This is an old project of mine with limited documentation or images.
Background
Back in middle school I was really fascinated with weather balloons and sending one up myself. I did a lot of research and explored many different telemetry transmission methods and eventually figured out I wanted to use APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System), a common packet-based Ham Radio digital mode with a network of worldwide internet-connected receivers often used for ballooning. Although there were some commercial transmitters out there, I only wanted to do it if I could build the tracker from scratch.
Design and Prototype
I remember seeing a lot of tiny low-power APRS trackers use the DRA818V module, which is a low-cost VHF transceiver that can be integrated with microcontrollers easily. I found a library that could encode APRS AX.25 packets and wired everything together in an incredibly messy free-hand protoboard prototype. Not my proudest work but I was 13 so I’ll cut myself some slack. To the best of my memory the prototype did actually end up working somehow, and I was able to get packets decoded by local I-gates.
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