Adventures in LoRa APRS (70 cm)
After reading and watching the following:
Reading list first, then the Telford LoRa iGate notes — newest DX at the bottom of the story.
March 2024 · now in Telford
LoRa APRS iGate up on 439.9125 MHz (BW125, SF12, CR5) and first packets received. This is in addition to the existing 2m (144.800 MHz) FM packet (AX.25) iGate.
A syslog server on the Raspberry Pi that also runs the 2m FT8 station streams iGate activity to a log file.
M54 LoRa APRS coverage
A mobile was heard along the full length of the M54. SNR plotted from west of Shrewsbury out to Essington near Wolverhampton:
Packets continued beyond Walsall but were corrupted — incomplete reception.
Band-pass filters and preamps did not stretch the range. It maxes out around 45 miles in a very narrow direction, probably the relatively low siting of the colinear.
Over about six weeks the radio decodes a few more packets overnight than in daytime — lower noise floor and/or fewer 70 cm transmissions.
December 2024 · DX
During tropo, several packets from a digipeater at Seatallan in the Lake District — 128 miles line-of-sight from Telford.
May 2025 · beaming Wolves
Second receiver M0CYP-11 on a 10-element (13.2 dB) beam, vertical, pointing east down the M54 towards Wolverhampton.
July 2026 · more DX
July tropo: a station from Blackmore at 137 miles (220 km) from Telford.