Utilize the newly added prometheus metrics exporter in the AREDN firmware to add analytics and performance metrics to Grafana. Read about the metrics endpoint and a basic dashboard to monitor performance of your AREDN hardware or VM.
Love to hear things like that! When I first got licensed the solar cycle was utter trash. We’re past the peak now, but band conditions are still pretty good generally. A few watts and a wire will still get you somewhere with CW and some other forward error corrected modes (like FT8). I have a lot of fun with the digital stuff like AREDN, but it’s definitely a different ball game and the old school SSB-based radio still has its place in my heart.
When I first got licensed the solar cycle was utter trash
Wow…memories come flooding back.
The ionosphere depletion really made an impression on me as a young man. In conjunction with my ham radio, I used to point a telescope at the sun that had a special lens on it to keep you from burning a hole in your head. Then I would turn the eyepiece 180 deg, put a regular lens in and point it onto a white piece of cardboard. You could watch the solar flares and track them across the sun as very dark shadowy spots on the cardboard. When there weren’t a lot of solar flare activity, signals went farther on the bounce. In my memory it was probably the last time that we as a global community banded together to solve the issue of ionosphere depletion because of aerosols.
Many many nights of QSL CQ! CQ!. I still have a trunk full of old QSL cards. Do they still do that now days?
Love to hear things like that! When I first got licensed the solar cycle was utter trash. We’re past the peak now, but band conditions are still pretty good generally. A few watts and a wire will still get you somewhere with CW and some other forward error corrected modes (like FT8). I have a lot of fun with the digital stuff like AREDN, but it’s definitely a different ball game and the old school SSB-based radio still has its place in my heart.
Wow…memories come flooding back.
The ionosphere depletion really made an impression on me as a young man. In conjunction with my ham radio, I used to point a telescope at the sun that had a special lens on it to keep you from burning a hole in your head. Then I would turn the eyepiece 180 deg, put a regular lens in and point it onto a white piece of cardboard. You could watch the solar flares and track them across the sun as very dark shadowy spots on the cardboard. When there weren’t a lot of solar flare activity, signals went farther on the bounce. In my memory it was probably the last time that we as a global community banded together to solve the issue of ionosphere depletion because of aerosols.
Many many nights of QSL CQ! CQ!. I still have a trunk full of old QSL cards. Do they still do that now days?