In the recent months i really got into APRS again, especially due to my high altitude ballon flights me and some hamradio friends did in 2025. There are many webapps out there to view APRS data, i guess the most popular one is aprs.fi - it works but it is not up to current standards. During our balloon flights i often got somewhat annoyed at the different apps due to performance and especially the…
Am 20.09.2025 ist es endlich soweit! Nach langer Planung und Vorbereitung im Rahmen unseres OV-übergreifenden Projektes des DARC-Distrikts G (Köln/Aachen) steigt unser Stratosphärenballon endlich in die Höhe! Aktuelle Informationen zum Verfolgen des Ballons sowie zu Frequenzen und weiteren Details gibt es auf unserer eigens dafür eingerichteten Website: g-fliegt.de Ähnlich wie bei unserem recht…
Im Amateurfunk gehört die Rufzeichen Datenbank von QRZ.com zu einem der wohl meist genutzten Dienste. Während oder auch nach einem QSO schauen viele sich Informationen zum entsprechenden Rufzeichen in der Datenbank an, auch viele der Logprogramme bieten eine direkte Anbindung an die Suche. Das Einzige, was ich persönlich bisher immer vermisst habe, ist eine gute Lösung auf dem Smartphone, denn die…
We collected and analyzed over 1.7 million performance measurements from Starlink users and I got the chance to present the results at the IEEE ICC 2024 conference in Denver, CO, USA in June. Thanks to all Starlink users that participated in the project so far as well as my colleagues at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg that helped analyze the data and creating the scientific…
Well...that happened...I really think they shutdown part of Dishys gRPC API because of me (and other people) using it, let me explain why i think this and what happened: Dishy (user terminal for Starlink) has a gRPC based API that offers different methods to query data from it. This API is also used by the web interface as well as the app to interact with the dish by a normal Starlink User. SpaceX…
I really like my Alfa Romeo Giuletta QV and it makes me smile everytime i drive it. But as it is with italian Cars, sometimes things go wrong on them. On my Car the Lighting of the Fuel Gauge only worked sometimes and it went dark more frequently every week. It isn't anything important, but a bit annoying after some time, so i wanted it to be fixed. With that i removed the Dash from my Car,…
As many of you may know i got myself a Rack Cabinet a few Months ago that is standing in a normal Room i work and life in. Because of that i need to make it as silent as possible so it doesen't annoy me.
I recently wanted to get a VFO knob to be able to better adjust the Frequency of my SDRs for SSB Signals on Shortwave or QO100 for example. You can use the Mouse Wheel on a PC, but on a Notebook or Tablet you are out of luck. After a quick Google Search i wasn't able to find anything like i wanted for a reasonable price, but i found a Audio Dial for only 15€ including Shipping on Ebay . I thought…
I found a cheap USB Stick online ( eBay ) for around 15€, that can be used to upgrade any MP3 capeable device with a USB port with DAB+! As long as your Device can play MP3 files from a USB Stick, this thing will work awesome for you. Just Plug it in, press the Button to search for channels, play your favorite Channel.mp3 File. Here is a quick Video about it including a Teardown: Teardown Images:
I don't know you, but i like to look at statistics from some local weatherstations around my area. Only Problem is that most of them don't have nice graphs and also don't give the raw data to process on your own. Looking at some commercial Options, i quickly realized that they are just to expensive for me. So i wanted to Build my own Weatherstation that also has Rain and Wind Sensors on it. It…
Yeeees! I got my first QSO over the new QO100 Amateur Radio Satellite Today with DK8KW. It also was my first ever CW QSO, so that are two first for me Today, great! I used a 60cm Dish i had laying around for RX and TX that was standing indoors and looking out of the window. It had a Octagon Oslo PLL LNB for RX and a small Patch Antenna above that. The Patch was only helöd by a pair of "Third…
On the 14th march 2019 at 19:14 UTC the Soyuz MS-12 started from Baikonur, Kazakhstan with Astronauts Nick Hague, Christina H Koch and Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin Aboard. The flight to the ISS only took around 6 hours this time, and docking was planned for around 1:00 UTC the next Day. There was a good pass of the ISS over my QTH here near Cologne, Germany just the Orbit before the planned Docking…
A lot of ham radio operators use an Arrow Dual band Yagi that is made by a company in the USA to make contacts over satellites. The Antenna has enough gain for use with a low power 5w handheld radio and is relatively light. It costs around 150$, what is not cheap. If you live in Europe you pay even more because of shipping etc. I found two German ham radio operators that published information…
Das Charity Event Racing4Friends auf dem Nürburgring ermöglicht körperlich und geistig eingeschränkten Personen aus verschiedensten Institutionen, ein paar Runden als Beifahrer in einem Rennwagen zu erleben. Dabei stellen größtenteils Privatpersonen ihre selbst aufgebauten Rennwagen oder Sportwagen zur Verfügung und drehen mit den Teilnehmern ein paar Runden auf der für diesen Zweck zur Verfügung…
I had a small project with one of my followers in canada where we tried to make a combined HRPT image over the atlantic from Europe to the american continent. Watch the Video Below for some more informations and images, hope you enjoy it :) You can take a look at the full Resolution image as well at the end of this page.
The ISS is sending SSTV Images again on the 6th and 7th of june on Orbits that pass over Moscow. As always they use a 145,8mhz Downlink and PD120 modulation that uses around 16khz of bandwidth (FM Wide). I will use my DIY QFH Antenna at the Roof with my Airspy mini to receive the Signal for this short SSTV event.
I run my ADSB Radar now for over a year and started out with a Flightaware Pro Stick that worked very well. A few months ago i bought the very well known ADSB filtered LNA from UpUtronics that seems like it is the favorite of the community around the World. Some weeks after i had my new LNA, the producer of the high quality RTL SDRs that many people use released a ADSB LNA. RTL-SDR.com developted…
The ISS is sending SSTV images from the 11th April for 3 Days on all orbits insted of only moscau passes. Mode is PD120 on the common 145.800mhz Downlink frequency. I will mostly use my QFH and my Airspy Mini to receive the images this time. More information on my QTH page . I will update this post at least once a day with the images i was able to receive. Results: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12…
The ISS will transmit images over SSTV on the 2nd and 3th April on passes that go over Moscow, Russia. They use the PD120 mode and transmit on 145.800mhz as always. I will use my QFH on the Roof as well as my Airspy Mini sdr to recive the images. You can find more about my QTH here . I will update this post regularly with all the images i was able to get.
I made some changes to my HRPT setup and was able to get very good images from NOAA19 for example. Take a look at my Video about the changes below: