[OZAPRS] Ballina area pretty dead for APRS

[Shaun]

Hi Ray,

Ahhh yes, the good old cost of the site.  We went through the same thing in 
Sydney re a repeater site that just became to expensive.

I had assumed Digis would be run from the home QTH, which could be an option 
however would need close coordination and obviously would be sub optimum.

In any case you are still welcome to my junk box.  I will probably be passing 
in early Jan for the Coffs field day.



73 Shaun VK2XPP


On Sun, 7 Nov 2010 18:11:07 Ray Wells wrote:
> Shaun,
>
> It takes a lot more than some bits from junk boxes to get a reliable
> digi to air.
>
> If it only required some hardware - radio, TNC, antenna, coax and power
> supply - there'd be lots more digis. Hardware is the easy part.
>
> The difficult part about getting a digi to air is finding a site that has;
> 1. affordable rent at a respectable location
> 2. decent access to that location, both in terms of vehicular access and
> no time restrictions.
> 3. security of installed equipment
> 4. power
> 5. building or other suitable housing
>
> Garry, vk2uni, has access to a commercial site at the "right" price and
> I'm fortunate to have vk2rmc-1 installed on private property that meets
> conditions 1 to 5 above. The rent is free, the licence is not at $63
> (from memory) per year. A pair of crystals for an FM828 is about $60
> (for reliable crystals - read Hy-Q).
>
> I look at an aprs map every day that is set to show from Forster to
> Grafton and out to Gunnedah. I'm probably more aware than anybody else
> on this list about the gaps in coverage and, there's hardly a day goes
> by that I don't ponder over how I can fill them, or at least some of
> them. One day, Shaun, one day.
>
> Ray vk2tv
>