Devin
Mitchell

Proxmox HA cluster with rack-mounted UDM Pro Max, USW-Aggregation switch, LACP 802.3ad LAG, 2U UPS, and Synology NAS. Runs an offline GB mapping stack (Protomaps + MapLibre GL, Valhalla routing, custom SQLite geocoder), self-hosted Plex, Home Assistant, Docker services, NUT UPS monitoring with automated shutdown scripting. Built to stay up.

An unattended HF digital station running around the clock from IO94, near York. On 40m at 7.078 MHz via an IC-7300MK2 into a 41.7m end-fed wire, the station operates as a JS8Call heartbeat node and authenticated APRS-IS gateway — bridging HF radio operators into the worldwide APRS network with no internet required on their end. Stations across Europe that can hear the signal can relay messages, position reports, and commands through this gateway. Useful in normal operation; considerably more useful when the internet isn’t.

When the gateway isn’t running, the station switches to FT8 with WSJT-X — systematically working stations across as many countries and bands as possible in pursuit of the ARRL DXCC award. DXCC requires confirmed contacts with 100 distinct “entities” (countries plus a handful of territories that count separately); the DXCC Challenge extends that to 1,000 band-entity combinations. Both are in progress. The two modes share the same rig, antenna, and the same general philosophy: maximum reach, minimum fuss.

A 1090 MHz outdoor antenna over North Yorkshire decoding ADS-B transponder signals and feeding position data to a number of flight tracking platforms — FR24, FlightAware, RadarBox, PlaneFinder, OpenSky, ADS-B Exchange, and a few others. Deployed via Docker on a dedicated VM running ultrafeeder. Passive receive only; no transmissions, no interaction with aircraft. Mainly just interesting to watch.
FR24: T-EGXU127 · RadarBox: EXTRPI709473 · FlightAware: 274543 · PlaneFinder: 237463

My wife and I have been cruising together for years and are committed Royal Caribbean loyalists working towards Diamond status — 80 Crown & Anchor points earns free drinks, priority boarding, and a general sense of smug satisfaction. We’re at 52 points post-August 2026 and the plan is two more 14-night sailings to get there. It’s a retirement plan disguised as a holiday habit.

A live dual-camera stream from a backyard chicken coop, available 24/7. Containerised FFmpeg, UniFi Protect, RTMP to YouTube Live, Home Assistant for day/night switching, Cloudflare for delivery. A slightly overengineered solution to a problem that did not strictly require solving.

Solar panels, a Tesla Powerwall 3, and a heat pump — integrated into Home Assistant with Octopus tariff optimisation. The heat pump is installed and running. Solar and battery are contracted and ready to go, currently held up by DNO approval. The grid has paperwork. The paperwork has a queue. The queue has no particular sense of urgency.

16 Lanbon L8 touchscreen switches running OpenHASP, driven by Home Assistant via MQTT. Sensor data, energy stats, lighting, EV charging, doors, motion — 12 pages per device. Some are light switches with screens; others are just information panels. Built entirely in YAML, which is either elegant or a poor life decision depending on how the mood strikes.

Website for five Church of England village churches in the Vale of York, including a Grade I listed building sketched by Anne Brontë in the 1840s and a chapel designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Built, hosted and maintained pro bono. Modernised typography, accessible layout, safeguarding information. Self-hosted on Ubuntu with NFS storage — same stack as everything else.