Since I last wrote on this subject, the metro area has gained another gateway in the south-east (K0JDD-1), and lost another in the north-west (WX0BPR). The digipeater network has remained the same.
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| Remaining I-Gates in metro |
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| Current metro-area digipeaters |
It's often difficult to see the consequences from the lack of coverage. Users seldom check their path data, and their last position will remain when they move out of gateway coverage.
If you are in one of the areas with deficient coverage, you might want to use additional power or set up your mobile as a digipeater to help out others.
The loss of W0YC-10 also affects the VHF propagation data, as it was one of the consistently good reporters. By recording the path of APRS stations received, a gateway is a pretty good indicator of two-metre conditions.
5 comments:
If you want to know more about the KC0VRV (mine) i-gate here it is: Its mag mount on a pizza pan on the back of a couch running into an old radio shack scanner feeding UI-view. I originally set it up to provide coverage on my bike since my 5 watt handheld wasnt being heard. Obviously the antenna situation is the limiting factor as I have experienced about 5 miles in range on average.
Well, you cover a nice stretch of 35W, judging by the path maps. The RX-only I-Gates don't show coverage circles, but APRS.fi shows the path maps for them.
What do you use as an interface between the scanner and the computer?
It uses a sound card and AGW Packet engine.
Just a quick update on the APRS/Echolink status at W0YC.
The cause was a security lockdown by the U network team. In order to stop doing the lockout dance every couple of weeks the W0YC team decided to scrap what was there and rebuild from scratch using proper and up to date solutions.
A new commercial firewall (not consumer grade) and managed switch have been put in service. The ACL structure was tightened down, thus preventing the port locks.
Just a side note, you've gotta be real careful when you actually have a full 1Gbps connection direct to the internet without any firewall or NAT solution in place!
Anyways, the network was replaced and 2 new units deployed to handle Echolink for the 444.425 repeater as well as the APRS digi/igate for 144.390. The new units are single purpose Raspberry PI based with custom PTT circuits and a ton of custom programming/scripting to make them stay up and running without intervention...we'll see how this goes although both went through a 2 week burn-in period without failure.
The new APRS and Echolink units are now online and operational.
Sounds like a lot a lot of work, Ryan!
I noticed the APRS gateway was back online this week when I was checking VHF propagation.
Thanks for the update, and thanks for getting both the EchoLink and APRS restored.
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