CQ Geocachers, CQ Geocachers...
I have come up with a marvelous idea for a Travelbug Hotel styled geocache that actually combines the world's of ham radio and geocaching through the use of APRS!
I have come up with a marvelous idea for a Travelbug Hotel styled geocache that actually combines the world's of ham radio and geocaching through the use of APRS!
Marvelous, yes? Thanks, I thought so too!
So the plan is to build a large container, water proof it, and install stuffs. What stuffs you ask? There will be shelves and hangers to store the trackables to start, but the fun stuff is the electronics. There will be an arduino board controlling a locking mechanism and LED lights to illuminate the trackables. Of course there will be a sneaky way to open the container, but I will not share that here. Secondly there will be a Raspberry Pi 3 connected to a Baofeng handheld running a virtual TNC, APRS program, and camera. The TBH (Travelbug Hotel) will be a functioning APRS digipeater and iGate! It will periodically broadcast a beacon with hidden message about the geocache! When the door is open it will start a live video broadcast of the cacher! So cool! I have already started writing the code for the arduino, and hope to start construction on the geocache within the next month. Stay tuned to this blog and my Geocaching Adventures page for updates!
So the plan is to build a large container, water proof it, and install stuffs. What stuffs you ask? There will be shelves and hangers to store the trackables to start, but the fun stuff is the electronics. There will be an arduino board controlling a locking mechanism and LED lights to illuminate the trackables. Of course there will be a sneaky way to open the container, but I will not share that here. Secondly there will be a Raspberry Pi 3 connected to a Baofeng handheld running a virtual TNC, APRS program, and camera. The TBH (Travelbug Hotel) will be a functioning APRS digipeater and iGate! It will periodically broadcast a beacon with hidden message about the geocache! When the door is open it will start a live video broadcast of the cacher! So cool! I have already started writing the code for the arduino, and hope to start construction on the geocache within the next month. Stay tuned to this blog and my Geocaching Adventures page for updates!