TLDR: I'm looking for a very lightweight ( < 50 g) and cheap ( < $25) 2-meter transmitter that stacks directly on top of an associated microcontroller, similar to the ones that exist for 33 cm and 70 cm. It needs to transmit data collected by the microcontroller to an FTM-300DR transceiver up to 3000 feet away. Do they exist? If not, what is the next best option?
I'm participating in a challenge in which a 2-M radio will be launched on a rocket to an apogee of about 5000 feet and transmit data about the launch and landing (apogee, time of landing, max velocity, etc.) to an FTM-300DR transceiver at the base station once the rocket lands. The distance between the rocket and base station at landing will be at most 3000 feet. I've completed a similar challenge in which I used a 70 cm Adafruit LoRa Featherwing, which was dead simple to plug into an Adafruit Feather board and hook up to a couple of sensors, and it worked perfectly.
This challenge requires the data to be transmitted on the 2-meter band. I've been hunting around on the internet for an evaluation/development board that would be as simple as dropping on top of an associated microcontroller like the Feather series, but I haven't had any luck. Do they exist anywhere?
In the event they do not in fact exist, I have found a couple potential options. There's the Great Scott Gadgets HackRF One SDR, which I think would work with a Raspberry Pi, but costs more than the entire budget last year. Next is the ArduTrx, which seems to be by far the best bet. However, I can't tell how much it costs, how much assembly is required, and if it really will work for this application due to the limited documentation and my relative lack of knowledge. The Arrow from Curious Electron might work, but it is designed for a different use case and is apparently very low-powered. It still might be a good option if he published his PCB files somewhere. Finally, I found a few evaluation boards on Mouser such as the EVAL-ADF7021-NDBZ5, which also might work but again is over three times the price of what I was hoping to find.
Let me know if there's something out there I missed, or if you have a recommendation out of the options I found. Thank you!
I'm participating in a challenge in which a 2-M radio will be launched on a rocket to an apogee of about 5000 feet and transmit data about the launch and landing (apogee, time of landing, max velocity, etc.) to an FTM-300DR transceiver at the base station once the rocket lands. The distance between the rocket and base station at landing will be at most 3000 feet. I've completed a similar challenge in which I used a 70 cm Adafruit LoRa Featherwing, which was dead simple to plug into an Adafruit Feather board and hook up to a couple of sensors, and it worked perfectly.
This challenge requires the data to be transmitted on the 2-meter band. I've been hunting around on the internet for an evaluation/development board that would be as simple as dropping on top of an associated microcontroller like the Feather series, but I haven't had any luck. Do they exist anywhere?
In the event they do not in fact exist, I have found a couple potential options. There's the Great Scott Gadgets HackRF One SDR, which I think would work with a Raspberry Pi, but costs more than the entire budget last year. Next is the ArduTrx, which seems to be by far the best bet. However, I can't tell how much it costs, how much assembly is required, and if it really will work for this application due to the limited documentation and my relative lack of knowledge. The Arrow from Curious Electron might work, but it is designed for a different use case and is apparently very low-powered. It still might be a good option if he published his PCB files somewhere. Finally, I found a few evaluation boards on Mouser such as the EVAL-ADF7021-NDBZ5, which also might work but again is over three times the price of what I was hoping to find.
Let me know if there's something out there I missed, or if you have a recommendation out of the options I found. Thank you!
