APRS digipeater with a Raspberry Pi

For Christmas this year I received a Raspberry Pi. This is one sweet little computer! I also asked for (and got) an TNC-X board that you build and then plug into the top of the Pi. I now have a fully-functional APRS I-Gate and fill-in Digipeater up and functional here on the south side of McLean County. The stats are remarkable...and after some fiddling, filtering, and optimization, I've got it working just like I want. There are a few wide-area digipeaters in the area, but not many I-gates. While digipeaters allow mobile or portable stations to get their packets out to a broader audience, an I-gate takes APRS traffic from the internet and puts it out on the RF. Likewise, it take RF traffic and puts it back on the internet. Using a program called aprx, I'm running a digipeater and I-gate all from the little Pi! A local member of the Central Illinois Radio Club (CIRC) had an Alinco 2m rig he wasn't using anymore. That, along with the homebrew j-pole antenna I built, makes for a pretty good station. I'm only 30' up in the air, but we're on a bit of a rise. I'm copying stations from up to 75km away.

Heyworth UHF repeater update

The KG9DW Repeater in Heyworth is up and running on the Tate and Lyle Grain Elevator! This puts the repeater up at about 200' AGL. I made a trip to Indiana this past weekend and I was able to work it from Champaign. That's a pretty good haul for a kludged together UHF ham repeater. The antenna is a 8 element Decibel antenna, with 9 to 11 DB of gain (depending on who you ask). The antenna was abandoned from a farm operation that moved to Nextel or phones or something. This made the move a near non-event. The only hard part was routing the coax into the pressurized room. The previous coax had been removed, and the hole had been filled in. A little chiseling (without a chisel) and I was in. I've been working guys all over McLean and Dewitt counties, and even some down into Logan county. Give a hollar anytime on 442.825+ 141.3PL.

KG9DW Heyworth, IL 442.825 Ham Repeater

It's up, and it's working great! We actually got the repeater on the fire tower back in October, but I forgot to post the update here! With a handheld, you can work all around town very easily. With a mobile, the south side of Bloomington, up to Washington, down to Lincoln, and south to Dewitt are all workable. I've submitted a request to move the repeater to the grain elevator south of Heyworth. This would put it up at 185 feet and greatly expand its coverage. Because of where the equipment room is at the elevator, we'll still have 100 feet of coax loss. Anytime I'm in the truck, you can catch me on the air. I also try to have a handheld handy when I'm watching TV or piddling around the house. Give me call, and enjoy the repeater! KG9DW/R 442.825+ PL141.3

The Heyworth Repeater...coming soon....

Someone asked me for a link to my profile, and while sending that along I realized it had been a while since I'd posted. So here's an update on what's going on in Heyworth. I'm working on putting up a new 440MHz amateur radio repeater. It will be owned by the fire department, up on their tower...and can be used for fun and also for official duties. We're waiting on some antenna mounts to be created, and then it will be tower climbing time! The repeater is in pieces in my office. The controller just arrived, so some wiring and soldering will be in my near future. It's fun to dust off the old engineering skills! KG9DW/R will be up and live soon, on frequency 442.8250+ with a 141.3PL. The corn and beans are doing quite well this year. It's amazing what rain will do! Last year was awful...this year has been much more typical. We are in a bit of dry spell right now...no rain for the past week and nothing in the forecast until almost Labor Day. So far, everything is still looking good.

Yaesu parts

I've been helping out at the fire department working on their radios. Let me tell you, Motorola is robbing everyone. The cost of parts is outrageous. And the cost of software? Yeah, it's crazy. $200 for software to program handhelds? That's on the low end.

So when I needed to order a new knob and speaker for my Yaesu HF radio, I was expecting OUCH. Nope. Cost for knob? $0.57. Cost for the speaker? $5.75. Neat. Standard shipping, should be here in a week from California.