LoRa APRS Tracker (Part 9)

Continuing the discussion from LoRa APRS Tracker (Part 8) - #101 by M0MZB.

Previous discussions:

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Continuing the discussion from LoRa APRS Tracker (Part 8):

I had this happen to one of my test units. It was set to sleep on low battery, but just died without a sleep message in the beacon text
I assumed the battery had just died in low temperature. On retrieval to my surprise, when I cycled the power the battery was ok and the igate came back to life.
I now set my igates to reboot every 24 hours and not had any problems over the last few weeks.

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Apparently there’s some sort of “coding week” going on at present. One of the RSGB’s related activities looks mighty familiar:

https://rsgb.org/main/coding-and-amateur-radio/

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I was literally about to post this myself, A very useful “idots guide too…” Perfect for a complete novice like me! link below to the actual PDF file… :slight_smile:

Cheers

Alan

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Had my first good spot and use of the tracker today from GM/ES-039.



Not great photo of it, but just behind the HT.

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Well I now know what happened…it has been removed. Photo of original placement below. Someone has taken the whole lot.

If only it had GPS enabled, i might find where its gone to.

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Well I now know what happened…it has been removed. Photo of original placement below. Someone has taken the whole lot.

Ahh, gutting Matthew - I guess it is a risk but I can’t see what anyone would want with it unless they knew what it did…

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Oh no! It’s most likely the landowner and it’ll be in the bin. Did you put contact details on it?

Maybe a QR code to a website page with contact details and a little explanation of what it is doing.

I suspect most landowners would “err on the side of caution” and remove anything they didn’t understand. I know that would definitely happen with any local upland farmers I know.

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In the view of recent exploding radio equipment I’m surprised anyone dared touch it.

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That’s rather bad luck. Did you put your phone number on it?

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I wonder if there is a chance someone will try and power it up ?

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No phone number, just my callsign

Its an area of very boggy common land that (judging by the lack of any tracks) is not often frequented. At an elevation of just under 300m and a couple of km east of Sellafield and the Cumbrian coast

Has great views west (to the fells) and east (yo the coast).

My next one will be placed on top of G/LD-025. I have also identified a redundant roadside pole on some high ground that I will use - passers by will assume it is meant to ve there.

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The really odd thing about it…even the four rocks I had leaned against the solar panel had been taken!

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That is such a shame, maybe get some stickers made with a contact number and your callsign on… and some wording to the effect of “Amateur radio beacon equipment, please do no touch. If you have any concerns/questions then please contact…”

I would also consider leaving a few posters/flyers up there and around the trails, see the person who took it will get in touch, it could have been innocently removed by the parks people/farmer/other walker who didnt understand its purpose or that it was actually monitored and owned! and you may or course, get it back!

Alan

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Being of a Machiavellian nature I’d be looking for a new mesh nodes or digipeaters appearing in your area. Just in case yours has been borrowed and reprogrammed.

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Funny you should say that. A new igate has appeared just a few miles away. It appeared yesterday. Bound to be the culprit.

…unless it’s not.

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Does each tracker have its own sort of MAC address?

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Very dodgy. :slight_smile:

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You are truly the Hercule Parrot of SOTA.

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Yes it does internally. It’s used as part of the Bluetooth functionality.