That antenna looks strange. How big is it and what type of Antenna?
regards,
Manuel
I believe your spec will allow a user to plug in a 64 GB micro SD chip.
It is important if you want to (as Wolfgang @wsombeck and I do) include the Rachel 32 GB data base and other files. Ken
@kenbarbi Yes, one microSD is used for the OS and the other for expandable storage/backups, similar to how external USB storage is used now.
The antenna is a 40mm x 4mm ceramic patch. In the picture above, it has a 100mm ground plane, but the production version will have a 120mm ground plane, similar to the current air gap patch. Our goal is to eventually get the patch directly on the reverse side of Dreamcatcher, but if we want to stick to a 4-layer PCB, that might be tough.
Good - - thatās what we need. Ken
does that new antenna provide any befits over the old L-Band patch antenna?
Itās lower profile and has a wide beamwidth, which goes hand in hand with a bit less gain. It is better tuned to our center frequency, so SNR ends up being comparable.
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Is the PCB of the new Antenna the same thickness as the big element of the patch / Air gap Antenna?
Would be important for a Case 
regards,
Manuel
The PCB ground plane is just a hair thicker than the metal ground plane; a fraction of a millimeter. If I had to guess, it would be 0.25mm thicker. Unfortunately, I canāt find locate the calipers anywhere.
Ah okay. That should not be a problem, i will make a second version of my Case if the Dreamcatcher is out 
I can model it way thinner than.
Tipp: Almost complete now.
Universal 3D printable Case
regards,
Manuel
If you offer the power adapter with it, price it on and make sure itās a long cord so people can mount the antenna up high if they need to.
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In the $199 (or more) ākitā I think so. Maybe even SD card(s). Many years ago I worked for Radio Shack. The thing that frustrated consumers the most was when they had to buy, or make sure they already had, something else to make the thing they are buying work. I experienced several customers coming in to return something because the sales person that sold it to them didnāt explain that they needed more parts to actually make it work when they got home.
Believe it or not, batteries were the most frustrating thing for people! Imagine that? Hundreds of times, and Iām not exaggerating because it happened more often then not, when I would ask a customer if they need the batteries for the new electronic device they are buying they would ask me with an annoyed tone āyou mean it doesnāt come with batteries?ā. The minority of people would say either āyes, which ones?ā or āI already have themā. Another example is when someone would buy a new cell phone and Iād ask if they need a car charger with it. Yes, maybe cell phones should just come with the damn car charger!
I learned in my time there that people expect the box with the thing they are buying to contain everything they need to make the thing work. This is why there are so many pre-made Raspberri Pi kits all over the place which come with case, SD card, power supply and other parts needed to make it āwork right out of the boxā and they often get a premium price on them.
I think people will clearly understand when they buy the bare board for $149 that it doesnāt have all the parts needed to make it work since the target customer is someone like me and the others on here which, yes, already have a bunch of good MicroUSB power supplies around. I even have a PoE-based one!
It is a great goal, but as you said even 10000 units is not real volume. Iām not an expert, or even experienced in the field of running a company like OuterNet at all so what follows is purely just opinion / speculation
I imagine that the people in small remote villages that could actually benefit from OuterNet donāt have the actual money to even spend $99 on a receiver plus the cost of whatever āterminalā to access the information like a tablet or laptop. Since this is unlikely ever going to be your direct customer, why not price for sustainability of the company instead of ājust make it cheapā?
Sure Iām all for ultra-cheap compute hardware that does cool things. The CHIP is great and I backed them on Kickstarter because of it. But I donāt live in the back woods of some country where there isnāt Internet, cell phones or plumbing. That is really your target audience but not your target customer. Iām sure you already know this already, but this leads me in to the next part.
I think an OuterNet sponsorship program is the way to go with long-term viability of this to actually reach the people that really need it, not just the hobbyists that are most of the folks on this forum. I think a lot of people will respond like @kenbarbi did and be excited to throw money in to get people on this platform in remote areas. I know I would. I think you could create packages that fit how remote the installation is. For example, the $199 kit with everything needed to setup a receiver where there is good power infrastructure already would be the entry level sponsor. The next up would be the solar powered package with batteries et al, maybe $499? And you could have the āPlatinum Levelā or something that includes several tablets or laptops and enough solar power to charge them for (completely made up number) $1799. Of course businesses that wish to have their lovely tax write-offs could buy ācorporate packagesā that ship maybe 50 of the āPlatinum Levelā packages and have their employees volunteer to travel and install the stuff as a cultural thing.
I may just be saying all the stuff ya already thought about. I am just excited to see you guys are moving to building your own boards and other such things. Wouldnāt it be cool if instead of these crap āHotspotsā blasting all over the WiFi bands and few people use them that there would be OuterNet receivers all over the world so no matter where you are you can check in with the latest stuff from the Internet at no cost. For those that have no Internet to begin with, it would be everywhere!
I know the long term vision is to have the receiver small enough to fit inside a phone or tablet. That would be cool but I still would rather support deploying the larger receivers at least for the near future until OuterNet receivers at least outnumber airports around the world. Yes I just came up with that scale metric, so donāt flame me right away 
I just figure if that much area is covered then there will be so much sponsorship money rolling in the R&D costs of making it smaller and boosting the signal level will be paid for easily.
Wow that was long. Sorry!
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Im on board with you kf4hzu
Great! Are we flying or sailing? I need another vacationā¦ 
I doubt these are new ideas, just a good conversation. As long as OuterNet is a long-term success I donāt care how it happens 
This project is just exciting! I just donāt want it to go the way of Pebble which was the last project I got excited about.
Donāt forget that power supplies need to conform to local requirements w.r.t. input voltage, connector type,
and regulations. This is the reason that so many devices come with external power supplies even when
a built-in supply would be so much more convenient. When you want to include a power supply, you
will also need to have several options for it depending on the country where it is going to be used.
(which may not be the same country it is being shipped to)
I would say: avoid that can of worms and just specify that a USB charger has to be obtained locally.
I would think the same. You can get a 2A usb charger without any problems around the world.
I donāt suppose any of the salesman type guys here have reached out to some of the D-list celebreties?
Yah, I know bringing certain people here could poison the community, but Iām being seriousā¦
I would guess that many of them have a nice nest egg to live on and work with, and many are always looking for reasonable charitable causes to contribute towards or even donate time to. Just look at $hark tankā¦
Heck, get a spiffy looking case with a logo and ādonateā one to Sally Struthers to prop up during her little 90 second plea for donationsā¦LOL ok ok Iāll shut up now before anybody starts trying to take me seriouslyā¦
RawLiquid
KK6YBL
What do you think are the most useful APRS feeds that we should be relaying?
This is precisely why we wanted to stay away from power supplies. But it is possible to find a wholesale provider that already has FCC/CE/UL certification. I very much want to avoid as many cans of worms as possible, though @kf4hzuās experience at Radio Shack makes for a salient point.
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Yes it is a good point about supplying a complete package ready to be used.
I presume that tables exist for which adapter you would have to package for which country, and
suppliers that can provide all required types, but it of course would have to be incorporated into
the order fulfillment process.
I personally enjoy the ISS feed you already have along with the OUTNET keyword handling. I am trying to research if there are any call signs or specific keywords that are used for emergency traffic. Iāll let you know what I find.
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