LoRa APRS

I have been playing around with APRS for years but now there is a new kid on the block.  LoRa APRS.  LoRa stands for Long Range and is also associated with low power levels (of around 100mW).  Hayden VK7HH posted an interesting YouTube clip on this technology, used both for APRS and also Mesh networking (Meshtastic and MeshCore).  

I  was already in possession of some hardware suitable for an iGate, this would be its third iteration (see my posts on tracking weather balloons and also the TinyGS) so all I needed was a tracker unit at about AU$30.

Loading the firmware into both the iGate and the Tracker was relatively easy using a chrome based web browser.

The LoRa transmission is a spread spectrum modulation with a bandwidth of up to 125KHz.  Modulation and several other parameters are easily set both the iGate and the Tracker via the device’s web configuration page.  

I’m yet to give it a full workout but all signs are promising .

I have included links below for reference.

Tracker

iGate config page

CA2RXU Tracker Web Flasher

CA2RXU iGate Web Flasher

Tracker Wiki

I-Gate & Digi Manual

 

First CW Contact

Well, after having my Full-Call for over 35 years, I have now made my very first CW contact.  Yes, after lots of practice, which has been on and off over the years, I finally managed a CW contact into VK4.  To be precise VK4PN Sava was the unfortunate recipient.  This was part of the The CQQRS slow CW practice QSO net.  So, I have cracked the ice, so to speak. Thanks for your patience Sava.  The challenge now is to keep pushing through, onwards and upwards.  It can only get better!

 

Information about the CQQRS Net can be found HERE.

 

Long awaited firmware update for the QMX

Hans has been actively working behind the scenes to address some of the bugs in his QMX firmware. I'm sure that the amount of energy that this project has drained from him has been enormous.  Nonetheless, he keep plugging away, and with amazing results to show for it.

The latest update(version 1_02_006)  addresses the following (sourced from the QRPLabs groups.io site):-

 

The beautiful Swan River

Freshwater Bay, with the city of Perth in the distance.

A New Microphone for the QMX

With the advent of SSB on the QMX it was time for a better mic option. Hans, on his QRP-Labs website, refers to Adam K6ARK who has designed a nice miniature 3D printed microphone including PTT button.  I don't have a 3D printer (yet) so I put out a call to any club members with one, and Brian, VK8BDM, responded. I sent him the link to the design for said mic and within days he dropped one (actually four) off to me.   Brian did an excellent job with the printing as you can see in the images below.  Note, the printer used was a Bambu X1. 

The rest of the parts were sourced and two mics were constructed.

 

 

The QMX has a lot of test options built into it so it was easy to check that the mics were working as intended. All you need to do is connect your QMX to your PC via the USB-C connector, open PuTTY and entered the terminal application mode (8.2).  Go to 'Hardware Test' and scroll down to the 'Microphone Test' (8.6.9).  Press 'R' to run the test and you should see something resembling the video below, when you speak at a normal level into the Mic.  Gain can be adjusted using the + and - buttons on the PC keyboard and Ctrl-Q will quit the test.

The references in the (brackets) relate to the QMX operating manual (firmware 1_02_002).