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Sep 10, 2022Liked by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Hi Steve! I'm surprised and honored to have my geeky ramblings show up here! I've made more hardware / software progress and now I suppose I'm going to have to update the blog...

Some nice changes since I wrote much of that:

* There are now three (?) different FEC modes for APRS. I don't think the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) performance is nearly as good as with (say) WSPR, but still, HF APRS is now more attractive for my type of use. I have included 30-meter APRS in my software. Not the FEC yet, but I will get around to that.

* FT8 now has chat and flexible data capability. I don't think it can forward this data out of the FT8 network, but still, this is promising.

* WSPR telemetry is becoming more standardized, through the work of QRP Labs and others.

So now I have basic WSPR, APRS, JS8, and Morse beacon modes running on a controller/GPS/synth board, and a connected 1W Class-E "power" amplifier. The other modes and extensions are coming. All these modes will transmit on the 30-meter band. I have solar and battery breadboarded and it all fits into and on top of a short length of 2" PCV pipe. I need to work on the antenna, which will be a huge compromise, but that's part of the fun (and at least I have a great groundplane with the seawater.) In the next week or two I will put some of this on the wb6cxc.com blog.

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