Dirty 30 testing

Today would have been the day of the annual Golden Gate Dirty 30, had COVID-19 not invaded our lives. The race didn’t happen, but a couple of us from RMHAM decided to head into Golden Gate Canyon State Park anyway to test out a new apparatus.

One of the problems we experienced in 2019 was a loss of power at City Lights Ridge, a central point in the temporary IP-over-microwave network that we set up every year. Rather than haul extra batteries up the hill, we were looking for a creative way to use power more efficiently, and a couple of folks came up with a solution. Using Adafruit Feather LoRa 433 MHz modules and latching relay FeatherWings, they built a remote power control system which would allow them to switch off the network gear when not in use. (I can take no credit for actually helping with development of the system.)

Our goal today was to test propagation and see if they would actually reach where we needed. I hiked up to City Lights Ridge with a relay module and a remote control; Ben KC2VJW went up Windy Peak with the same, and Willem AC0KQ started testing with a remote control from near the Tallman Ranch (which is Aid 1/4 during the race). It took a bit of fiddling with the relay module, but after resetting it, it did start switching. Willem then hiked down to the Nott Creek Trailhead (start/finish) and Red Barn. Unfortunately, when I was fiddling with the reset button I apparently broke the antenna mount solder connections, and by the time Willem made it to start/finish we had a threatening rain cloud moving in, so we didn’t get a thorough test from Red Barn to City Lights. However, start/finish to Windy was working well, so that tells us that this LoRa system does have good propagation even through hilly terrain.

If nothing else, it was good to get outside and play radio. Most (not all) folks on the trail were being respectful of social distancing and wearing masks, but the parking lots were quite crowded. I was glad we got an early start.