Hi All,
Its been a fairly busy month for me at my "day job", but did manage to hack a few more fun projects together to play with in the last month.
The first project was to put together a wideband spectrum monitor similar to the online version. It uses the same backend software developed by the BATC, but running on a Raspberry PI. It currently only works with the Airspy SDR, but I've been making good progress on a RTL-SDR version that scans the spectrum and builds the complete view. More info on that soon.
The advantage of running your own local version is that you aren't dependent on the internet for keeping an eye on the transponder. I've also submitted some code for Rob's Quick Tune that allows you to point it to your local version (and added a more colorful spectrum in the process ;)). You can get more details on setting up your own local monitor here and you can get the latest release of quicktune on his repo.
Another quick project came after a request from Robert DD4YR who has been doing some tests with his dish and different 3d printed lenses for it. He needed a mobile option for getting an average of the MER over a specific time period. The Longmynd Android app is not quite ready yet so I decided to hack something separate together.
Since it was developed in Flutter it can be compiled for various platforms. I've made Android and Windows binaries available, but the source code is also available if you want to compile it for other platforms. Get all the details/binaries and code here.
Other posts from the past month that might interest some of you is a writeup of setting up the Adalm Pluto for DATV along with configuration for a GPS Disciplined oscillator using a Leo Bodnar. I also made a clock for the shack which also shows the wideband spectrum monitor :)
I hope somewhere between the posts and projects you find something fun to do. See you on the Satellite!
73,
Tom - ZR6TG