The Automated Packet Reporting System (APRS) is pretty cool! It allows you to exchange messages and positions within your radio horizon using a simple handset.
I’ve had an iGate (a receiving antenna with decoder that reports to the APRS-IS network) in the attic for a few weeks but it receives hardly anything due to the high noise floor. It was really a simple setup using a RTL-SDR v3 stick and a Raspberry Pi 2B (from 2015..) using the direwolf software to decode and report packets.
However, when I also wanted to use the same device as an SDR on my laptop, it led to some issues and I just added more SDR devices in an attempt to receive more spectrum.
Turns out, OpenWebRX+ is an amazing piece of software and it even supports APRS + WSPR decoding out of the box. As a test I’ve put the Pi and two SDR devices up on a fiberglass post in the backyard, it doesn’t clear the roof line but at least the noise is less! Also, a ΠΑΠΑΔΟΠΟΛΟ tin is a great makeshift rain cover / RF shield.
There is just not much VHF/UHF going on around me I guess, or I need to get higher up… Also the RPi 2B is barely capable of running two SDRs, CPU usage is pretty much consistently 90%+
