I had my first contact with APRS a long time ago. To tell the truth, I wasn’t interested in it at all at the time and I let it slide. Gradually, however, I found interesting articles about development boards for Arduino and I suddenly started to like the whole thing. The whole thing was best explained to me by an article by Miro, OM7AMA. I learned a lot of interesting information and started working on my first APRS project.
Gradually, I ordered a LilygoTTGO ESP32 development board from Aliexpress and also a Cubecell Heltec working at a frequency of 433 MHz. I subsequently found many instructions on the web, how to build and program an iGate and and tracker as well.
Ricardo Guzman CA2RXU developed a website that perfectly programs the entire iGate for you, and you basically only fill in the basic data necessary for proper functioning.
But this was not the path that suited me. I always need to beat myself up about something. That’s why I found the code from DJ1AN on github and started programming my first iGate. After a few weeks of getting to know it, I came to the result and my new APRS iGate.
I supplemented it with a telemetry sensor BME280, which still measures the outside temperature and atmospheric pressure. Everything works perfectly. I’m not going to write instructions here, the internet is full of them, but I’d be happy to help and if you find the time, feel free to write to me.
I plan to put three more iGates into operation in the future, which will complement the developing network of our regional iGates.
You can see the result of my work on my page in the APRS section.
