[OZAPRS] Ballina area pretty dead for APRS

[Ray Wells]

Hi Shaun/All,

It was the loss of the major packet hub on Mt Sugarloaf (Newcastle) that 
started the demise of the packet network for northern NSW. The rent 
jumped to $5000 per year, from memory, when the government decided the 
user must pay.

Home based digis are not without problems either, but are still a 
possibility in some cases. A couple of issues to face up here would be;
1. finding an amateur living in a suitably high location who is able to;
     a) access the nearest digi (vk2rmc-1 around these parts) or,
     b) has decent internet access to be able to provide a gateway 
(broadband is not universally available),
     c) is prepared to run the equipment 24/7 and,
     d) suffer desense to other 2m equipment (if they use 2m).

Just thinking about some "local" towns ...
Macksville - poor coverage due to low elevation but could access 
vk2tmc-1 from many locations.
Nambucca Heads - the town proper would provide good fill-in but most 
residences are not on the ridge where the town is located (mobiles 
easily access vk2rmc-1 from the town area).
Urunga - the water reservoir is a reasonable site but it's owned by 
local government (enough said) (could probably access vk2rmc-1 from 
water tower).
Coffs Harbour  - mostly in a hole, being that it's surrounded on three 
sides by The Great Dividing Range (no access to vk2rmc-1).

I wouldn't consider looking further north due to distance from here 
(Coffs is 120km away). I can't for the life of me remember the name or 
callsign of the  guy who installed a packet digi south of Graftion some 
years back. Bob, I think, but that's the extent of my memory.

Nambucca Heads has a couple of potentially interesting sites in the town 
that I "might" be able to gain access to that I'll plot for coverage.

Steve vk2sl is going to install a digi at his place behind Telegraph 
Point. We've plotted and surveyed the site which will cover Port 
Macquarie and fill in the Pacific Highway down to about Kew, leaving a 
small gap from there to Coopernook. Some Wauchope coverage as well.  The 
site can access vk2rmc-1 easily and, probably also vk2uni-1. Steve runs 
a couple of properties that normally keep him busy enough but, recently, 
he took on a beast and lost, leaving himself badly injured. We'll have 
to await Steve's recovery before that project can continue.

Ray vk2tv


On 08/11/10 06:49, Shaun wrote:
> 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
>>
>>      
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