Awhile back I exchanged computers in my VHF VARA FM shack from a laptop to a solar powered Bmax B4 mini PC.

Right away I noticed the 4 signal "dots" in the diagram display went from being tight centered dots to somewhat splattered "dots" when I was connecting to the gateway.

I wasn't able to adjust it out and just assumed it was the new normal for this PC.?

Also, it didn't seem to affect performance as it was before the Willmar gateway was connected to the Internet.

After we got on line and it was easy to order up large attachments to download from the catalog, I noticed the throughput from the gateway to my station wasn't as fast as I remembered it.

Since around 40k/minute is pretty fast anyway, I didn't worry about it.

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Fast forward to this past week. As a solar operator I call it "h_ll week" because the days are the shortest and it's often cloudy.

This tests the system and I found 3 days was where I ran outta gas if the station(s) were operating 24/7.? Good to know.

Today being the 4th day had me switching my hardware over to the grid so I could continue to operate... Ok, play.? :)

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The first thing I noticed when I useded the mini PC on a wall wart was the dot's in the signal diagram were round and very tightly grouped again when connecting with VARA FM.

Hmmm.

I ordered up a 50k weather file and was blown away at how fast it downloaded from the gateway - 120k/min!!? I did a few more to prove it wasn't a fluke. Nope, no fluke.

The other thing I noticed was how the diagram had 32 squares instead of 16.? VARA figured out my system had better hearing and used it.

I swapped power sources back and forth til I narrowed it down to a undersized, unshielded, too long cable powering the mini PC.?

Moral of my story - learn to trust your visual indicators.

In this case power supply noise was going out the mini PC USB to the Digirig, raising it's noise floor dramatically. This was like tatters in it's ears.

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73

Mike N0QBH

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HNY all!

73 de Randy. WR0RR

Now at 11 of 12 images.? Still waiting to grab 4 of 12.

Trekies know trying to grab seven of 9 will get you hurt. hi hi.

Happy New Years

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73

Mike N0QBH

I'm up to 7 good quality images out of the dozen and one I'm keeping in case I don't see it again.

Russians celebrating Santa (Christmas?).?

I try to keep 2 copies of each image then discard the poorest.

We've got another week...

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73

Mike N0QBH

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JS8CALL can be used for sending APRS reports.

I heard and sorta saw the signal on 437.550 very weakly.
They are back on 145.800 today.

Not sure if this is resolved, but it may be something to be mindful of.

I have PinPoint up & running on my Bmax B2 mini pc that I use for HF VARA.

I just followed the instructions WA8LMF provided.

Win 11 has the .net stuff already installed.

Monitoring the freq with just VARA chat only decoded gibberish.

Watching it through PinPoint and the gibberish is further decoded into APRS data readable by humans and positions that plot on a great built in map.

Because it's HF the APRS positions are from all over North America and Europe.

I see my station (N0QBH-4) is plotting on apris.is too.

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73

Mike N0QBH

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Here's a new rabbit hole to go down that could be rather interesting.

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I used to do HF APRS with a MFSK16 tracker I designed and built. It worked surprisingly well, but HF mobile operators are scarce.

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Fast forward 15 years and they are doing it much better with VARA.

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Stephan Smith WA8LMF is the stateside "guru" tho I will warn you, he's abrasive and doesn't suffer fools. He's an engineer in the mold of Sheldon at times.

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I'm think about trying the Pinpoint version with my VARA HF station.

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73

Mike N0QBH

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Most of the future passes I'm seeing are after bedtime, or during work, so I plan on doing the same.

Next good pass is after midnight so I'll leave my station on overnight & maybe pick up a couple more.

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It's so much fun.? I'm hoping to catch all 12 images this time.

I've gotten the Japanese moon rover so far.? 12-25-2024 @1534 UTC.

I took the Meshtastic node down off of the tower's 10' spot and brought into the shack for a checkup.

My main concern was if anything got hot enough to melt anything.?

None, nada.

Because it offers a view of the final wiring and mounting I took a few pictures with and without the insulating cover.

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Next will be to button it back up and get on the tower, this time at the 20' level.
I'm relatively confident I won't need to climb back up twice.

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73

Mike N0QBH

3rd Day Update

To coin a military term Bravo Zulu - doing great!

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We had a fair part day charging Friday 12/20.

Almost no sun Saturday until about 2 pm.

Sunday is sunny (aptly named :).

As the chart shows, it was able to warm up and charge the 3 Ah battery in almost all conditions.

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Now we can think about deploying year round mesh nodes in good locations without electricity available.

73

Mike N0QBH

Awhile ago I ordered a cable assembly from Digirig for the Baofeng UV5R model handheld radios.

The cable is prewired for the Digirig and comes with a second programming cable that uses the Digirig's serial capabilities allowing a program like Chirp to read and write the radio's program memory.

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My reason was to see if the inexpensive $35 Baofeng radio will work with VARA FM and Winlink for nearby stations accessing the W0AYE-10 gateway.

The results?

Yes and no.

I have two of these radios, one a few years old and the other purchased in the past year.? Both UV5R model.

The old one works VARA FM like a dream and seems to be a rival to the Yaesu FT-60 I've been using.

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The new UV5R with identical settings, on the other hand, is unable to complete a connection with the gateway.

It's transmit to receive turnaround time is way too slow for VARA causing the incoming data to be missed.

Searching the Internet showed this to be a very common issue with the Baofengs and VARA FM.

What remains unclear is if the problem is model change related or variations within same models.

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If you have one and want to find out, I can probably test it before you spend $35 on a cable set.

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For folks planning to use handheld radios, invest in a gain antenna around 2' long. Night and day difference in signals.

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73

Mike N0QBH

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I wired the heater circuitry into the node's solar charging harness and mounted the thermal sensor on the long narrow side of the battery.

Both the sensor and heater pcb are held in place tight with a small tie wrap around the battery. Not the one shown.
Then I wrapped this assembly in two layers of thin foam for insulation.

The battery assembly sits atop a 1/4" foam pad to further insulate it from the case.

I also updated the node's firmware to the latest stable release while I had it in the shack.

The white connectors shown attach to the RAK 4631 mesh node circuit pcb.

Bottom to solar jack and battery's to the battery jack.

I'll get pictures next time it's in the shack.

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Then I put the node back on the tower to wait for a sunny, freezing day.

Today (12/20) was a perfect test with temps in the single digits and bright sun part of the day.

The battery was down to about 60% from a stretch of cloudy days.

The simple circuit warms the battery as long as the temperature sensor is open (<32F), else all the current goes to charge the battery.

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Meshtastic has some nice built in metrics for visualizing it's power status over time.

In it you can plainly see when the battery is being warmed (low half of the "square wave") and charging when the voltage is higher.

It also gives a good idea of the duty cycle which tells me the heating is gentle.

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While this is only day one of testing, the results are very promising as a solution to the LiPo battery cold weather problem in solar powered remote nodes.

The first two hours were bright sun then filtered through clouds the rest of the day.?

Interestingly, it was still charging, tho not as fast.

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73

Mike N0QBH

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Now is the time to download Yoniq MMSSTV, for your PC, or Robot 36 for your smart phone if you interested in capturing pictures from the International Space Station!

Typo - should read almost 1 1/4 Watts output.

PCB with parts soldered on and wired for testing the actual circuit.

The main concern is how hot at full output (1.25W).

Tie wrapped to the battery and un-insulated brought the battery temperature up about 20 deg F above surroundings.

The pcb alone with only air to cool it rises to about 140 deg F after 10 minutes.?

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The switch mimics the function of the thermal switch.?

In operation the thermal switch opens when the battery temp drops below 32 deg F.

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Switch closed (on) MOSFET gate is high - no current - no heat.

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