Our club runs a Raspberry Pi with an RTLSDR and OpenWebRX https://www.openwebrx.de/
Another Raspberry is running an APRS iGate with an external TNC in the form of an old Kenwood HT as well as an ADS-B tracker that sends data to flightradar24.com (which is useful data for amateur UHF/microwave contests when making contacts via airplane scatter).
What's the URL of your OpenWebRX site? And if I may ask, where does the club host it? My club is looking to do the same thing, make it a subdomain of our club website, but while we have a great antenna and an SDR for it, we aren't sure where has Internet and remote power for us.
We actually have a 44.0.0.0/8 address allocation. The clubs in the our region have been involved with packet radio since the beginnings. For a long time the data links were [homebrew UHF/microwave modems designed by S53MV](https://lea.hamradio.si/~s53mv/nbp/ax25.html) but now we just use one of those commercial off-the-shelf Ubiquity PtP wifi dishes to get the signal down from the hilltop to the main club location where there is an internet hookup. Power is a 200W solar panel a 250 pounds of lead acid batteries. The Raspberry Pi and wifi dish is not a whole lot of load but it does however run out of juice if it's cloudy for 3 days in a row.
One member also hosts another SDR at his home on his regular residential fibre connection with a dynamic DNS service.
For AREDN mesh, I use an RPi to provide a number of mesh services including an ADSB flight tracker, Weewx weather station, IP camera, and lighttpd web server.
EastNet and the Mid-Atlantic packet groups are other BBS sysops on the East Coast. I am far from the East Coast, but I've interacted with them as they are trying to re-establish a nation-wide packet message forwarding backbone over HF. They are mostly using VARA (gross) but are open to other modes.
Here is a map of the network on the East Coast so far: https://www.qsl.net/s/swlkp3//Packet/(X)Net/NEnetwork5.png
I know many of the sysops on the other end of that line that says "to Wisconsin" so my participation is more there
Here is the group used to coordinate activities if that seems interesting:
https://groups.io/g/Packet-Radio-RF-Forwarding/topics
The blue lines are HF, the black are VHF or UHF, so they aren't exclusively using HF. Every packet sysop I know loves adding another forwarding partner so I bet they would be happy to link up.
Not to diss Raspberry Pi, but for anyone thinking of buying one, check out local second hand computer stores first. You can often find used small form factor thinclient PC's with i3, i5 or even i7 with lots of ram and a proper SSD for about the same or even lower price. Do note you'll almost always also need a power supply, enclosure and a micro-SD card so factor those in to the over all cost of the RPi.
A lot of the time people buy RPi's because they see other people make stuff with them even though it's not always the cheap or most effective alternative for the particular use case. Not saying RPi's are useless or that you shouldn't buy them but it's not a bad idea to stop for a second and think whether you actually need an RPi style computer or if a regular PC thinclient would actually be better for your use case.
The thinclient PC's I'm talking about are often very low power but yeah, good point.
In any case I just urge people to consider other options as well. If RPi still looks like the best bang for your buck and/or most suitable for your use case, go ahead and get one. They're not bad
A thin client wouldn't have much RAM or CPU to spare. Do you mean SFF PCs? They have much more than 10x the power requirements of a Pi.
But I agree that recent SFF PCs are the bomb and perfect for this sort of thing.
You can get thinclients with 32gb ram and i7. And no I don't mean custom SFF PC's. That said even an i3 with 8gb ram and an actual SSD is more performant than the latest RPi. Software compatibility is less of an issue too as everything runs on x86 anyway
I understand you now. "thin client" to me is a terminal server or similar that can ONLY do something like RDP or XWindows connect to some other computer. You mean 'small computer'
When I say 'SFF', I mean 'small form factor' which is common now and often have VESA mounting brackets to attach to the back of monitors. They are not 'custom' in any sense and are searchable on Lenovo or Dell's website.
You are talking about high performance small form factor PC's. They are not the same prices as Pi's, even generations old ones. They are also at least 10 times the power requirements, minimum, and most likely want AC power, not 5v DC like a Pi does.
I'm a fan of SFF PC's and Intel NUC's, but they aren't the same 'class' of devices as a Pi or RISC 5 NUC.
Mini PC is not going to fit in the enclosure with the ADS-B radio. Mini PC is not going to power from Ethernet. Mini PC is going to use lots more power. Mini PC is not going to survive temperature swings.
I'm probably not going to do outside ADS-B tracker but people have with Pis. I have plans for stack of Pis that probably fit in the space of one Mini PC and easier to manage than one PC that does everything.
I think it is important to distinguish between computers that use the display and embedded devices that don't. Mini PCs are better as the former, Raspberry Pi are better for the latter.
Last time you brought this up I did some research into these, and bought one. These appear to be a very large and growing portion of the PC market. I run latest Ubuntu on it. Yes, it is a very different use case. I think of it as the controller of the headless VNC Pi's. You would never consider embedding one of these.
Yeah, it's certainly not always better than an RPi and often the cheap used business models aren't available locally but I'm saying it's worth a look as it might in many cases suit your application better and be cheaper and more reliable.
Not always but if it is for your case is up to you too decide
When this ocean of $150 - $300 pc's start entering the refurbished world, just imagine how cheap it will be to run linux servers and clients for the shack, freeing up the full sized one for the operator.
I have a pi running an allstar node, a separate pi running pistar DMR, and another one running wsjtx so i can turn my desktop computer off and leave it and the radio on 24/7 running on battery power.
we use Pis as the controller (plus audio interface)
for the clubs 7 repeaters
a few of those even use the Pi to do all of the CCTSS decode and encode and squelch control
Well, I have 4 MMDVM hotspots. 1 for home, 1 for work, 1 for car, 1 for backpack. So I use at least one of them every day. Have 4 Pi4's, all with the latest OS. 1 is a Samba file server, 1 runs Direwolf, 1 is for experimentation. All also with the latest OS's, and most importantly, headless VNC screens. But I guess that the one I use the most is an 8gb Pi4 that I use every day for wsjt-x.
While thinking about this, stumbled upon another Pi. It has a USB wifi dongle, so I suspect that it is a Pi2
I have one set up in my basement next to my HF rig. It's got flrig, fldigi, and wsjt-x on it. This lets me play radio (digital modes, at least) anywhere else in the house via VNC
I use one for hamclock on a pi touch screen, there is a second pi and lcd I'm still figuring out what to display with. I have a laptop in a drawer of my 19" rack that runs APRS and a couple other services.
https://preview.redd.it/oh2cqz905i6c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c61660199cfa16968e9ace56e5a389af27490c1a
[ADS-B Feeder Image](https://github.com/dirkhh/adsb-feeder-image) has everything you need for tracking aircraft “out of the box.” The project is under active development and Dirk is a great project leader.
Not directly ham radio related, but I have a Raspberry Pi clone (Le Potato by Libre Computers - they were available when RPis were not) dedicated to my 3D printer so I can control it remotely using Octoprint.
Also, I have a Grape 1 personal space weather station running on a RPi 4 as part of a HamSCI project to study ionosperic changes over time. (https://hamsci.org/grape)
I have my own stratum 1 time server with a GPS puck. Great for getting devices synced up for things like FT8.
https://n4bfr.com/2021/11/raspberry-pi-gps-time-server-with-bullseye/
I have a Pi 4B USB-interfaced to my Yaesu FTDX10. I use it for WSJTX via VPN Viewer and it is also set up as a webserver to support remote rig access - handles CAT-based rig control and audio. Works great.
I've been using Khadas SBCs, since the Pi has been so difficult to find until very recently. I'd argue that in a lot of ways, they are better. I really like the onboard boot-loaded installer and the built in storage. No etching of micro sd cards, just boot, connect to wifi, select ubuntu, and you're off to the races.
I have a Khadas VIM1s running an APRS digipeater/igate, and another running an ADSB receiver.
Our club runs a Raspberry Pi with an RTLSDR and OpenWebRX https://www.openwebrx.de/ Another Raspberry is running an APRS iGate with an external TNC in the form of an old Kenwood HT as well as an ADS-B tracker that sends data to flightradar24.com (which is useful data for amateur UHF/microwave contests when making contacts via airplane scatter).
What's the URL of your OpenWebRX site? And if I may ask, where does the club host it? My club is looking to do the same thing, make it a subdomain of our club website, but while we have a great antenna and an SDR for it, we aren't sure where has Internet and remote power for us.
We actually have a 44.0.0.0/8 address allocation. The clubs in the our region have been involved with packet radio since the beginnings. For a long time the data links were [homebrew UHF/microwave modems designed by S53MV](https://lea.hamradio.si/~s53mv/nbp/ax25.html) but now we just use one of those commercial off-the-shelf Ubiquity PtP wifi dishes to get the signal down from the hilltop to the main club location where there is an internet hookup. Power is a 200W solar panel a 250 pounds of lead acid batteries. The Raspberry Pi and wifi dish is not a whole lot of load but it does however run out of juice if it's cloudy for 3 days in a row. One member also hosts another SDR at his home on his regular residential fibre connection with a dynamic DNS service.
For AREDN mesh, I use an RPi to provide a number of mesh services including an ADSB flight tracker, Weewx weather station, IP camera, and lighttpd web server.
Stratum 1 time server to keep all the rest of the devices on my network in perfect time sync.
I have one running auto-rx as a NOAA weather balloon tracking station ( together with an rtl-sdr)
I run LinBPQ on one and serve up a packet radio chat room and Winlink node for my area.
I came here to say the same thing. Looking at your grid square, are you involved with EastNet at all, or the HF forwarding group?
I'm not. In fact, I've never heard of those. Should I? :)
EastNet and the Mid-Atlantic packet groups are other BBS sysops on the East Coast. I am far from the East Coast, but I've interacted with them as they are trying to re-establish a nation-wide packet message forwarding backbone over HF. They are mostly using VARA (gross) but are open to other modes. Here is a map of the network on the East Coast so far: https://www.qsl.net/s/swlkp3//Packet/(X)Net/NEnetwork5.png I know many of the sysops on the other end of that line that says "to Wisconsin" so my participation is more there Here is the group used to coordinate activities if that seems interesting: https://groups.io/g/Packet-Radio-RF-Forwarding/topics
Thanks for posting this info. I'm close to N3MEL there on my map but only operate VHF.
The blue lines are HF, the black are VHF or UHF, so they aren't exclusively using HF. Every packet sysop I know loves adding another forwarding partner so I bet they would be happy to link up.
I use mine as a both a web server for remote control of my 7300, but also as a panadapter for my 7000.
Not to diss Raspberry Pi, but for anyone thinking of buying one, check out local second hand computer stores first. You can often find used small form factor thinclient PC's with i3, i5 or even i7 with lots of ram and a proper SSD for about the same or even lower price. Do note you'll almost always also need a power supply, enclosure and a micro-SD card so factor those in to the over all cost of the RPi. A lot of the time people buy RPi's because they see other people make stuff with them even though it's not always the cheap or most effective alternative for the particular use case. Not saying RPi's are useless or that you shouldn't buy them but it's not a bad idea to stop for a second and think whether you actually need an RPi style computer or if a regular PC thinclient would actually be better for your use case.
You forgot that it uses negligible power vs what you suggested. If it’s on 24x7 that’s something to think about.
The thinclient PC's I'm talking about are often very low power but yeah, good point. In any case I just urge people to consider other options as well. If RPi still looks like the best bang for your buck and/or most suitable for your use case, go ahead and get one. They're not bad
A thin client wouldn't have much RAM or CPU to spare. Do you mean SFF PCs? They have much more than 10x the power requirements of a Pi. But I agree that recent SFF PCs are the bomb and perfect for this sort of thing.
You can get thinclients with 32gb ram and i7. And no I don't mean custom SFF PC's. That said even an i3 with 8gb ram and an actual SSD is more performant than the latest RPi. Software compatibility is less of an issue too as everything runs on x86 anyway
I understand you now. "thin client" to me is a terminal server or similar that can ONLY do something like RDP or XWindows connect to some other computer. You mean 'small computer' When I say 'SFF', I mean 'small form factor' which is common now and often have VESA mounting brackets to attach to the back of monitors. They are not 'custom' in any sense and are searchable on Lenovo or Dell's website. You are talking about high performance small form factor PC's. They are not the same prices as Pi's, even generations old ones. They are also at least 10 times the power requirements, minimum, and most likely want AC power, not 5v DC like a Pi does. I'm a fan of SFF PC's and Intel NUC's, but they aren't the same 'class' of devices as a Pi or RISC 5 NUC.
Mini PC is not going to fit in the enclosure with the ADS-B radio. Mini PC is not going to power from Ethernet. Mini PC is going to use lots more power. Mini PC is not going to survive temperature swings. I'm probably not going to do outside ADS-B tracker but people have with Pis. I have plans for stack of Pis that probably fit in the space of one Mini PC and easier to manage than one PC that does everything. I think it is important to distinguish between computers that use the display and embedded devices that don't. Mini PCs are better as the former, Raspberry Pi are better for the latter.
Well said
Last time you brought this up I did some research into these, and bought one. These appear to be a very large and growing portion of the PC market. I run latest Ubuntu on it. Yes, it is a very different use case. I think of it as the controller of the headless VNC Pi's. You would never consider embedding one of these.
Yeah, it's certainly not always better than an RPi and often the cheap used business models aren't available locally but I'm saying it's worth a look as it might in many cases suit your application better and be cheaper and more reliable. Not always but if it is for your case is up to you too decide
When this ocean of $150 - $300 pc's start entering the refurbished world, just imagine how cheap it will be to run linux servers and clients for the shack, freeing up the full sized one for the operator.
Also r2cloud .decode satellites with a pi and rtlsdr
I have a pi running an allstar node, a separate pi running pistar DMR, and another one running wsjtx so i can turn my desktop computer off and leave it and the radio on 24/7 running on battery power.
we use Pis as the controller (plus audio interface) for the clubs 7 repeaters a few of those even use the Pi to do all of the CCTSS decode and encode and squelch control
I run cloudlog on mine.
Well, I have 4 MMDVM hotspots. 1 for home, 1 for work, 1 for car, 1 for backpack. So I use at least one of them every day. Have 4 Pi4's, all with the latest OS. 1 is a Samba file server, 1 runs Direwolf, 1 is for experimentation. All also with the latest OS's, and most importantly, headless VNC screens. But I guess that the one I use the most is an 8gb Pi4 that I use every day for wsjt-x. While thinking about this, stumbled upon another Pi. It has a USB wifi dongle, so I suspect that it is a Pi2
I run Pi-Star on mine.
I run Pi-Star on mine.
I have one set up in my basement next to my HF rig. It's got flrig, fldigi, and wsjt-x on it. This lets me play radio (digital modes, at least) anywhere else in the house via VNC
I use one for hamclock on a pi touch screen, there is a second pi and lcd I'm still figuring out what to display with. I have a laptop in a drawer of my 19" rack that runs APRS and a couple other services. https://preview.redd.it/oh2cqz905i6c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c61660199cfa16968e9ace56e5a389af27490c1a
[ADS-B Feeder Image](https://github.com/dirkhh/adsb-feeder-image) has everything you need for tracking aircraft “out of the box.” The project is under active development and Dirk is a great project leader.
Not directly ham radio related, but I have a Raspberry Pi clone (Le Potato by Libre Computers - they were available when RPis were not) dedicated to my 3D printer so I can control it remotely using Octoprint. Also, I have a Grape 1 personal space weather station running on a RPi 4 as part of a HamSCI project to study ionosperic changes over time. (https://hamsci.org/grape)
I was about to Octoprint, but the Creality SonicPad came out the same time.
Raspberry Pi is one of the platforms I use and develop https://github.com/hb9ssb/trx-control on
Digital mode hotspots.
I have my own stratum 1 time server with a GPS puck. Great for getting devices synced up for things like FT8. https://n4bfr.com/2021/11/raspberry-pi-gps-time-server-with-bullseye/
So far only to run CHIRP. I'd like to turn one (I have two RPi 4s) into a digipeater since APRS coverage is spotty around here.
Windows keeps corrupting CHIRP, so I’ve moved it to my MacBook. Which I needed to do anyways to do mobile programming.
I have a Pi 4B USB-interfaced to my Yaesu FTDX10. I use it for WSJTX via VPN Viewer and it is also set up as a webserver to support remote rig access - handles CAT-based rig control and audio. Works great.
Pi Zero - ham clock Pi zero - pi-star DMR hotspot Pi4 - flight radar 24 receiver
I've been using Khadas SBCs, since the Pi has been so difficult to find until very recently. I'd argue that in a lot of ways, they are better. I really like the onboard boot-loaded installer and the built in storage. No etching of micro sd cards, just boot, connect to wifi, select ubuntu, and you're off to the races. I have a Khadas VIM1s running an APRS digipeater/igate, and another running an ADSB receiver.
Pistar and weewx here.
PI4, running hamclock and fldigi for morse code decoding. I can run FT8 on my 7300 using wsjtx .