[OZAPRS] SPAM: HF Update.

[Noel Rowe]

The 30m APRS beacons from VK continue to arrive here in ZL in good numbers
- about 10 per hour, on average.  Although I have seen a mobile up in the
northwest of VK a while ago, most activity seems to be from the eastern
half of Oz.  I havent seen a beacon from a home station in the west - are
there no HF APRS stations in say Perth?  Or are they not on the same
frequency as the rest of the world?
 
The odd beacon that could be called DX still pops in here, and one W1
station arrived one night both directly and via a VK 30m relay.
 
At the past wekend I noted a move to test on 40m, so spent a couple of
days monitoring that.  Only decoded a grand total of 2 VK beacons in that
time, but got many from ZL3RX.  I then QSYed back to 30m. Note that
although I have a ZL3 call, I live in the North Island over 700km from
ZL3RX.
 
IMHO, and I have said this before, and will say it again : We should stick
to 30m for HF APRS mobile stations, and take care of the propagation
variations by the geographic siting of receiving stations with i-gate
access.  I know that this is a variance with the good old ham method
(firmly fixed into HF users brains) of going on air and selecting a band
to suit the time of day and the area wanted to be worked.  But with an
i-gate network, we dont need to care where the propagation is to, as long
as it is to somewhere, and that at "somewhere" there is an APRS i-gate.
Your local i-gate station for example, if it so chooses, can retransmit
out on VHF your HF beacon that has been heard anywhere in the world - by a
station that forwarded that beacon into an APRS i-gate. It makes no
difference if your HF signal was picked up in the next State, or in
another Continent.
 
Noel, ZL3GR.
 
 
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