[OZAPRS] 30 metre observations .....

[Brian Beamish]

Hi Folks
 
Along with Terry I also wish every one a great and safe 2004 hope that it
is one of the best for all of us.
 
Terry mentioned that HF APRS was too hard and expensive I have found 30m a
breeze but yet to master 40m which for me personally has become a real
challenge.
 
For monitoring HFat home I am using AGW Packet Engine software if you
already have a computer you will I guess have a sound card and the AGWPE
software can be downloaded for free and by using it's tuning facility it
is so easy to get on frequency. Initially I did not use AGWPE wish I had
done so earlier for not only now can I easily tune right in on a beacon I
can also set my beacon going in my mobile and by looking at AGWPE in my
shack I can see how far the mobile is off frequency a few quick rushed
trips between the car and shack gets me on frequency within a few minutes.
 
A home station using existing equipment and AGWPE should not cost you one
cent and presuming that you already have a HF mobile and am prepared to
build the TinyTrak kit I believe the HF side would cost less than $100. If
you should choose to go the way that I have with the Tigertronics SM-1 it
will cost you more than this.
 
I do though wish to plea to those who are about to use the Tinytrak and to
Bryon the designer that beacons be kept very short the Tigertronics does
this by limiting the beacon to location only and a 25 character text which
will limit a beacon to between 3-4 seconds maximum. If the Tinytrak
working on HF allows the use of Position, Altitude, Speed, Heading and a
50 character plus beacon text the time to send it all is going to expand
to 8 maybe as long as 10 seconds greatly limiting the number of HF APRS
stations on a given frequency. Another benefit of using short beacons is
that those doing so will have a considerably better chance of being heard
in full and if so being gated by the HF Gateways, those using long beacons
will have their chances greatly limited.
 
B C N U
Brian VK4BBS
 
 
 
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