Beacon Status: De-commissioned, experiment complete
This was a simple project built by the Raspberry Pi group that meets on a Friday afternoon at The Glass Box in Taunton. Members of the Taunton & District Amateur Radio Club (TDARC) also supported this project.
This was a radio experiment that is compliant with the requirements of Ofcom IR2030, the interface specification for License Exempt Short Range Devices.
A 10mW transmitter was temporarily installed on the flag pole of Saint James Church in Taunton. A Radiometrix NTX2-B transmitter was driven by a Raspberry Pi computer feeding a dipole antenna approximately 33 metres above ground level, about 2 metres above the metallic roof.
The beacon ran off a 75 Ahr leisure battery. The beacon was intended to operate for 12 days, representing 80% of the battery capacity, the beacon taking approximately 200 mA at 12 Vdc (via a cigar lighter type of 5Vdc dc/dc converter). However, a battery load test showed that the battery capacity was much reduced and therefore a solar PV panel was added to reduce the discharge rate. It was still found necessary to charge the battery in situ half way through the experiment. The beacon was operation from Tuesday 31 October to Friday 10 November 2017.
The beacon transmited an identification sequence in Morse Code using frequency shift keying (FSK). The sequence sent references this web site:
CT V V V S J C - T A U N T O N . W E E B L Y . C O M AR
Reception reports were invited using the contact page on this web site. Thank you to those who took the time to listen for the beacon and provided reception reports. The beacon was heard across Taunton, Neroche, and other nearby hills and up to Junction 24 on the M5. The experiment illustrated what 10mW erp over an obstructed path could achieve. Greater coverage could most probably be achieved using weak signal digital modes although this was not attempted.
The Raspberry Pi group and TDARC would like to thank St James Church for providing access to the tower and hosting this experiment.
SHUTDOWN: see menu link above.
This was a radio experiment that is compliant with the requirements of Ofcom IR2030, the interface specification for License Exempt Short Range Devices.
A 10mW transmitter was temporarily installed on the flag pole of Saint James Church in Taunton. A Radiometrix NTX2-B transmitter was driven by a Raspberry Pi computer feeding a dipole antenna approximately 33 metres above ground level, about 2 metres above the metallic roof.
The beacon ran off a 75 Ahr leisure battery. The beacon was intended to operate for 12 days, representing 80% of the battery capacity, the beacon taking approximately 200 mA at 12 Vdc (via a cigar lighter type of 5Vdc dc/dc converter). However, a battery load test showed that the battery capacity was much reduced and therefore a solar PV panel was added to reduce the discharge rate. It was still found necessary to charge the battery in situ half way through the experiment. The beacon was operation from Tuesday 31 October to Friday 10 November 2017.
The beacon transmited an identification sequence in Morse Code using frequency shift keying (FSK). The sequence sent references this web site:
CT V V V S J C - T A U N T O N . W E E B L Y . C O M AR
Reception reports were invited using the contact page on this web site. Thank you to those who took the time to listen for the beacon and provided reception reports. The beacon was heard across Taunton, Neroche, and other nearby hills and up to Junction 24 on the M5. The experiment illustrated what 10mW erp over an obstructed path could achieve. Greater coverage could most probably be achieved using weak signal digital modes although this was not attempted.
The Raspberry Pi group and TDARC would like to thank St James Church for providing access to the tower and hosting this experiment.
SHUTDOWN: see menu link above.