Raspberry Pi: APRS tracker mash-up

I wanted to test how Raspberry Pi would work as a small web server  so I installed NGINX  and configured it using the instructions in here. 

I also created a small Javascript page that uses  aprs.fi  JSON API  and Nokia Maps API to track  APRS enabled station on a map.  The source code is posted in github  - this is basically just one file 'index.html'  that is copied to /var/www directory on Raspberry PI.   You need to get the APRS.FI API key from  here.

Here is how the page looks like as served by Raspberry Pi  - see W1MRA-C station  near Prudential Center in Boston.  As you can see from the source code this is a very simplistic Javascript mash-up. 


However, Nokia Maps APIs  do provide a rich set of functionality that can be used to extend the capabilities.  The neat thing here  is that even a tiny web server like Raspberry Pi  can provide this rich functionality because all the heavy lifting is done by Nokia on the maps API side and on the browser doing the page rendering.  

Raspberry Pi Arrived!

I placed the Raspberry Pi order to RS Components  in early March and this credit card sized  $35  Linux computer finally arrived on Monday.  

I created a new page for Raspberry Pi related projects and experiments. Please check in here.  

Rasberry Pi - $35 credit card size computer

 Rasberry Pi was launched today with a big bang.   There are already 44,161 followers on Twitter and  the launch made to headline news in CNN.com,  BBC and other news sites.

This credit card size little computer has been under development multiple years and is now available at $35 price point.

The price / performance ratio is pretty amazing  and since it is running Linux operating system it should be pretty straightforward to port / run  different ham radio applications on this tiny little computer.

I signed up on the waiting list - let's see how quickly the two distributors can ramp up. This initial batch of 10,000 units was sold in few minutes according to some websites.

73  de Mauri  AG1LE