[OZAPRS] APRS coverag in WA- 4WD Outback?

[Andrew McDade]

Gday Mike,

There are a few folks around Oz that dabble in HF aprs. The main problem
is 
that we dont have all that many HF gateways running , Although when there
is 
a specific need .. ie a traveller doing what your intending on doing ,
then 
a few more HF gates tend to become active for the duration .. So keep us
all 
informed on this list as to your intentions as the time draws nearer.

We have more or less permanent HF aprs gates on 30m in Victoria, South 
Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. Im not sure whether anyone is 
currently running a HF gate in Western Australia .. Comments others ???
...

Probably the biggest hole is up towards the northern end of the Northern 
Territory , where we dont have any regular HF gates , and where skip 
distances on 30m tend to make this area of Australia a little bit hit and 
miss.

We tend to use the USB on 30m .. this has become a bit of a convention
here 
is Australia primarily due to band edge constraints.

For your Tiny Track 3 .. you will therefore need to tune to 10.14760 USB
or 
there abouts.

We try to run about a 10 minute mobile beacon rate, and about a 20 - 25 
minute stationary beacon rate on HF

The path we generally use on HF here is .. GATE, WIDE2-2 .. or some people

run GATE,WIDE .. Generally though I think that GATE,WIDE2-2 will get that 
extra hop into an Igate where the Igate isnt necessarily directly
connected 
to the HF Gate.

There are some HF gates on 40m here and in ZL. that can also be used , but

personally I think that 30m for you trip would be the way to go.

All VHF APRS activity in on 145.175Mhz other than Victoria , who are 
currently on 144.900Mhz. The Victorian network is being converted to 
145.175Mhz at the moment though.

The path we tend to use on VHF at the moment is   RELAY,WIDE2-2 with a 
maximum beacon rate of 2 minutes whilst mobile and maximum beacon rate of 
20-25 minutes when stationary.

Coverage on VHF is generally available in most capital cities and some
minor 
populated areas. But relative to the total size of Australia , the VHF 
coverage is minimal. The State of Victoria has the best VHF regional 
coverage , Other states of Australia vary in regional coverage . But as a 
general rule the VHF APRS coverage would extend out to 100 - 200 kms from 
each capital city and probably out to 50km from some major regional towns.

The east coast of Australia has reasonable VHF coverage . The West coast ,

South Coast and North Coast of Australia has very limited if no VHF
coverage 
at all.  The centre areas of Australia also have no VHF coverage.

I hope this has given you a bit of an insight into APRS op here in 
Australia.

Anymore questions ... dont hesitate to ask !

Regards . Andrew .. VK5EX



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Zwingl oe3mzc" <oe3mzc at oevsv.at>
To: "Tony Hunt" <wavetel at bigpond.com>; "VK / ZL APRS Users" 
<ozaprs at aprs.net.au>
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 4:46 PM
Subject: [OZAPRS] APRS coverag in WA- 4WD Outback?


> Hello guys,
>
> I read about OZ-APRS gateway service on 10 MHZ.
> Since I plan to travel from Perth to Darwin and Alice Springs and Sydney
> from July, August, September this year, I would like to ask you about
> further details of OZ-APRS HF gates and vhf/hf-aprs in VK in general.
>
> Frequency: would it be correct to tune to 10.151 LSB with my TinyTrak3
and
> FT100 +ATAS120 ?
>
> What coverage could I expect on the trip from PERTH to Darwin and Alice
> Springs?
>
> Would you recommend other QRGs also? on 14MHz or 7 MHz?
>
> What would be the coverage on VHF? is 145.150 correct?
>
>
> Thank you fro your anwsers
> vy 73 de Mike Zwingl
> OE3MZC
> President
> Austrian Amateur Radio Society
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ozaprs mailing list
> Ozaprs at aprs.net.au
> http://aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs
>
>
> -- 
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.7.1/347 - Release Date: 5/24/2006
>
> 

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