It has taken me probably the best part of a month to finally assemble all of the parts that I needed to get my DIY gateway up and running.
I have built a Raspberry Pi2 with IMST IC880a-SPI LoraWAN Concentratorbased on an guide by Gonzalo Casas which can be found here:-
https://github.com/ttn-zh/ic880a-gateway/wiki
My initial build is currently using jumper wire to make the connections between the Raspberry Pi2 and the IC880a concentrator, however I have also ordered a sheild to allow for a better connection.
The build in this install uses the older Semtech UDP Packet Forwarder protocol for connection toTTN, however I am planning on testing a newer build (https://github.com/kersing/ttn-resin-gateway-rpi) that uses the newer TTN Packet Forwarder and uses resin.io with docker containers to provide easier management/build/upgrade of the software on the Raspberry Pi, this also has the benefit of being able to manage multiple Pi's and gateways easily.
The antenna that I am using is one that I got from ebay and is a collinea type with 5dBi gain. I am also using S400 Low Loss coax cable
At the moment I amalso using ttnmapper.org to see how well my gateway setup is performing along with what coverage we have currently acheived around Barnsley. So far I have managed to get a range of 3.8km using a Things Uno device.
