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APRS
meeting Hamilton 29 September 2002
Present: Alan ZL1AMW,
Phil ZL1PK, Ray ZL1UKC, Gavin ZL1UAB, Murray ZL1SY, Dave ZL3DM, Noel ZL3GR,
Kevin ZL1TEA, Bill ZL1BRI, Kiely ZL1WPK, Ian ZL2IH, Alan ZL2VAL, Andrew ZL1AHX,
Ian ZL1AOX
Apologies: ZL1TDE,
ZL1KRH, ZL1KL, ZL1MO, ZL1AKJ. It was noted that our meeting clashed with the
rally briefing in Auckland.
Inet Gateways: Comment
was made that we did not always see all ZL activity. Filters are needed otherwise far too much
traffic enters the ZL network. However
it was felt that ZL gateways should permit at least all ZL traffic both send
and receive.
Should we
try to organise a ZL APRS server?
Satellite Gateway Noel
explained his present receive only link from the ISS and PCSAT. Their frequencies are:
ISS 145.990 uplink and 145.800 downlink. You need to have RS0ISS, SGATE in your path.
PCSAT
145.825 up/downlink. Path needs W3ADO-1,
SGATE. (This uses 144.39 when over
Region 1)
Information: Try
Alan Wallace ’s home page at:
This is a
good starting point.
Nodes: Known
node frequencies:
ZL1AMW-14 144.650 digi, 145.400 rptr,
145.625 rptr. He also digipeats on
144.650.
24 hour / 7
day
ZL3GR 144.625 digi, 145.400
rptr, 438.400rptr (RX only),
ISS and
PCSAT as available.
24 hour / 7
day
ZL2VAL 144.650 digi, 144.700
ZL1BQ Node
under construction – 145.625 rptr, 144.575
Nationwide: Frequencies as
Known:
144.575 is the
national frequency
Whangarei uses
6650 repeater
Auckland
uses 4575 (north areas) and 5625 repeater (south areas)
East Waikato
5400 repeater
North of
Hamilton to Ngaruawahia 5400 repeater
SH1 &
SH5 towards Tokoroa & Rotorua 5400 repeater
Waihi Beach
& Tauranga 4625 digipeater
Rest of
Waikato 4650 digipeater
New Plymouth
area 7000
Nelson city
7500
Nelson &
Tasman area 4650
Wairarapa
5425 repeater
Wellington/Blenheim 6625 repeater
Christchurch
& Canterbury 4575
- Alan will
update the map on his web site to reflect this information. Anyone with further detail is invited to
contact Alan.
Local Facilities Currently
there are OTO, TPO & BOP digipeaters along with the Kaimai & Klondyke
data repeaters.
OTO may get an
antenna upgrade.
BOP is going
to be relocated to a hill between Tauranga & Te Puke soon.
OTO has had
Level 2 enabled (permits via function)
TPO does not allow level 2- this to
be investigated
Klondyke may
either change to a 4575 digi or have a 4575 digi co-sited.
Noel showed us a VHF marine set with tracker he has built up for the Rotorua Coastguard. It operates on the local Marine frequencies.
Alan had a
KISS TNC obtained a kit from W2FS. It
does both KISS TNC and Tracker functions.
Kiely talked
of the process of building up trackers.
Note that Auckland VHF Group has kits available.
Rotorua have
tried GPS + Tracker on the SAR repeaters.
It was not a complete success.
Partly due no doubt to lack of good reception of enough GPS satellites.
During
discussion it was mentioned that the GPS units without self contained displays
may work better for APRS.
The issue of
audio quality was raised. It is
important to not overdeviate. Watch out
for DC signals etc superimposed on the audio output from the receiver.
Remember
that the audio tones in the tracker are generated from the CPU and are far from
sine waves.
What are still needed are maps of towns and cities to Street level, with main streets named.
Future Plans It
was agreed that future activity should favour 144.575 operation.
One way of
encouraging this was seen to be putting in low level 144.575 linkers to
whatever frequency was in local use at the moment.
Any new high
level digipeaters or linkers for APRS should go on 144.575.
However it
was felt that removing existing data repeaters or digipeaters to replace them
with 144.575 units was not a good idea.
In line with
this Waikato VHF group will look into putting a free standing 144.575
digipeater at the Kaimai data repeater site.
Alan will be
adding a 144.575 port to his Node to encourage activity in Hamilton and nearby.