[OZAPRS] re digi costs

[Ben Lindner-VK5JFK]

Hi Bob and others,

there is a big hole down here in the Lower Sth East of South Aust. I 
have a digi running for many years now at another persons property. He 
does not charge me for power. I have full access to the extremely large 
shed where he keeps his speedway cars.

The club I belong is not interested in APRS so I setup the digi and 
fully funded it and maintain it.

The cost, well lets not go down that path. I enjoy APRS so we keep it 
going and travelers when down my way can have the packets digied.

At Xmas time I take the owner of the property a few bottles of red and 
that keeps him happy and so am I.

my 2cents worth

cheers
Ben
VK5JFK

On 8/11/2010 1:48 PM, Bob - VK5FO wrote:
>
> All,
>
> I thought that I would chime in having recently 100% self funded a 
> fill-in digi, and just go over the costs that most people probably 
> don't realize!
>
> First off, There was a hole in the VK5 Network and I have a specific 
> need to track in the area, so I set about solving the problem.
>
> I own the site, which is remote and has no 240V power so there was a 
> fair bit to do.
>
> 1. Site - I own it - a huge advantage as I don't need to rely on a 3rd 
> party to gain access.
>
> 2. I had to install a tower (pole) on the roof of an existing building 
> to get sufficient height.  I chose to use a 6.5M Aluminum pole cost 
> $70, and about another $100 to guy it.
>
> 3. I had some existing solar and batteries to power the site, but the 
> batteries were 7 years old and I replaced them last week.  $200 (and I 
> hope this is sufficient, otherwise I will have to double the 
> capacity).  Yes, I cut corners here and will need to regularly 
> maintain the batteries, but the alternatives would have meant that the 
> site was down for at least another 6-10 weeks and the cost for 
> batteries would have been over $600.
>
> 4. Antenna/Feed/Connectors - 6db antenna - $150, 15M RG213 - $70, $20 
> for connectors and cable ties.  The whole tower/antenna/feed system 
> was a compromise - I would have liked to go up another 6m, but to do 
> so would be more than triple the costs.
>
> 5. I have a heap of 828's lying around but decided to use something 
> with more power.  I would have had to source Rocks for them anyway.  
> As luck would have it, I picked up a 2800 Yaesu for just under $200,
>
> 6. A Tracker/Digi - TT4 - $75,  Misc cables etc another $30.
>
> 7.  Solar panel - I needed additional Solar capacity, and dropped $350 
> on another panel and a Solar Regulator.
>
> From doing this, I can see that other sites might have more or less 
> requirements in terms of equipment
>
> OK, all up that comes in to just over $1k, not to mention the several 
> trip (fuel) to site to get everything installed and working.
>
> Sure, If I had cut a few corners it would have been cheaper, but then 
> again it might not have had the coverage to provide a decent fill-in 
> (or even been able to reliably hit the rest of the network).
>
> Not complaining at all as the personal motivation for coverage was the 
> primary concern, but with the recent discussions, and having fairly 
> recently gone thru the exercise, just wanted to point this out.
>
> Every (potential) site offers it's own unique challenges and I guess 
> it comes down to one's desire to have good coverage and someone (or 
> group of someone's) to come up with ~$1k per installed digi.
>
> Bob
> VK5FO / VK5THB
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aprs.net.au/pipermail/ozaprs/attachments/20101108/d07bb25d/attachment.htm>