[OZAPRS] Sydney Basin RF Gating

Richard Hoskin vk3jfk at amsat.org
Thu Aug 31 22:31:20 EST 2006


Thanks for the update Geoff.

Tonight on the Map it looks like all the traffic from VK2 has gone.
VK2AMW's are not there, nor is most of Sydney. I can only see VK2JPJ-1

Talk about going from one extreme to the other. :)

I hope there is some real coordination work going on to get the best
possible APRS network in NSW/ACT.

If we all do a great job and look after our VK APRS RF network we will
have
Very Good road coverage from Adelaide to Melbourne to Canberra to Sydney
(and Tassie), all on the one channel, when VK3 implements the frequency
change.

Cheers
Richard
VK3JFK


-----Original Message-----
From: ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au [mailto:ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au] On
Behalf Of Geoff VK2XJG
Sent: Thursday, 31 August 2006 7:59 PM
To: VK / ZL APRS Users
Subject: Re: [OZAPRS] Sydney Basin RF Gating

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.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ozaprs mailing list
>> Ozaprs at aprs.net.au
>> http://aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ozaprs mailing list
>> Ozaprs at aprs.net.au
>> http://aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ozaprs mailing list
> Ozaprs at aprs.net.au
> http://aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs
>
_______________________________________________
Ozaprs mailing list
Ozaprs at aprs.net.au
http://aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs

_______________________________________________
Ozaprs mailing list
Ozaprs at aprs.net.au
http://aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://second.aprs.net.au/pipermail/ozaprs/attachments/20060831/5952b082/attachment.htm 


More information about the Ozaprs mailing list