TGIF Drone World
The world of all things drones. Operating, registration and testing discussions.
The term “drone” usually refers to any unpiloted aircraft. Sometimes referred to as “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” (UAVs), these crafts can carry out an impressive range of tasks, ranging from military operations to package delivery. Drones can be as large as an aircraft or as small as the palm of your hand.
Canada – registration and certification through RPAS is required from Transport Canada.
US – a Remote Pilot Certificate is required from the FAA.
Other TGIF Talkgroups
31665 – TGIF
302 – Canada Wide
3020 – Canada’s National Capital Region
3023 – Ontario
30231 – Toronto Canada
30279 – Canadian Military Group
30280 – Train Sims and RailFan
They started the TGIF Network with just one talkgroup which became 31665, and about 5 Amateur Radio Operators joined the Network, at this time the system was running on a Raspberry pi.
Later on, Ty (KG5RKI) came on board to help improve the hblink code it was currently running on and move it to a cloud server, then later rewrote the backend to make what was called Callmgr. Michael (K5MRE) and Andy (G7LRR) also joined the team and created many of the features we enjoy on the website and plenty more behind the scene.
Over the course of the next year, the network quickly grew from just a few hundred users to just under 1,500.
The network now is home to around 993 active talkgroups, available for all to use.
The main/original talkgroup is original 31665, and is sometimes referred to as the ‘Mothership’ by many.
All Amateur Radio Operators are welcome to join and try out what the network offers.
The Network is still growing rapidly. Last year, Pi-Star and Shark RF Openspot added the TGIF Network to their list of networks.
But this tale has not ended.. around the end of 2019, Ty (KG5RKI) could see limitations to how far Legacy would be able to scale with the growing number of clients.
So Ty took it upon himself to once again use his coding skills and knowledge of digital networking and in his spare time rewrite and design a network from the roots up which was codenamed ‘Prime’ and was open do beta testers during development. With Andy (G7LRR) as his partner in crime against the code, and Rob (K4WZV) having his back, the team is making fast progress at creating a great solution for ham radio operators around the world.
