The Frankenstein Build! LT/Expo/Trail rig..and BS

No, an igate is for APRS only. Digital is different. It uses DPRS. Though last i looked Icom was the only DPRS compliant radios...though i am certain that's changed and that Fusion/DMR has something like it.

Yea i could call him. But the radio is way nicer to use in the truck. Idk why. Just is to me. And i never text and drive. THats just fucking stupid and i wish i could run every moron i see doing in on the interstates at 60-80mph off the damn road. The other part is the use of DPRS. My dad and mom can track my progress across the country on my trip home from St louis. Very helpful for them. Technically..anyone can see my progress.

 

okay...so do you need the raspberry pi computer to run DPRS? It seems DPRS is used to convert icom gps data into TNC2 formatted APRS strings...

And so your able to talk to your dad on his cell? or radio? I dont get what you mean by tap into cellphone network... I know if you reach a igate with APRS you can send text to cell phones via SMSGTE. Is it the same principal?

 

you get much better range with 2m due to simple mathematics. The wave length is bigger and so it doesn't get stopped by so many things or reflected as easily. Plus most igates will be in the 2m range as well so you are much more likely to hit a gate on 2m then 70cm.

From what i found with APRSDroid is it does a pretty good job at downloading the area you are in to a point. However, it will eventually not have the detail or info you want. This is its short fall. I haven't looked enough yet but there may be better options for droid now where you can download nice maps.

Yes and no. The Pi is the interface to run the Dstar repeater software. I use a DVAP for my 5100 to send signal too. The Pi is connected via a wifi app called FoxFi to my cellphone which puts my DPRS info that is generated from the 5100 radio on the internet. All the DPRS data itself though is coming from my radio as it has built in GPS. I can dial in a Dstar repeater on my radio as well and it will transmit my DPRS stuff as well every time i broadcast. Or however i set the radio to do it.

I talk to my Dad with radios. He has his own collection, two in his rig, couple handhelds, and a base station. Dude has his own repeater tower even.

Yes you can send texts and email via APRS or even just APRS messages. I did that with my Dad a lot when i was in Canada. But what i mean is just using the cell network for the internet. As i explained above. So no not the same principal.

Digital also has other things that normal HAM doesn't that is nice. DTMF codes and Call Sign routing. Like i can type in my Dads CS and it will instantly route my broadcast to the last know Digital repeater that my Dad was last seen on. Anywhere in the world. Kinda cool.

 

HAM Radio Setup:

And this seems like a good time to do this, meant to do it months ago..

Anyways, this is my HAM setup at the moment.

-Icom 5100
-Motorola GM300 for APRS
-Pi2 and DVAP
-Old Droid X for APRS
-Samsung S3 for Wifi
-TNC


So, old news i know, but since i got rid of the old rack, i needed a spot for my antennas. And well since i was short on time, i threw this mini rack together in a day and called it good. My dad is by FAR the dude who helps me with this radio stuff. I am NO expert and won't claim to be, but happy to help if i can. If anything we will both learn something so ask questions!

The GM300 is NOT an APRS raido. Technically, its not even able to broadcast or monitor on the APRS bands. But, will a nice hack, you can make them go there. Which we did since the radios where basically free and we figured we may as well try them. I have it mount in the back on the sub box. I also have the 5100 mounted to a board and i just strap it to the back of the passenger side seat. Why? Because i have both rigs wired for it and can easily swap the radio between my two rigs. The face plate is bolted to the center dash, since i use it as my speedo haha

The TNC gets power from a USB port off my power inverted. The TNC is linked to the Droid X via Bluetooth. The Droid sends the TNC GPS data and the TNC sends the data to my GM300 which transmits it to any APRS gate that is in range.

That is my dedicated APRS setup as APRS is very widely supported unlike DPRS which is all my Icom 5100 can do.

The Icom is very handy though as i can use it as a crossband repeater, especially now that pretty much all my main wheeling buddies have hams and they themselves can crossband. This will make our range HUGE across our caravans of rigs. Be very handy to do. It is also the radio I just flat out use to talk on for HAM stuff. With the use of my Pi and S3, i can also use DPRS and be able to link into the DSTAR network anywhere. So it has it use's even if there isn't a Dstar repeater near.


This is the GM300

HamStuff-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

The 5100

HamStuff-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

The TNC

HamStuff-4.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

How it all lives...well..before we tucked all the wiring.

HamStuff.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


This is my rack. Pretty simple setup, terrible welds, but sorta works. Holds 3 antennas.

I angled it forward to get it close to the cab and away from my hydraulic bed rack.

HamStuff-5.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
HamStuff-6.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
HamStuff-7.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

The antenna order from left to right:

-CB antenna
-Icom 5100
-Gm300 for APRS

HamStuff-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
HamStuff-9.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


It all turned out okay. However, i would like to raise it a bit. I orignally had it so that it wouldn't block the top rear brake light to remain DOT okay. But now, i want it even with the roof after the advice of my buddy Timmy. I will also get a new rear LED bar that will have tail lights in it and mount it under the cross bar.

I will also probably setup a ground wire for the rack, I don't think it gets a good enough ground so my CB doesn't work as well and the Ham doesn't either. Farrite isolators all need to be put in too. The GM300 works okay too, but not great. I think i will buy an actual single band APRS radio and a better antenna so that it will work better.

the 5100 is great though still, though id like a better antenna for it as well that fits 2m better instead of 70cm as i use 2m mostly.




Truck build goals for this summer are:

Redo some lighting and electrical stuff. Need new Fog lights and need to wire in the Hellas still. Adding some more lights as well.
New roof rack setup, minimalist approach, super stoked on this.
redo the mini rack for the antennas and LED bar
MAYBE redo the bed rack main legs. MAYBE. Kinda doubt it, be a ton of work.
Maybe get the T100 axle under Frank and some ADS shocks. But that one is the Expensive ass one and not sure i can afford it this summer with life being as it is..so we will see.

Otherwise i just want to drive him.

 

Damn your sub enclosure almost makes it like you have a single cab.

 

Haha yea almost. I have plans to downsize the stereo a bit and run only one sub and then build a storage setup. But have just never gotten around to it.

 

Yea you'll probably switch to a tablet. But again. I haven't looked to see if someone has something for android that is good.

Yea you can not transmit and receive if both sides are on 2m. Id be suprised if your radio even lets you have both sides on 2m. Mine will but only if one side is FM and the other is digital. But I can't really use it that way.

That's why myself and my dad just setup a dedicated aprs radio so we would have full use of our ham.

 

That is, if we ever get to wheel together again.

 

Pretty sure we will. Don't see why not at this point. Summer is looking good for me from August to oct.

 

No your not.

You just need a dedicated aprs rig. There aren't really any aprs gates at UHF and 2m in general is way more popular for normal repeaters for talking.

Your current radio won't let that happen as in use both sides on 2m

 

I hope this is true. We'll talk more about it once you get home and settled in.

 

I'm sure getting a strong signal in this here thread! 5 9

 

Right but you can't beacon while your are using the other side. So depending on how you have the beacon setup sometimes it won't work. Or if your using the otherside a lot to talk then you won't beacon while you're using it

 

Sure thing

I hope you're planning on explaining instead of your usual hit and run.

I don't think I'm wrong. I don't know of any dual band radio that can send and receive on the same band width at the same time..

I've said time and time again I'm no expert on this so please share for all to learn..myself included.

 

You guys should maybe go check out the ham bs thread and see what they have to say...

 

Another B.S. thread, blasphemy!

 

Okay,

So I fired up my HAM on the way home and have a way for you I think.

Now I'm not sure how your radio works so I'm gonna be explaining from how mine works.

So i have two sides, side A and B. So let's say I setup side A for the aprs freq and my B side for..whatever, a repeator tower near me. Now on mine, you can select one side as your main, which is the side that if I key the mic it broadcasts on. For my DPRS to work, same thing as aprs, I have to have the main selected on the side I want the dprs to beacon on.

So in this case, side A needs to be the main. Then depending on how I have my radio setup it'll beacon every 1-30mins. But if someone calls me on side B, I just switch over to B and chat as needed. When I'm done talking I have to switch back to side A as my main so that it'll continue to beacon on side A. If I don't switch it back, it'll be beacon ing on side B.

Make sense?

The reason for this is, you can receive on both sides on 2m but only broadcast on one as a time.

Now, to make things more confusing, the differenace for me is that if I am hitting a DSTAR repeater(digital proprietary to icom), then I don't have to worry as all Dstar repeaters are linked to the Internet this my dprs works off any dstar repeater so as long as I have dprs enabled, every time I key up and talk on the repeater my position gets logged and all that. But again, just not enough repeaters yet.

 

Not the same for Ben's and my radios (same one, the v71a). You can assign the digital transmissions to a specific side (A or B, same as yours) and it'll only beacon on that specific side independently of the PTT settings (mic controlled side). So we can set digital to side B and PTT on side A and not have to worry about switching the PTT to beacon when we're not talking.

It still is only one transmitter, though, so I can't beacon at the same time as the other side is transmitting. If I'm talking on side A it either won't beacon side B or the voice cuts out while it does (I can't remember which happens, have to re-read the manual to figure that out), but yeah, no need to swap sides.

Makes things easy!

 

Yea it'll be fine.

And yes your is as mine doesn't do aprs. It does dprs. Different but the same. I don't need a band dedicated to aprs is the idea because all digital repeaters have dprs in them.

 

Hey Monte. I know you have the LF 240's and I was wondering if these were the same model too if you can tell. 12" HID and the guy is selling them for 200 for the pair with wiring harness. Thanks man!