Mark-Rodgers

I was thinking of new ideas to mod / incorporate an Arduino with Ham Radio. My latest idea is to use it to store and “automatically” change the frequency of your mobile radio, while traveling.

It shouldn’t be too hard of a project to design and build. It would need at least the following items.

• Ham Radio – Must have CAT port or ability to be controlled via microphone buttons.
• Arduino
• GPS with NMEA output
• Arduino data shield
• Memory card to hold data

POI Factory is a great place to start. They have great user submitted files made for GPS units that have Ham Radio repeater locations, PL tones and offsets already setup. This can be downloaded as a .csv file and we could use the Arduino and data shield to read it. With a GPS location, the Arduino can do some math and compare the current Lon/Lat and find the closest repeater listed.

Since the list includes all or most of the info needed (freq, PL, offset) we can use this to program the radio. It just needs to be read, formatted to the CAT standard for that radio and then sent to the radio over a serial connection.

A simple LCD can also show the text on a display so you know where it is and additional info on it.
A pushbutton would also be required to make it do the “automatic” change, since you dont want to be in the middle of a QSO and have it change freqs on you, without you knowing it.

Since I love to tinker and hack in the winter, Im thinking I might start on this project soon, after a few other projects and ideas are finished. Thats the curse of being a hacker /modder, you never have time to finish all your projects, before a new one comes to mind.