APRS Midwest

[Blinky]

I received an email today outlining some APRS activity in the Midwest during the next week. Below is the edited version of the email.


Xmas/New Years period will see a week of propagation testing from potential site ~345m HASL up in the hills about 170km south of Geraldton, 75km north of Cateby.
Temporary equipment including APRS 145.175 and VK6RLM 146.750 repeater will be running from the site from 26th Dec 2010 till ~2nd/3rd Jan2011.

APRS will consist of a Digipeater and frequent beaconing (25W & 50W).
Equipment will be powered by 120W solar panel, with antenna mounted on a 15m mast. Keep an ear out on both frequencies and let us know on warg@warg.org.au if you hear anything.

Keep an eye out for the following APRS calls and also repeater frequency:

VK6RLM 146.750 and an APRS digi on 145.175.
May be up on air sunday night, but most likely early morning of the 27th

VK6TWO-1 Monique and Heath between the site and Geraldton
VK6TWO-3 Digipeater at site
Vk3TWO-1 Craig from Perth up to Dongra, possibly Geraldton.



As part of the Voice and APRS coverage between Perth and Geraldton, Craig and Heath are heading up to a potential site/area to set up an APRS digipeater/beacon.
The plan at this stage is to have two APRS digi's/beacons, one at 25W and another @ 50W into a ~7dB omni antenna. Each will beacon at regular intervals of which Heath will be tracking on a laptop heading from the site up to Geraldton, and Craig will be doing the same heading up from Perth. They will RV at Dongra for a day or so.

They are expecting that several APRS packets will make it up to Geraldton, as well as down into Perth from this location in the ranges about 150km from Geraldton up in the ranges.
Heath was expecting to have them both beaconing every 3 mins or so, which will equate to a beacon every 5km or so from each digi.
He will also be beaconing using APRSDroid from his Android phone.


At the time of writing this, VK6TWO-1 was obviously on it's way and was on the Brand Highway and around GinGin lost radio coverage.

Here's hoping for a successful trip.

[vk6xlr]

Well for one, APRS had been operational in the Midwest for many months now. I run the local IGate and soon an SGate.

What's happening over the next week or so is a trial to see how the voice repeater and APRS system can be expanded to give continuous coverage between Perth an Geraldton.

[vk6hgr]

awesome!

[VK6???]

Another waste of time by all accounts

Digi ran for a few hours

I received an email today outlining some APRS activity in the Midwest during the next week. Below is the edited version of the email.


Xmas/New Years period will see a week of propagation testing from potential site ~345m HASL up in the hills about 170km south of Geraldton, 75km north of Cateby.
Temporary equipment including APRS 145.175 and VK6RLM 146.750 repeater will be running from the site from 26th Dec 2010 till ~2nd/3rd Jan2011.

APRS will consist of a Digipeater and frequent beaconing (25W & 50W).
Equipment will be powered by 120W solar panel, with antenna mounted on a 15m mast. Keep an ear out on both frequencies and let us know on warg@warg.org.au if you hear anything.

Keep an eye out for the following APRS calls and also repeater frequency:

VK6RLM 146.750 and an APRS digi on 145.175.
May be up on air sunday night, but most likely early morning of the 27th

VK6TWO-1 Monique and Heath between the site and Geraldton
VK6TWO-3 Digipeater at site
Vk3TWO-1 Craig from Perth up to Dongra, possibly Geraldton.



As part of the Voice and APRS coverage between Perth and Geraldton, Craig and Heath are heading up to a potential site/area to set up an APRS digipeater/beacon.
The plan at this stage is to have two APRS digi's/beacons, one at 25W and another @ 50W into a ~7dB omni antenna. Each will beacon at regular intervals of which Heath will be tracking on a laptop heading from the site up to Geraldton, and Craig will be doing the same heading up from Perth. They will RV at Dongra for a day or so.

They are expecting that several APRS packets will make it up to Geraldton, as well as down into Perth from this location in the ranges about 150km from Geraldton up in the ranges.
Heath was expecting to have them both beaconing every 3 mins or so, which will equate to a beacon every 5km or so from each digi.
He will also be beaconing using APRSDroid from his Android phone.


At the time of writing this, VK6TWO-1 was obviously on it's way and was on the Brand Highway and around GinGin lost radio coverage.

Here's hoping for a successful trip.

[robbage]

Another waste of time by all accounts

Digi ran for a few hours

As far as I know, they are still on-site working on it.

Edit: Maybe not.. it seems to be hitting VK6RN-13 too easily...

[Zebedee]

Another waste of time by all accounts

Digi ran for a few hours

Thanks for the unproductive comment. Instead of criticising from the sidelines, why don't you get out there and show how it's done???

[robbage]

Here's a clue

2010-12-29 12:09:09 UTC: VK6TWO-1>APOT21,VK6TWO-3,WIDE1,VK6RTH-3,WIDE2*,qAR,VK6HGR:/291209z2846.70S/11435.17Ej285/014/A=000087CNT00000 spooktech.net

2010-12-29 10:35:36 UTC: VK6TWO-3>APOT21,VK6RN-13,WIDE1*,WIDE2-1,qAR,VK6GHZ:!3005.20S/11519.60E#13.1V 38C Alexander Morrison National Park
2010-12-29 10:45:54 UTC: VK6TWO-3>APOT21,VK6RTH-3,WIDE1*,WIDE2-1,qAR,VK6GHZ:!3005.20S/11519.60E#13.0V 37C Alexander Morrison National Park
2010-12-29 10:56:10 UTC: VK6TWO-3>APOT21,WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1,qAR,VK6EX-1:!3005.20S/11519.60E#12.9V 36C Alexander Morrison National Park
2010-12-29 11:46:56 UTC: VK6TWO-3>APOT21,WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1,qAS,VK6XLR:!3005.20S/11519.60E#12.9V 31C Alexander Morrison National Park

VK6TWO-3 is making it to Geralton, Tic Hill, Marangaroo and Swanbourne

VK6TWO-1 is making it to Tic Hill via TWO-3 while he is in Geralton.

Duct season prolly not a good time to be propagation testing though. Should be during Wabbit season.

Edit: XLR is making it direct to Swanbourne from Gero and I can hear VK6ROO repeater.

[robbage]

It's my understanding that the site was unsuitable and was abandoned early in favour of finding a new site. More soon.

[vk6xlr]

It's my understanding that the site was unsuitable and was abandoned early in favour of finding a new site. More soon.

It was doing rather well, while the ducting was happening. Unfortunately very little APRS users on the road.
I did hear it on my way to and from Perth. The return afternoon journey showed it digipeating well, but heard by no igates. Range was about 20km either side, mainly due to the terrain.

[robbage]

It was doing rather well, while the ducting was happening. Unfortunately very little APRS users on the road.
I did hear it on my way to and from Perth. The return afternoon journey showed it digipeating well, but heard by no igates. Range was about 20km either side, mainly due to the terrain.

There's a lot of good stuff happening over recent months thanks to WARG guys and gals. People using the WARG repeaters and digipeaters should seriously consider joining up (or at least making a donation if membership isn't their 'thing.' Direct debit makes it easy.) Bystanders criticising their efforts is just QRM imho.

[VK6GHZ]

It's my understanding that the site was unsuitable and was abandoned early in favour of finding a new site. More soon.

It was doing rather well, while the ducting was happening. Unfortunately very little APRS users on the road.
I did hear it on my way to and from Perth. The return afternoon journey showed it digipeating well, but heard by no igates. Range was about 20km either side, mainly due to the terrain.

T'was hitting my iGate on numerous occasions across the Christmas / New Year period so it appears to be a good location for such a setup.

Let's hope we see something more permanent in the near future

73's, Duncan - VK6GHZ