[OZAPRS] Re: Australian Sat Gates?

Thu Nov 20 16:09:48 EST 2008

G'day APRSers,
With our trip on our bikes over to WA, and then down to Apollo Bay via
"The Port to Port Cycle Ride" Mildura to Swan Hill then Echuca, a report
and a big THANK YOU to Tony VK5AH, and to all that have contributed to
the VK-APRS Network in one way or another.

We left on the 13/10 without knowing what was happening with ISS, and
spent some time in SW WA before we travelled north and started to access
the terrestrial network around Perth.
While at lunch in Freo, VK5AH SMSed me advising me of that ISS APRS was
up, with the freqs, the beacon path, and the time of the passes.  But
I'd left the antenna home that day as I had a pillion rider, so I
decided to ride back to the Swan Valley where we were staying. 
We arrived back, and I screwed the antenna in set the frequency and RXed
a beacon packet from ISS. Yipee...ok so far.  I punched the manual
beacon button on the D700 3 times and heard the radio announce that it
was hearing my digpeated packet. I could only hope an Igate had picked
it up.  Going inside and checking vk3ecv-6 on  http://aprsi.fi found
that the beacons had been gated to APRS-IS by Tony VH5AH and a VK6MJ.
Double Yipeee.
We used the terrestrial network Monday, but missed the afternoon passes
that evening as we were riding through some beautiful timbered country
along the Brookton Hwy in the late afternoon, and was more concerned
about the 'roos than packet.
On Tuesday, we had just stopped at a motel in Merredin at the end of our
days ride, and heard packet on the D700. I had to run inside and grab
the GPS from the tank bag (I'd already started unpacking the bike), and
plug it into D700.  It acquired it postion and beaconed accordingly and
the D700 beeped letting me know a packet had been digipeated. A couple
more manual beacons produced no more results.
Wednesday, realising (remembering?) the ISS passes were getting later in
the day I just left teh D700 off until the afternoon. But at Eucla I had
it scanning and heard voice the ISS voice downlink of 145.800MHz. I
forced a beacon a couple of times, in hope, with no response, then
realized that with voice on, the ISS digipeater was off. Spit!..would
have been good to get a beacon in from there.  Oh well.
On Friday 31st we again acquired the terrestrial network on the lower
Eyre Peninsula.
Sunday 2nd, we left Port Lincoln, headed to Adelaide for an overnight
stop, some shopping Monday morning, then home to Mildura.
We had a break at home for 4 days, and then Saturday morning set off as
"motorcycle marshals" with Port to Port Cycle ride. Our first night was
at Swan Hill, the second at Echuca.  Some interesting paths were seen on
the 'net both days.
Then Monday Echuca to Ballarat for lunch with our daughter Kate VK3HLC,
and onto Apollo Bay.
Some paths from over the next couple of days riding around the Great
Ocean Road and the Otways included VK3RMD-1, and some VK7s too.  I think
I must have found a bit of "lift".
The ride home again, via lunch at Ballarat showed the network worked
well.
Thanks again.
Regards,
Ron
vk3ecv       

On Thu, 2008-09-18 at 20:51 +1000, Ron Perry wrote:
> Tony,
> Firstly thanks for your offer. We are leaving on the 13th October and
> will be away until the first week in November.
> I realise that ISS is not always on..and that is the problem.  When it
> is in full sun it seems to use ARISS and then defaults back to a W Call,
> which is messy. Maybe GO-32 is the answer?
> The equipment is a D700 and an SG7900 antenna. I'm open to suggestions.
> Regards,
> Ron
> 
> On Thu, 2008-09-18 at 11:42 +0930, Tony Hunt wrote:
> > Ron..  Let me know what dates your looking at.. I can put a Gate on here in
> > Adelaide like I did a couple of years ago on ISS specifically..
> > 
> > Its really not that great.. Ive tried it myself a few years back. The
> > footprint isnt very big but it would be a good excercise to try again. Ive
> > got all the gear required etc. See if ISS is active on your proposed dates..
> > It would probably get you half way to Perth from here.
> > 
> > Tony VK5AH
> > 
> > > Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:09:40 +1000
> > > From: Ron Perry <ronk at ncable.com.au>
> > > Subject: [OZAPRS] Australian Sat Gates?
> > > To: Australian APRS Users <ozaprs at aprs.net.au>
> > > Message-ID: <1221646180.16761.55.camel at localhost>
> > > Content-Type: text/plain
> > >
> > > Hi APRSers,
> > > I'm planning a road trip to WA, no HF, so I'm going to endeavour to use
> > > some APRS Sats to get some posits out.
> > >
> > > What satellites are being listened to and gated back to the Internet?
> > >
> > > Where are you located?
> > >
> > > And specifically..are there any Satgates listening to GO-32?  (or
> > > shouldn't I bother??)
> > >
> > >
> > > TIA
> > > Ron
> > > vk3ecv
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ozaprs mailing list
> > Ozaprs at aprs.net.au
> > http://aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs
> 
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