[OZAPRS] APRS Tracker

[Ray Wells]

This is all a bit OT but an interesting history of how it used to be.

FRED was interesting in that it used just 292khz separation. I don't 
remember the exact history but when 2m FM started up in Sydney the 
primary channel was 146.000MHz, known as Ch B.

In Sydney, Ch A and Ch C were 146khz below and 146khz above 146.000, 
making them 145.854 and 146.146. FRED used those frequencies. It was 
certainly active when I was licenced in 1969, I used to work it from a 
hill off the Eastern end of Bankstown airport - Black Charlie's Hill. 
ChA and Ch C were known as FRED and anti-FRED, for the small handful of 
operators with a rig with more than one channel. I had an AWA MR20B (all 
valve) with a whopping 3 channels!

There was much conjecture later about 145.854 and 146.000 because they 
were in and on the top edge, respectively, of the satellite sub-band.

I don't recall the mechanism used for the voice ID but it was too early 
for CD. For some strange reason, one of the early voice recording IC's 
comes to mind. Timothy would know, he's at least 100 years older than me 
and he almost lived at Dural back then.

Ray vk2tv

On 30/11/10 08:46, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Nov 2010, Ray Wells wrote:
>
>    
>> So you'd remember the original slotted disc morse ID generator at
>> vk2wi/r, back when repeaters had to append the /R, circa 1970. Of course
>> FRED (vk2aoa) in Orange had already been around for years before the PMG
>> Radio Branch/DoTC/ACA/ACMA eventually permitted repeaters.
>>      
> Nah; that pre-dates me, but I do know the history of FRED (courtesy of
> Tim) and subsequent repeaters.  Two car-phones back to back etc; I think
> the Department found it the next day, but turned a blind eye for a while..
>
>    
>> And if you remember the slotted disc you probably also remember the
>> recorded voice ID at Dural using a sexy female voice that provided a
>> really extended R that was pronounced aaaaaaaah.
>>      
> Not the one on tape/CD?
>
>    
>>> Last I heard (and cared), they shifted to the strange frequency of
>>> 4615. I don't remember the exact details now, but after someone (not
>>> me!) left Dural's link transmitter on 4615 (a Kyoto, fondly known as
>>> the cockroach), some intermod or other left it blasting into VK2RLE's
>>> input (Heathcote) on 6200.
>>>        
> I've just remembered the details; after chatting to his mates, someone
> returned the link to 5600, but left the +ve offset on...
>
> -- Dave
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