have hard wired switch to the battery.
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AFAIK, the two button press (P & R) puts the tracker into boot mode, hence the battery drain. Three very quick presses on the âPâ button fully turns off the tracker. Iâm happy to be corrected if this is incorrect 
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Dâoh. Presumably this is in the instructions that I failed to read, I found that way through trial and error. And yes, thatâs what I have to do to u/l the config file so I should have guessed. Iâve turned it off using your method, if it starts tomorrow morning then Iâll be chuffed.
Sounds as if the switch isnât a bad idea from @G3CWIâs observation. I am quite happy with the power drain of the t-beam on standby, though it has a whopping great big 18650 battery. Iâll have to go back to that as the Heltec wonât talk to Android on CA2RXUâs s/w, though the selfsame board will talk to Android on Meshtastic, so it can be done in principle. I will try DAGA on G/SC-004 with the T-beam tomorrow, well impressed with LoRa realising APRSâs potential, the reach with very average antennas knocks the socks off 2m APRS from what Iâve seen
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Iâve found this really useful - on several summits I struggle to get a useful data connection on Vodafone (GW/NW-051 for example this evening where I had set up). Connecting to the tracker from a phone via Bluetooth and sending a spot is a doddle.
I have APRS on my FT3D but typing in the message is extremely fiddly.
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Yes this is what I have found for the Heltec board. Three pushes of the left button will turn it off, two puts it into sleep mode, hence the battery drain.
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I will be out and about with APRS messaging enabled today. G3CWI-1
In other news I noticed a new igate In Cumbria today. Looks like itâs been set up by one of the group that John G3WGV has been talking to about an igate on Great Dun Fell. The other igate and digi further down the coast seem to have disappeared.
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Had fun with mine (courtesy of @G3CWI) over the last 2 days on a little cycle tour with my grandson.
Started in Abergele and travelled to Conwy YHA. Returning a very similar route. Coverage up to the west end of the promenade in Llandudno.
Unit was tucked into a pocket of my rack pack with antenna vertical.
Out
Return
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meshtastic did his code for working on BLE , aprsdroid has not a defined protocol for it⌠so I cant do much
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can you send a link to learn how to do this ?
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Heltec Wireless Tracker when turned off is really âdeep sleepingâ which uses 0.7mA /Hr
so over night (8hrs would be at most 6mA). I would clearly recommend using only bigger batteries (more than 2000mA)
Iâm working on ways to make it use less and less (sleeping GPS is running also)
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You have to get approved before the gateway will accept your call ISTR
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Update: Replaced the GPS receiver with a new better one and now I get 10/11 satellites while sat on the window ledge in the house whereas before, I would get 3 or 4 sats.
Also locks on to the GPS quicker than before. A few more tests needed.
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I might need a bit of help getting started with thisâŚ
It seems that Teesdale is in a bit of black hole in terms of LORA, and my home QTH isnât really much good on 70cm as despite being 330m ASL it is more or less surrounded by higher hills.
I was thinking of improving things but I think I would need an iGate to install at home, but in reality it would have really rubbish coverage, possibly Mickle Fell on a good day. (We canât even get Band 2 FM signals here from the BBCâŚ) , then a Digipeater which I think I could get permission to install from one of the local farmers which would potentially cover G/TW and some of G/NP and obviously a tracker so I have some idea if it is workingâŚ
Couple of questions that some LORA users might be able to help withâŚ
How âLine of Sightâ is the system? I was thinking of where I could locate the digipeater and its link to my igate. If it was only 1.5 Km from the igate is it possible it might work even if there was a bit of a convex slope in the way or is it likely to be very LOS. ( I know it is an experiment but I would like a vague idea if it is likely to work )
As things are evolving quite quickly and suggestions for hardware for the igate?
If I can get a tracker and an igate working locally then Iâll have a go at the digipeater.
Advice welcome!
- Paul
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Iâve been quite surprised by the gaps through which my LoRa iGate hears things. Some of the long-distance coverage is obvious. I can see May Hill, Bredon Hill and Worcestershire beacon from the position my iGateâs running. However, https://lora.ham-radio-op.net/ has a coverage option that can be informative, and there are clearly some paths that sometimes get through despite the geography (which should be blocking anything from north west round through south to south east). Of course itâs quite likely some of those are one-off aircraft reflections, or the result of unusual tropo conditions. My best guess is that the only way youâll find out is to put something up, and starting with an iGate at home is probably the easy way.
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My experience is that houses and trees donât seem to be a problem but any hillside will stop the signal.
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I would agree. The coverage might well be a bit better than expected. Also once you have an igate operating at home, you can use your tracker to see where a digipeater might be located that will have coverage back to your home igate.
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