Mobile on John Flinchbaugh KD3EE

Pota.app Upload

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Uploading to http://pota.app/ from a phone can be difficult sometimes, but I found a way to do it.

Export from POLO to Google Drive
In the mobile browser, zoom out just a little and turn the phone sideways to get pota.app to allow you to upload.
- make the zoom adjustment in chrome.
- alternatively, switch to desktop mode, but then you need to adjust back
Download the ADI file from Google Drive to local Downloads folder, then upload to pota.app. If you don’t download it, you’ll see a network error in pota.app.

RFI in the Car

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was out mobile, but I couldn’t check-in to the 985 Workbench. I had a weak signal, and I got a boost in interference when car powered off. It was mostly through the mobile antenna/coax, and it was enough to drown out W3GMS. I confirmed with spectrum analyzer on UV-K5.

I also had my AllStar 3 node but it wouldn’t connect either. The node connected to my phone hotspot fine, and it got an IP and all that. I could use the web interface or DTMF, but DTMF was flaky/slow. While debugging, I connected to the parrot node (55553) fine, but I only got “connection failed” from W3GMS (53085). I connected to W3GMS fine from home network the next morning.

car on

car off

Antenna on the Car

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 22:45:48 -0400

I removed the magnet from the inexpensive mag-mount antenna that I had stuck to a baking sheet in the back of the BMW i3 (which is all plastic). The bike rack is always on the car, so I cobbled together some scrap metal parts and clamped the antenna onto the rack. It’s got a screw knob, so I can loosen and reorient it when I flip the bike rack.

It works great now with the antenna outside the car and attached to the metal of the rack.