Time Lapse of a 105′ Antenna Tower that I built for a customer to use for Wireless Internet service. This project took a few days to build, working a few hours each day.
Video of a tower I use for Wireless Internet in Wheeler Mi.
APRS iGate / digipeater will be added to this site soon.
This is the top of a VHF base antenna that got hit by lightning. It was on top of a customer’s 65′ tower. He removed it so I can use the tower for a WIFI repeater. He lost his computer, phones and microwave from the strike. I am going to be replacing & upgrading the old ground wiring and clamps.
I have temporarily set upmy ADS-B plane tracking receiver at home, until I can get it installed at the tower site. Since I only ordered 10′ of coax, I couldnt get it very high, without going to longer coax, but then I would lose a lot of signal. For now, it is mounted on the corner of my house. It has about a 75% view of the sky where it is. So far the results are good, Ive seen up to 27 planes on it. I am sure once its on the tower, it will increase a lot.
I had a spare Motorola Maxtrac 800 Mhz trunking radio (820) that is pretty much obsolete now. I decided to see if I could put it to use, making it work as a P25 digital trunking control channel monitor.
While looking for info on some ADS-B receivers (plane trackers) online, I came across a post on RadioReference.com about a website owner looking to increase coverage of aircraft receivers. He was offering a free receiver setup to people in select areas who can provide reliable 24/7 receive coverage. I sent my info to him requesting a receiver, since I could put it up on one of my WIFI tower sites. I was approved to receive a kit, and about 2 weeks later, I received it (from Finland).
The website is http://www.flightradar24.com/ and is really neat. Compared to the computer software that Ive seen for these receivers, his site goes way beyond the basic 1990′s looking map files. The website is one of the reasons why I wanted to help his site out. I could see that it was far superior than the other sites Ive been on too.
I have found a very simple and cheap interface to program some Motorola and Unication pager models.
I have found that a Yaesu VX-5 VX-6 VX-2 cable works great. I have an older serial cable, but it works fine with a USB > Serial adapter. Most cables now are USB, but I would bet that they should work fine. You can find these on Ebay for about $10.
On my model, the Black wire is Ground, White Wire is Data Positive.
On the pager, the bottom pin hole (closest to battery) is Ground, Top Pin hole is Data Positive.
This has been tested on the following models. These models use a 2 wire programming interface.
Software is available from these sources.
http://www.hackcanada.com/blackcrawl/cell/pager/mot.html
http://www.americanmessaging.net/paging/Moto_pps.asp
http://www.americanmessaging.net/paging/uni_pps.asp
A quick video of the APRS tracking system in my truck and other electronics hidden in the back storage compartment.
Gratiot County Mi Fire Pager Tones
I will be gathering all of the tones as I hear them and am able to record / decode them .
Today was a nice day out, so I decided to install the VHF scanner feed antenna on the Merrill Tower (#2). The antenna was a Radio Shack 2Meter 5/8wave mobile magnet mount. I removed the whip from the magnet assembly. I used a small “L” bracket for the mount. It is hose clamped to an existing pole that was unused on the tower. For now it just uses 50′ of RG-58 coax running down. I think the coax might be too short. I might need to extend it 10-15feet to reach where I want it inside the building, but maybe I can re-route it better. I need to look into that when I run the coax into the building.
