[OZAPRS] Sydney Basin RF Gating

Thu Aug 31 19:58:36 EST 2006

FYI I don't run an I-Gate in Sydney any more, haven't done since May.
Up until Mike started up his I-Gate in Campbelltown, all traffic in and
out of Sydney was going via the VK1 I-Gate, bouncing off VK2JPJ-1 and
VK1RGI-1.
(nobody seemed to even noticed when i pulled the plug on the I-Gate!)

I'm off air on RF these days, so have no idea on the state of the network

Geoff
VK2XJG

> The VK2AMW's are a bit of a problem - with VK1RGI up now, VK1 has
coverage
> all the way to the coast and wollongong when the weather is clear, so
> makes
> it into the various AMW digis up there, and they make it down to VK1..
> They
> also get Geoff's feed from sydney which makes it down to VK1 with clear
> weather, so the AMW coverage area would be *really* saturated when it's
> not
> raining/cloudy in canberra....  VK1 I toned down to only doing a
realtime
> posit to rf for VK1/VK2, everything else was on a once every 15-minute
> timeout..  Though not sure what Peter NPW is running now he's looking
> after
> the VK1 igate.. I know RGI had wagga's igate budlisted because of excess
> traffic, as they wouldn't turn it off when RGI went in and wagga was
> covered
> by the VK1 igate, though that's not an issue since they switched to the
> VK3
> APRS frequency. Though would be nice if there was mention of it
somewhere,
> as I only found out by accident when I ran out of coverage on the last
> trip
> down to melbourne, and switched over to vic freqs about 100km north of
> Albury, and bingo, there's wagga!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Damien
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard Hoskin" <vk3jfk at amsat.org>
> To: "'VK / ZL APRS Users'" <ozaprs at aprs.net.au>
> Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 8:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [OZAPRS] Sydney Basin RF Gating
>
>
>>
>> Hi Mike,
>>
>>>From what you have written it looks like the APRS RF channel in your
>>> area
>> (VK1/VK2)is overloaded with IGate traffic.
>>
>> One way to measure this is to use UI-Traffic
>> (http://www.apritch.myby.co.uk/traffic.htm ) and AGW Packet Engine
>> (AGWPE -
>> http://www.elcom.gr/sv2agw/inst.htm ) which measures the number of APRS
>> packets your station receives via RF. If the number is consistently
>> greater
>> than 100 per 10 minutes then the RF channel is considered Over Loaded.
>>
>> The IGate owners have a responsibility to Co-ordinate Monitor and
Manage
>> local RF channel levels in order to provide a reliable APRS Network for
>> all.
>>
>> All APRS operators and especially IGate operators must be aware of the
>> effect their stations RF transmissions have on their neighbours.
>>
>> If you would like more information on the APRS RF traffic limitations
of
>> you
>> can find it at http://www.vk3.aprs.net.au/rf_bandwidth.htm .
>>
>> Cheers
>> Richard
>> VK3JFK
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au [mailto:ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au] On
>> Behalf Of Mike Townsend
>> Sent: Monday, 28 August 2006 12:29 AM
>> To: ozaprs at aprs.net.au
>> Subject: [OZAPRS] Sydney Basin RF Gating
>>
>> Hello All,
>> Being relatively new to APRS but now with a little understanding of how
>> the
>> system works I have decided to shutdown my Internet to RF port except
>> for
>> messaging and on a limited as requested basis for position beacons.
>> When first becoming involved with APRS I found that I had  a lot of
>> difficulty in having my Mobile station gated to an Internet server. Was
>> there RF getting into my encoder. No. How about the power level I was
>> using,
>> its recommended that approx 20W when Mobile is more than enough but
even
>> at
>> 50W into a 5/8 th mounted on the roof I was not having much luck.
(Usual
>> operating distance to VK2JPJ-1 being 25 to 40km).
>> So I thought I'll setup my own I-Gate at home and see what happens.
>> Problem
>> solved with reliable gating out to the North from my QTH here in
>> Campbelltown, not so good to the South as I'm not quite on top of the
>> hill
>> and have RF shadowing in that direction when Mobile down the Hume
>> Highway.
>> Now having an RF receive capability I have been able to monitor the
APRS
>> frequency and see for myself what is happening.  At my home QTH I hear
>> VK2AMW-1 direct which is used as a Digi for what appears to be the full
>> ZL/VK server port feed originating from VK1. My TNC DCD LED being
nearly
>> constantly lit. OK, if  I'm copying this how about VK2JPJ-1 which was
>> most
>> likely to be my point of entery into the APRS network when mobile. So
>> having
>> a look at the VK2JPJ-1 heard list,
>>
>> mh
>> SYDCBD:VK2JPJ-1} MHEARD:
>> 12:27=VK1NPW-1* 12:26=VK2TSB    12:25=VK1NPW-2  12:24=VK2INT-1*
>> 12:24=VK2INT-1
>> 12:24=VK2EMD*   12:23=VK2JNT-1  12:21=VK2AMW-3  12:19=VK2JPJ-1*
>> 12:19=VK2RAG-1
>> 12:18=VK1RGI-1* 12:15=VK2EMD-4* 12:11=VK1KCM-9* 12:08=VK1VIC-1
>> 12:08=VK2AR-1*
>> 12:07=VK2AR-1   12:05=VK2RAG-1* 12:05=VK2AMW-1  12:04=VK1NPW
>> 12:02=VK2AFY*
>> 11:55=VK2CSU-1* 11:50=VK2AMW-1* 11:47=VK2AMW-3* 11:45=VK1HFC
>> 11:16=VK2AMW-4*
>> 11:07=VK1NFI    10:48=VK2TSB-3* 09:43=VK2DRK    09:39=VK2JGV*
>> 09:39=VK2JGV
>> 09:07=VK2ZSZ    08:59=VK2TDS-1* 08:59=VK2TDS-1  08:31=VK2SX*
>> 08:12=VK2MIK*
>> 07:48=VK2US-10* 07:48=VK2US-10  07:41=VK2INT-9* 07:01=VK2EZD
>> 06:35=VK2TSB*
>> 05:56=VK2HIM-7* 05:53=VK1MRH-9* 05:49=VK2ZSZ-9* 05:30=VK2EZD*
>> 05:09=VK2BES*
>> 04:52=VK2KJB*   04:29=VK2APE-9* 03:37=VK2INT-9  01:18=VK2BES
>> 01:08=VK2EJC-3*
>> 23:55=VK2ZOM-1* 23:13=VK2ZOM-2* 22:55=VK2KCL-9*
>> 22:18=VK2INT-15*22:17=VK2INT-15
>> 19:03=VK2AFY    10:57=VK2KJV*   04:12=VK2ZSZ-8* 02:53=VK2JNT-9*
>> 02:42=VK2JNT-9
>> 10:42=VK2KCM-9* 07:52=VK2LI-9*  07:18=VK2LI-9   05:57=VK1HCT-11
>> 03:22=VK2CAW
>> 06:14=VK2GRM*   03:18=VK2LI*    01:14=VK2ZOM-2  05:12=VK2EJC-3
>> 02:51=VK2HIM-7
>> 23:23=VK3HIV-9* 12:05=VK2INT    07:08=VK2UAI-9* 01:55=VK2AWZ*
>> 01:51=VK2AWZ
>> 03:49=VK2SKY-9* 03:49=VK2SKY-9  01:59=VK2CMO-9* 01:59=VK2CMO-9
>> 22:26=VK2AMW-2*
>>
>>
>>>From this we see that VK2JPJ-1 is hearing VK2AMW-1 as well as VK1
>>> stations
>> direct and I thought my DCD LED is busy. I'm assuming that those calls
>> without a * have been heard direct.
>> With regard to the above I feel it is not necessary for me to add to
the
>> congestion by gating traffic to RF from the Internet other than that
>> stated
>> above. Also adding to my two cents worth is there, with consideration
to
>> the
>> now widespread use of Broadband, a requirement for all this traffic to
>> be
>> gated to RF on such a wide scale? As I see it every oppurtunity should
>> be
>> given to mobiles to access an I-Gate or local Digi. If users or their '
>> ham
>> buddies ' can't see much happening because of  lack of mobile position
>> beacons making it on to the network then they are likely to give up
APRS
>> as
>> a bad joke.
>> Please, this is not meant to be criticism of anyone in particular. As
>> I'm
>> only interested in having a workable RF network available to all.
>>
>> Regards Mike, VK2INT.
>>
>>
>> Quote UI-View IGATE.INI
>>
>> NOTE - The capacity of a 1200 baud RF channel
>> is around 30 frames a minute (obviously it depends on
>> frame length, TXD settings, etc). To gate 6 frames in
>> a minute means that you are taking up around 20% of
>> the channel capacity, and that's not allowing for your
>> frames being digipeated! So before you increase these
>> numbers, please bear in mind that many APRS experts
>> would say that the defaults are too high. You should
>> always try to use values that are appropriate for
>> local conditions.
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>
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