electronicsAPRS igate, weather station and telemetry
This project combines the weather station with an APRS igate and PE1RXF telemetry server capabilities into a stand alone APRS system. It sends weather report via both 1200bd APRS and LoRa APRS. The iGate uses an RNode LoRa link to connect to the internet.
2024-03-18
Functionality
The weather station collects weather data and sends it via a ModBus to a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W. There it is further processed to make an APRS weather report, which is than sent via a 5 Watt 2 meter transceiver to the APRS network. The weather report is also sent via a 20dBm 70cm LoRa transceiver to the LoRa APRS network. Local APRS traffic received by these radios is forwarded to the APRS-IS network via a 70cm 20kbps LoRa RNode tcp/ip network link.
The antenna for the APRS traffic is a dual band X30 at 5 meters high. The wind vane and the anemometer are mounted at a height of 4 meters. A Moonraker HB9CV 70cm antenna at 4 meters high is used for the RNode tcp/ip link.
The RNode link connects to the base station at my house. The antenna there is a 6 elements Yagi. With transmitters only outputting 50mW, an antenna with a high gain ensures a reliable link.
Hardware
