About the Boston category

This subcategory is to discuss setting up TTN in Boston, Massachusetts! You can discuss gathering a team, Boston specific problems and technical issues.

Hey Boston! Would you get in touch with me — we’re down south 50+ miles on Martha’s Vineyard. Love to know what you’re planning and to compare notes.
Thanks!

I’ve just joined the Boston group and I’m trying to get a feeling for what needs to be done. I’ll be working on this through the summer.

Well we are now live. I added a gateway down here at my house on South Shore but will be moving it to Somerville in the next few weeks along with an outdoor antenna. I have another I can donate (MultiTech Conduit) but I don’t have a good place to put it. Anyone want to host it?

Not much activity in Boston I guess… Just two comments in case anyone is interested.

  1. I will be creating a local single channel gateway to cover my house and property. I’ll be using the new Adafruit LoRa Bonnet for Raspberry Pi; when it arrives; it is out of stock right now. The bonnet is $32. Add a $10 rPi zero W, power and a box and I’ll have a simple gateway for under $75. Initially I’ll stick it in the attic. Its a tall house (3 high ceilinged floors below the attic and the first floor sits 8 steps above the ground) so that is maybe 45 feet. Not impressive except we are inside a big loop of the Charles river so the land around here is pretty flat. I’m hoping for reasonable coverage. Someday I might stick it on a pipe on the almost unused chimney.

  2. I have access to a very tall tower in Wakefield. An 85 foot tower on top of a 300 ft hill makes the top of that tower the highest point for miles around. It pretty much covers the north shore. That’s why my dad bought the house. He was a serious radio amature. He confused local realtors by insisting on only considering property on tops of hills. The realtors barely knew where hills were. Cars make hills seem flat. When my dad was alive the tower used to have a lot of ham radio repeaters on it maintained by local radio clubs.

The point is I might be willing to host a gateway on it if I knew how to do it safely. It would add access to a bunch of abutting towns in one swell foop. For safety I’m worried about lightning. How do you safely put electronics on a tall metal tower. I used to go up that tower a lot (with appropriate safety gear) but I’m getting too fat and old for it. I’d need younger, experienced assistance.

Hello, any activity in Boston?

Merrimack here.