[OZAPRS] Are 4 x iGates in Sydney too many?

[vk2ycj at bravo.net.au]

G'day,

I am thinking about using a hand-held 2m rig like a UV-5R as a low power
"fill in" digipeater for a small country town ?

I drive to Dungog from Newcastle (80Km by road north of Newcastle) 4-5
days per week and the APRS coverage is poor or non-existent.


I was considering two options:

1. Putting a UV-5R hand-held radio on a hill near Dungog as a "fill in"
digipeater running 1-2 watts and solar powered.  The hill is line of sight
to the main digipeater on the Sugarloaf Range in Newcastle.

2. Putting an Alinco DR-135T (with Argent Data card T2-135) running 20
watts and not solar powered.  The boys at Goulburn NSW have installed two
of these recently with good results.


Can someone please comment on the suitability or stupidity of the above
two options ?


Thanks,  Jamie VK2YCJ





> I have been looking at the load on one server in the rotation, which is
> about to move hosting into one of my racks... which is why previously I
> said there was no issue.
>
> I do see some issues about the place, with a few WIDE3* and a few
> NOGATE. I would have thought a NOGATE should also include NO-DIGI, but
> its seems maybe I have the wrong assumption.
>
> Maybe we do need someone to have a look at some of the paths being used
> and clean them up.
>
> I would have thought its best to try and keep RF clear so more can be
> handle without drama.
>
> Gary
> vk2zbb/vk2lv
>
> On 25/05/14 11:50, Scott Evans wrote:
>>  From a T2 perspective there's no issue! If you're using aunz.aprs2.net
>> rotate the load balancing is automatically taken care of, however if you
>> have set up a static server and if everyone else had done similar then
>> maybe a problem would exist!
>>
>>
>>
>> On May 25, 2014 11:32:59 AM GMT+10:00, Liz VK2XSE <edodd at billiau.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>     QTR Thu, 22 May 2014 21:47:13 +1000 Ian Mills QTC
>>
>>         I've noticed we now have at least 4 x iGates in Sydney, I would
>>         have
>>         thought that's too many and may be adding extra loads on the
>>         sever as
>>         they all gate the same traffic?
>>
>>         Ian vk2him
>>
>>
>>     The guys in the US, who have more experience in handling large
>> traffic
>>     volumes, seem to whinge far more about excessive digipeating than
>>     excessive iGating.
>>     I did notice on my last trip to Wollongong that my packets were
>> being
>>     spread far and wide, and often gated from Newcastle after being
>> picked
>>     up by VK2AMW-1. (WIDE2-2)
>>
>>     The questions can best be answered by experimentation.
>>     There is apparently a need for better RF coverage in Sydney. How
>> much
>>     redundancy is required in the iGating system could be explored
>>        by
>>     deliberately turning off internet connectivity at one or more of the
>>     Sydney iGates.
>>     Sydney users would need to know when these changes were made, and
>> then
>>     comment on negative and positive aspects of the changes.
>>     We would also need to know how many hops people are using in their
>>     transmissions.
>>
>>     And is there any information from the APRS-IS server operators about
>>     network load?
>>
>>
>>     -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
>>     Liz
>>     VK2XSE
>>     who hopes not to be using APRS in Sinny, 15 years living there was
>>     enough.
>>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>     OZAPRS mailing list
>>     OZAPRS at aprs.net.au
>>     http://lists.aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs
>>
>>
>> --
>> Sent from Kaiten Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>>
>>
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