2025-01-24 — Brief Update on the IP400 Network Project, IP400 Network Project FAQs v1.0, M17 texting with a Nokia 3310, Tweets from Space, CaribouLite SDR HAT for SDR on a Raspberry Pi
A slight tangent from personal weather stations... I would love to see the next generation of APRS capable transceivers pull OBDII data from the car for weather reporting. This could be a very easy way of getting a LOT of data to the NWS. Almost all modern cars have provisions to measure the following:
1. Ambient Air Temperature (PID: 46)
Many modern vehicles have a sensor for ambient air temperature. This is directly relevant for weather monitoring and can give real-time updates on outdoor temperature.
2. Barometric Pressure (PID: 33)
Provides the atmospheric pressure as measured by the vehicle. While not as precise as a dedicated barometer, it can still give useful regional data for weather analysis.
Better yet, put a cheap barometric sensor in the radio for better accuracy.
Either way, it'd be good way for Amateur Radio to contribute to the general public good.
Josh - That's an ingenious idea! I tried to think of other bits of information that might be available via the OBDII, but I think you hit on the two most important ones. It would be interesting to compare the Barometric Pressure versus the computed altitude from the GPS input.
Joe - Despite Joe Geerling's career as a broadcast engineer, apparently he wasn't interested in Amateur Radio until recently when Jeff became interested. Jeff (KF0MYB) and Joe (KF0MYJ) took their VE tests at the same time and both passed.
That's good stuff. As someone who's still very intimidated by the LimeSDR that I've been using for the last five or so years I'd love to have a more amateur friendly SDR platform.
I'd imagine quite a few professionals would as well, but they'd never admit it. 😉
One group that will probably need a lot of convincing will be the repeater coordinators. My impression is they're a very conservative lot. Maybe a case could be made for a chunk of the 70cm spectrum to be set aside for mesh networking to prove the emissions won't cause harm. The 1.25 band would be an ideal "playground" as well, but then you'd have to change the name... (sarc)
Eric - My observation is that repeater coordinators are managing spectrum the same as they did in the 1960s. The last big innovation I'm aware of in "repeater spectrum management" was publishing the list of coordinated repeaters on the Internet instead of paper. In this era of vastly reduced utilization of repeaters, I think repeater coordination could be done by the repeater trustees and potential repeater constructors posting information onto a wiki page. But that's the opinion of one Amateur Radio Operator - the vast majority of Amateur Radio Operators seem content with that 1960s style of "repeater spectrum management".
It's been common practice since we've had repeaters to do linking for example between remote receivers and the repeater transmitter, so I don't think anything has to change there for the inter-repeater linking function of IP400 Network Project. There is ample spectrum available for such linking in the 420-440 MHz in the US; only 440-450 MHz is "fully utilized" for repeater pairs. It is definitely a goal to expand the IP400 Network Project into other VHF / UHF bands. We started at 420-450 MHz because there were chipsets widely available, highly functional, and inexpensive for that band.
I am very happy to learn about the SilverSat project. As far as I know, it will be the first space mission to use a native IL2P datalink. As the author of the IL2P spec doc and designer of the NinoTNC, I'd be happy to help the engineering team if they'd like to reach out. My contact info in QRZ is up to date.
Nino - I think you're too modest about your contributions to Amateur Radio... but I'm not 😎 IL2P is something that Amateur Radio data communications has needed for a long time. FX.25 was very useful and proved out FEC on Amateur Radio Packet Radio (and admirably, was compatible with AX.25), but IL2P being interleaved makes it much more powerful.
Suggest you contact the principals of SilverSat directly via contact info on their web page. I'm sure they'd be delighted to get help from the creator of the very capable IL2P.
A slight tangent from personal weather stations... I would love to see the next generation of APRS capable transceivers pull OBDII data from the car for weather reporting. This could be a very easy way of getting a LOT of data to the NWS. Almost all modern cars have provisions to measure the following:
1. Ambient Air Temperature (PID: 46)
Many modern vehicles have a sensor for ambient air temperature. This is directly relevant for weather monitoring and can give real-time updates on outdoor temperature.
2. Barometric Pressure (PID: 33)
Provides the atmospheric pressure as measured by the vehicle. While not as precise as a dedicated barometer, it can still give useful regional data for weather analysis.
Better yet, put a cheap barometric sensor in the radio for better accuracy.
Either way, it'd be good way for Amateur Radio to contribute to the general public good.
Josh - That's an ingenious idea! I tried to think of other bits of information that might be available via the OBDII, but I think you hit on the two most important ones. It would be interesting to compare the Barometric Pressure versus the computed altitude from the GPS input.
Jeff Geerling's dad is a broadcast engineer, so I'm sure that has something to do with his interest in RF.
-Joe w7com
Joe - Despite Joe Geerling's career as a broadcast engineer, apparently he wasn't interested in Amateur Radio until recently when Jeff became interested. Jeff (KF0MYB) and Joe (KF0MYJ) took their VE tests at the same time and both passed.
I can understand that, I didn’t get my Radiotelegraph license until about 20 years after I got my Radiotelephone license.
That's good stuff. As someone who's still very intimidated by the LimeSDR that I've been using for the last five or so years I'd love to have a more amateur friendly SDR platform.
I'd imagine quite a few professionals would as well, but they'd never admit it. 😉
One group that will probably need a lot of convincing will be the repeater coordinators. My impression is they're a very conservative lot. Maybe a case could be made for a chunk of the 70cm spectrum to be set aside for mesh networking to prove the emissions won't cause harm. The 1.25 band would be an ideal "playground" as well, but then you'd have to change the name... (sarc)
Eric - My observation is that repeater coordinators are managing spectrum the same as they did in the 1960s. The last big innovation I'm aware of in "repeater spectrum management" was publishing the list of coordinated repeaters on the Internet instead of paper. In this era of vastly reduced utilization of repeaters, I think repeater coordination could be done by the repeater trustees and potential repeater constructors posting information onto a wiki page. But that's the opinion of one Amateur Radio Operator - the vast majority of Amateur Radio Operators seem content with that 1960s style of "repeater spectrum management".
It's been common practice since we've had repeaters to do linking for example between remote receivers and the repeater transmitter, so I don't think anything has to change there for the inter-repeater linking function of IP400 Network Project. There is ample spectrum available for such linking in the 420-440 MHz in the US; only 440-450 MHz is "fully utilized" for repeater pairs. It is definitely a goal to expand the IP400 Network Project into other VHF / UHF bands. We started at 420-450 MHz because there were chipsets widely available, highly functional, and inexpensive for that band.
I am very happy to learn about the SilverSat project. As far as I know, it will be the first space mission to use a native IL2P datalink. As the author of the IL2P spec doc and designer of the NinoTNC, I'd be happy to help the engineering team if they'd like to reach out. My contact info in QRZ is up to date.
-Nino KK4HEJ
Nino - I think you're too modest about your contributions to Amateur Radio... but I'm not 😎 IL2P is something that Amateur Radio data communications has needed for a long time. FX.25 was very useful and proved out FEC on Amateur Radio Packet Radio (and admirably, was compatible with AX.25), but IL2P being interleaved makes it much more powerful.
IL2P is in use on the QO-100 satellite (though not as a native datalink) - https://web.archive.org/web/20240505135149/https://eindhoven.space/il2p/
Suggest you contact the principals of SilverSat directly via contact info on their web page. I'm sure they'd be delighted to get help from the creator of the very capable IL2P.