RC Field Amateur Radio Weather Station
- Thread starter rockyboy
- Start date
Ok, so I got my APRS cable today and APRSdroid. Trying to get it set up, but so far I have not reached a gateway with my handheld. It is plausible to set up a gateway of my own with some of the extra cheap usb SDRs laying around. I also pulled the trigger on DSDplus for decoding digital protocols. So I spent < $20 on HAM this week. (and not the edible kind)
EDIT: Egads.... looks like the gateway that everyone hits is clear on the other side of town....
EDIT: Egads.... looks like the gateway that everyone hits is clear on the other side of town....
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That's where I'm at too!
Here's a couple links I've seen about setting up a gateway - when hardware arrives I'm planning to try one of these... or if I get too frustrated just buy the ready to activate one
https://wcares.org/special-interests-3/aprs/build-an-aprs-igate/
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/a-pre-built-raspberry-pi-image-for-using-an-rtl-sdr-as-an-aprs-rx-igate/
https://www.instructables.com/Build-an-Amateur-Radio-APRS-RX-Only-IGate-Using-a-/
http://www.igatemini.com/
I was able to receive APRS packets on my phone from my handheld, but still have not showed up on http://aprs.fi . I could try using my mobile antenna from the truck, or even my gable mounted antenna. Probably just too shabby a signal inside my house of foil insulation lined walls.
I've looked at most of those links. Some are pretty old by todays standards (2014 for the wcares, 2017 is VERY old by raspberry pi standards for two links). This is the igate path I'm currently pondering.... https://github.com/cceremuga/pypacket
I've looked at most of those links. Some are pretty old by todays standards (2014 for the wcares, 2017 is VERY old by raspberry pi standards for two links). This is the igate path I'm currently pondering.... https://github.com/cceremuga/pypacket
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Latest test... Audio is not getting from my phone to the radio. Get a carrier, and no audio.
EDIT: and just took a drive to pick up dinner with mobile antenna... not showing up. I am receiving fine. Finally figured out that you have to be in tracking mode to receive in APRSdroid.
EDIT: and just took a drive to pick up dinner with mobile antenna... not showing up. I am receiving fine. Finally figured out that you have to be in tracking mode to receive in APRSdroid.
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Next test.... Wear headset and listen to the output of APRSdroid. So it appears that with the AFSK output set to Voice, the output is severely truncated to just part of the preamble. With it set to Music, the preamble AND the AFSK is heard.
EDIT: since I have everything set up on a WynDoze box already, I'll do a proof of concept of iGate from this: http://km6zpo.com/how-to-build-an-a...r-sdr-direwolf-and-pinpoint-aprs-for-windows/
EDIT: since I have everything set up on a WynDoze box already, I'll do a proof of concept of iGate from this: http://km6zpo.com/how-to-build-an-a...r-sdr-direwolf-and-pinpoint-aprs-for-windows/
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After reading the article and setting up the software as outlined in http://km6zpo.com/how-to-build-an-a...r-sdr-direwolf-and-pinpoint-aprs-for-windows/ , I am inclined to pick up another radio for use as a bi-directional gateway rather than a receive only. That will wait, as it will require more $$$ and equipment. I did order some antenna adapters for my handheld radio to connect to my outdoor antenna. But, for now, I have a listen only setup for testing my APRSdroid gear .
Cheers!
LitterBug
EDIT: I successfully received from my gear. So now I just need to go for a drive to see if the Gateways in the area pick it up.
EDIT#2: Took a drive out to a park 8 miles west of me. Coverage in my area basically drops a mile west of my house. I was able to pick up my whole trip on my gear. There is a BIG hole in the APRS coverage west of me.
Cheers!
LitterBug
EDIT: I successfully received from my gear. So now I just need to go for a drive to see if the Gateways in the area pick it up.
EDIT#2: Took a drive out to a park 8 miles west of me. Coverage in my area basically drops a mile west of my house. I was able to pick up my whole trip on my gear. There is a BIG hole in the APRS coverage west of me.
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I have a Baofeng BF-F8HP, which is basically just the UV-5 with more power. It is hooked to "any" android device I have running APRSdroid via a BTECH-APRS-V01 cable. I say any, because I found it best to use an old Galaxy S4 with no phone service rather than making my phone useless just to run the app. You need to disable ALL notifications, ringtones, etc so that those do not trigger the VOX on the radio and go out over the airwaves. I have tested it with a Motorola G7, Galaxy S4, and a Lenovo 10" tablet.
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This is the gist of it with my handheld antenna. I have a mobile antenna on the truck, and later today, I should have an adapter that will let me connect it to my gable mounted base station antenna. I am interested to compare results between my SDR based setup, and connecting my "real" radio to the antenna and the using the soundcard to digitize the audio. I've found that I really need to invest in a better UHF/VHF antenna. The Discone only has good vhf and below response. (seems to have best response in vhf range)
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Basically you want to make sure all tones and alerts are turned off on the phone/radio, and that you are not using any TX offset. RX and TX are on the same frequency.
Handheld important settings:
Volume: about 20% (for receiving signals)
144.390 VHF
Squelch 2
vox 2
R-DCS off
R-CTCS off
T-DCS off
T-CTCS off
OFFSET 000.000
ROGER off
Phone/tablet important settings:
Turn off ALL alerts, ringtones, audio EQ, etc.
Volume for Media/music = 1/3 - 1/2
APRSdroid important settings:
Digi Path: WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1
Connection preferences:
Connection Protocol: Audio (AFSK)
Audio Output: Music
Frame Sync Prefix: 500ms (Pause time for VOX to enable TX before sending the data packet. (really not ideal, but the cable doesn't support PTT)
If you remember the good old days of 1200 baud radio, when you run the app on your device, without the cable plugged in, If you hit send position, you should get a quick sound burst that sounds like a short 1200 baud modem sound. Listen on 144.390 and you should hear the same thing when others are transmitting.
Cheers!
LitterBug
Well, I hobbled some stuff together to run audio out of the BF into the soundcard in parallel to the USB dongle. Initial results were less than what I was getting on the dongle. Audio levels detected by Direwolf were lower from the handheld. One repeater in particular was not getting picked up. I have actually seen that the signal from that repeater is somewhat questionable when viewing it in the water fall of SDR#. I may revisit that attempt in another day or so with a better less multiple cross connected, cross adapted, pooberry wiring. Now that I think about it, Might be worth a comparison between APRSdroid and the dongle setup.
Left my setup configured and receiving for a few days and found that there really isn't much APRS going on west of me. What is out there is being self reported over the internet (APRS-IS) rather than over the air. I've tried to contact the local digital club, but the "contact us" link is broken on their web site. D'OH!. Not going to set up a gateway of my own without talking to the local club that runs the current repeater(s), but will probably invest in a better base station antenna.
Cheers!
LitterBug
Cheers!
LitterBug
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