Last we posted on this site about WinLink was back at the end of July. In fact it is the post just before this one. We have been busy working on the Clubs WinLink gateway W4SVI-10 on 145.030MHz and have been lazy about posting any information on this. So although this is not a complete write-up of our adventure, it is just a mention and a "Look what we did" post since we are way over due and the cobb webs on this site are just getting out of control.
So to recap, we have:
- Put an antenna on the Tippy top of the tower (70ft)
- Attached a weather proof cabinet to the tower
- Populated the cabinet with:
- ICOM VC-3500 VHF 50W Radio
- Digirig Mobile and Cable
- Intel NUC Atom Single Board Computer
- GL-iNet AR300M16-Ext AREDN Router
- Renogy Wanderer 30A Charge Controller
- FTDI TTL to RS232 Interface
- Custom 3D printed bracketry (Just because we're cool like that)
- Added 100Ah LifePO4 Battery
- Battery Box
- Custom 3D Printed shelf for said box (Again coolness factor)
- Cleaned up the 100Watt Solar panel from a previous APRS project
This was not by any means what we started off with, but what we have ended up with. There has been a long road of trial and error with many lessons learned along the way. We have had issues with networking, computer choices, charge controllers and batteries to mention the big items. Step by step we have improved the station with lessons learned throughout the process.
The power system can be monitored on this rudimentary page and hopefully in the near future when we have figured out how to do so, we will have a way to monitor the traffic received by the gateway like we do here with WB4DB's APRS node and WinLink Gateway WB4DB-10.
So if you are in the area and have the means, give it a try, connect and check your WinLink email. Let us know how it went and if you need help just reach out!