KD0TLS: Biggest 2023 metro infrastructure improvements

  While there were several promising new I-Gates and digipeaters popping up in the metro over the course of the year, most tended to fade away after a month or so. Still, there were a few noteworthy additions that made a significant impact on coverage, RF transit (ability to move RF traffic in and out of the metro), messaging capability, and redundancy. 

•  K0JDD-1: Strictly speaking, this gateway/digi isn't new. It went off-air for several months, and the operator was unaware of that situation. It's restoration last May means that the south-east metro has reliable coverage (beyond baseline), has reliable RF-based APRS messaging, and has a solid RF connection to nearly a dozen Wisconsin digipeaters. The gateway has surprising coverage beyond the south-east metro, as well. And since it's a TX gateway, APRS messaging across the metro into Wisconsin has become more efficient. 

  

  K0JDD-1 direct coverage 12/23

• W0MHR-1: The metro has seen a few stations come and go as the anchor of the north-west metro, but W0MHR-1 seems to have staying power. Since the wide-coverage W0PZT-1 station has switched to digipeater-only status, nearby W0MHR-1 is the gateway that carries much of that load -- 16.5k packets handled this month. Aside from that, it provides RF-based messaging service, generates bulletins and objects, and even provides some fringe coverage to Anoka County. 

  

  W0MHR-1 direct coverage 12/23

• W0MHR-2: This north-east metro I-Gate is formerly N0MQL-1, and it's the only gateway in Anoka County. While other stations also supplement the north-east metro, W0MHR-2 brings RF-based messaging into an area that's long suffered from spotty and insufficient coverage and services. It also supports the wide-coverage KC9NVV-3 digipeater across the border near Osceola. Much like W0MHR-1, this north-east gateway handles digipeated traffic across the metro. This makes life easier for operators outside of the station's direct coverage. 

  

  W0MHR-2 direct coverage 12/23

 The further out from the metro you go, the more valuable it is to have access to a TX I-Gate. My hopes for 2024 would include new TX gateways in Waconia or Victoria, Burnsville, and at the Wisconsin border near Hudson. 

 Notable losses in 2023 

• W0YC-5, one the core gateways for the MN APRS network, was down for almost three months. It's now back on the air with new hardware, but little of the new capabilities I had been hoping for. 

• N9MEC, the big gateway in Apple Valley, has become very unreliable. For several months, it only gated its own packets. It recently worked for a few days, and then went down again. It's essentially the anchor for the south metro, but it's become unmoored. W0YC-5 can provide baseline coverage for that area, but we need something more local that can provide messaging and move traffic into the metro from the southern exurbs. 

• K0YTH-13 has been down for over a month. Generally, this metro digipeater tends to have extended outages over the winter months. When it does work, it fills in a lot of gaps in metro coverage, and makes low-power APRS operation much more reliable. 

Best new example of 2023 

 KD0VJS runs a digipeater in Circle Pines. This is in Anoka County, which had no infrastructure at all until 2023. The station is just a Kenwood D710 running 5W, with an antenna 35 feet up. So often, people think you need high power and high antennas to make a difference. This misperception prevents many people from putting up perfectly fine stations that would help make APRS better for the entire community. 

 So, here's the coverage for the KD0VJS digipeater: 

KD0VJS coverage 12/23

 As you can see, this small digipeater does a lot. It moves traffic from the northern fringes to metro gateways, and it re-transmits local traffic to make simplex messaging more reliable. It also fills in the north-east metro nicely. 

 A similar station is N0OQA just outside of Elk River. It's another D710 running as a digipeater, providing coverage in an area without anything else to supplement it. 

 Neither of these stations put up fantastic numbers of packets handled. But they handle packets that otherwise would be lost. You don't need a 100-foot tower, a 50W rig, and an expensive antenna to make a valuable contribution to the APRS network. A modest home station, powered by a spare HT and a rooftop antenna, connected to a Raspberry Pi (RPi) board, can fill critical gaps in metro coverage. More than that, it can provide crucial redundancy when those big stations go down. 

 I've been saying exactly this for years. But KD0VJS and N0OQA provide the real-world proof that such modest stations can be quite valuable. Both are new stations that came on-air in 2023. 

Summary 

 The metro needs new RX-only gateways, small-scale digipeaters on the fringes, and modest TX gateways to compensate for the inevitable unreliability of the big stations we usually rely upon. 

 K0JDD-1, W0MHR-1, and W0MHR-2 are all home stations. 

 Rather than waiting for a big station that can do everything, try experimenting with a small home station that can do something.