[OZAPRS] OZAPRS Digest, Vol 97, Issue 22

[Ian Mills]

Hi Bob,

VK2HIM here - I've noticed your mobile station has trouble hitting my station with very intermittent coverage until you're almost on top of Gerringong. Have you checked your antenna/radio etc as I get almost total coverage into my Didi when driving between Gerringong and Nowra. I'm on top of a hill so apart from shielding by Mount Coolangatta and those around Berry it's pretty well line of sight. I also rarely hear your setup at your home QTH - I'm guessing you're in the shadow of Mount Coolangatta? I had no problem previously hearing 100% of the time 2MPJ-1 when it was operational. I'd be interested to get a reliable path between your station and mine - do you hear 2HIM-1's 30 minute beacons?

Cheers
Ian vk2him

On 7 November 2017 at 13:28, Bob <vk2byf at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi
>
> I'm Bob, VK2BYF, in Nowra
>
> Having lost our local digi some years ago and our local ham population
> being very sparse we seem to have dropped off the APRS map.
>
> My Tiny Track in my motor vehicle can't be heard by the nearest Digi,
> VK2HIM near Gerringong, until I gain some altitude.
>
> To get myself back on the APRS map I decided to build a RX only Igate
> using a Raspberry Pi, RTL-SDR & direwolf which seems to work ok.
>
> I experimented with a laptop running direwolf, KA2DDO's YAAC and a FT-817
> as a fill in digi, Wide 1-1, which also seem to work ok.
>
> The next phase was going to be to setup a RF digi using a cheap Chinese
> VHF/UHF Radio to fill in the local RF hole we have here in the Bomaderry,
> Nowra area.
>
> Knowing very little about APRS but the basics and having been monitoring
> this forum for a while, I have more questions than answers.
>
> A wide 1-1 to fill a local hole is that rite or wrong?
>
> RX only IGate to fill a local RF hole, Is this going to cause problems?
>
> Should I even bother to build a proper RF in and out digi?
>
> What is the best configuration just to fill in a local RF hole and get a
> fair section of the Princes highway back on the map?
>
> BTW I prefer to run things on Linux. YAAC, a java applications work very
> nicely on Linux.
>
> Regards Bob vk2byf
>