[Lowfer] Lowfer TAG?

[John Andrews]

Jay,

Well, thanks. I should have been more clear in the original post that the equipment would have to run on its own for 6 months. Add to that - I have one week to pull this off. The existing transmitter was built in 2008, primarily for WOLF. If you recall, this was a bpsk mode at a data rate of 10 bits/second, with the bit timing being very critical. So I derived the timing from a divider chain off of the very accurate 10MHz oven controlled oscillator I was using. Worked perfectly. And like Chicago, it doesn’t care what time it is. I threw in the QRSS60 option as an afterthought, and then began using it after WOLF fell out of favor. 

Since the transmitter frequency comes from a DDS, the microcontroller could be reprogrammed to do the FSK needed for the newer modes, sending a static message. The timing and clock-awareness could be derived from GPS without involving a computer or the Internet. Too much of a project for a week. 

The real reason for putting the beacon back on is to keep track of the power at the camp. In the winter, my wife is addicted to the outside web cam at the cottage, and it depends on power and Internet. When the camera goes down, it’s nice to know if the cause is power-related. 

And it’s nice to sometimes do radio stuff that’s not Internet-dependent.

John, W1TAG


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