A journal of hobbies
In my previous post I looked at weather balloons and sondehub.org, the online tracking site where you can monitor the balloons. In this post I will cover my setup of a monitoring station using an SDR to monitor balloons and upload the data to SondeHub. It is much simpler and cheaper than I expected. Monitoring... Continue Reading →
I've had an interest in weather balloons since the 1970's. I couldn't have imagined back then the amazing resources that are now available to monitor and track them and that I would so easily set up a monitoring station. Why would you want to monitor radiosondes? I have found it is surprisingly interesting and it... Continue Reading →
Update 18 Sept 2026: Since making this post the code has been updated to allow the network and time zone settings to be updated over WiFi, rather than hard coding them in the Arduino sketch. This post has been updated to reflect those changes. If there was only one type of electronics project I was... Continue Reading →
Back on 3 October 2023 I wrote about the issues I was having building a notifier that would send alerts to our house whenever the mailbox flap opened or someone entered our driveway. Building a smart mailbox: Challenges and unsolved issues. After 2 and a half years and more tinkering I have made some progress.... Continue Reading →
A while back I made a Tuning Wheel For SDR Radio on my PC Using an Angle Sensor. When plugged into a PC, this behaves as a mouse wheel. I'm using it as a tuning knob for SDR software. It works well but I was never very happy with the enclosure. I guess 'enclosure' is... Continue Reading →
We have developed a habit each Friday to go to our local Tip shop. They often have a few old speakers stacked in a corner. I don't need any more but I always have a look, just in case there is something special that wants to come home with me. Normally there are a couple... Continue Reading →
I have a great deal of trouble laying out items for project front panels, particularly where multiple holes have to be aligned. I don't have a CNC router or other high tech tools. I just have old basic tools. I do have a basic saw bench but I think it is at least 70 years... Continue Reading →
Water is precious in Australia. Much of Australia is very dry and regularly has droughts. From 2017 to 2019 we had a particularly nasty drought. Where we live, the long-term average rainfall is about 763 mm. 2017 and 2018 had lower rainfall and then in 2019 it dropped to only 314 mm. Everything dried out.... Continue Reading →
Over the years I’ve tinkered with a handful of those inexpensive solar garden lights. One of my earlier experiments involved swapping the standard white LED for a red one, that ended up producing a surprisingly pleasing effect. This prompted me to revisit an old challenge, getting one to run a colour changing LED without instantly... Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago I went to our local Tip shop. This is a small shop run by our local council at our waste transfer station. They have donated junk and items they retrieve from waste waiting to be sold to new victims. I was surprised when I went up the back and there sitting... Continue Reading →
