Project Update

A couple of months ago, I posted some projects I wanted to get done. Well things haven't gone EXACTLY as planned. Moving the ADS-B and scanner feeds to Raspberry Pis hasn't happened, nor do I think it will ever happen. The current setup works and really isn't using a ton of power. Right now my desktop, 2 scanners, a monitor, and an LED lamp pulls about 110 watts. The APRS iGate project was scrapped and redone a few times. The final conclusions: the Argent Data radio shield is just not sensitive enough for this application and the crystal scanner I intended to use just had too wide of a receive on it and was catching interference too easily. I went with a cheap Whistler scanner instead. I did put a new antenna in the attic that now feeds both the scanner feed and the iGate. It seems to be working well. I have also scrapped the idea of putting up a digipeater. There are about 4 or 5 that cover most of eastern MA. Putting another on the air would just clutter the frequency even more. I also reorganized the shack this week and added battery backup. The computer and feeds can remain online for about 40 minutes without power. If my HF rig is on, it will take that down to about 18. I think this will greatly benefit the police/fire/ems scanner feeds in the event of an outage. Still a few more small tasks to go, but I am happy overall, as we rarely have a power outage here.