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https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/loraham

Ham radio protocols and Arduino examples for LoRa on 70cm.
https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/loraham

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Ham radio protocols and Arduino examples for LoRa on 70cm.

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README 

        
# LoRaHam



This project consists of ham radio protocols and Arduino examples for

LoRa on 70cm.  The code, the protocols, and the hardware have all been

intentionally kept simple for easy experimentation, in the interest of

getting folks to build things and to put their projects on the air.



This project has only recently been made public; please join us in

`#loraham` on Freenode if you'd like to play along.



# Getting Started



You will need to buy Adafruit M0 LoRa Feather boards, which can be

programmed to act as Beacons, Gateways, and Terminals.  You should be

running the latest Arduino environment, with the Adafruit board

definitions and the RadioHead radio library.



http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/RadioHead/



# Basics of the Protocol



A Beacon is just a transmitter, and nothing else.  It doesn't receive

packets, but once every five or more minutes, it will transmit a quick

burst with a voltage, a sequence number, and maybe another sensor

reading.  A beacon's packet is addressed to the callsign "BEACON" from

its own callsign, which is followed by a suffix.  Comments can come

later.  For example, this is my solar powered beacon that won't

transmit on low voltage.



```

BEACON KK4VCZ-16 VCC=3.718945 count=437 Solar. No TX on low voltage.

```



These messages are then repeated by Gateways, which you might also

call a Digipeater.  Gateways are optionally connected to the Internet,

in order to share their packets with the wider world.  When a gateway

transmits a packet, it appends a second line addressed to `RT`

(retransmit) from its own callsign and optional observations of the

received signal strength.  In this example, `KK4VCZ-16` is the Beacon

and `KM4BBD-10` is the Gateway.



```

BEACON KK4VCZ-16 VCC=3.718945 count=437 Solar. No TX on low voltage.

RT KM4BBD-10 rssi=-46

```



Finally, you might want to use a LoRaHam network for your own personal

messages on an interactive Terminal.  In this case, you will send the

initial packet in the form of ``DESTINATION SOURCE Text``.  So when

`KK4VCZ` sends a message to `KC3BVL`, it'll look like this.



```

KC3BVL KK4VCZ Hey Jim, it's Travis.  Care for a beer?

```



The packet might be retransmitted by a gateway or two, so when Jim

(`KC3BVL`) receives the packet, it might look like the following if

repeated by `KM4BBD-10` and `AB3XL-13`.  Note that the first line is

unchanged, and also that you can graph the path that the packet took

by looking at the later lines.



```

KC3BVL KK4VCZ Hey Jim, it's Travis.  Care for a beer?

RT KM4BBD-10 rssi=-46

RT AB3XL-13 rssi=-80

```



The extra lines are added in order, so the packet went from `KK4VCZ`

to `KM4BBD-10` to `AB3XL-13` to `KC3BVL`.  Just like on the first

line, the destination is always listed first and the source listed

second.



# Hardware Designs



See the Wiki at https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/loraham/wiki for

our hardware reference designs.  In brief, we are simply powering

Adafruit LoRa Feather 434MHz boards with solar-charging motion

activated light boxes from which the lights have been torn out.



# Active Networks



The first LoRaHam network was born and raised in West Philadelphia, on

the airwaves it passes packets each day.  Other networks are planned;

please say Howdy in the IRC channel if you'd like to start one.