If you have a spare handheld collecting dust, here’s a fun weekend project. Evan’s write-up walks through turning a Baofeng UV-5R and a Raspberry Pi 3B+ into an APRS digipeater that also works as an IGate and an APRStt bridge.
The parts list is short: a USB sound card, a couple of audio cables, an adapter and a single-channel relay. He compiles Dire Wolf from source on Raspberry Pi OS, then solves the always-keyed PTT problem by putting the relay in the mic cable’s ground line and driving it from GPIO14.
What I like is how few config changes it takes: PTT on GPIO 14, DTMF turned on for APRStt, and the digipeat section uncommented. Grab the Dire Wolf manual alongside it, and remember you need a license before you key up.
Visit them: Evan’s guide, “Building a cheap APRS digipeater”
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