[MNAPRS] APRS UHF 446.175

[Doug Reed]

Regarding infrastructure beacons, i.e. local repeaters, club meetings,
or other non-APRS informational beacons, I agree with WB4APR that they
should be strictly local beacons, not even WIDE2-1 and especially not
WIDE1-1. He also suggests those beacons should be transmitted by the
WIDE-area digis because they are the only stations that really know
when the frequency is clear. The purpose of the infrastructure beacon
is to alert travelers coming into the area what repeater frequencies
or club activities are happening. I don't think there is any reason to
push those beacons any further than the digi can be heard direct. It
does no good to tell a mobile about a repeater 100 miles away if they
will travel another hour before they can talk to it.....

I'm glad to hear that W0YC-5 is doing a proper job of reverse gating
APRS messages when the recipient is in our local area. I personally
have little use for APRS messaging but at least it is being done
right. I can see that it could be valuable, I just haven't needed
it.....

I do like the Mountain Lake web site for indicating possible 2M
openings. Of course by the time APRS indicates an opening, SSB would
have been active for a while. But APRS-as-an-indicator does answer the
old if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest question. If nobody transmits,
nobody knows there was an opening. So it is not a question of being
able to hit the Omaha digi that was heard in Mpls. The idea is that
you now know the band is open so get on simplex or move down to
144.125MHz SSB and make some noise.

All the propagation sites I check have exactly the same problem, very
few stations from MN, ND, SD, MT are participating so you don't know
how far the opening extends. So if you can come up with a good way to
get more hams in those states to put a beacon OTA, it would certainly
help, particularly 6M, 10M, and 15M. WSPRnet at the 0.1W to 5W level
seems to be a good option..... A lot of the software for digital modes
has an option to keep listening when you are away from the radio and
keep reporting the stations it hears to the propagation reporting
sites. We need more dedicated beacon stations and more RX-only lurkers
too.

You mention being able to find attended stations to talk to using
APRS. That is pretty much what the "Voice Alert" idea is about. It is
primarily for mobile to mobile but base stations or portables could
play too. Listen to the APRS forum video for the full description. It
was primarily intended for radios like the D700 with APRS built-in.
The main idea is that you program at least two APRS channels into your
radio, One is the plain 144.390 with no PL tone, the other is 144.390
with RX-TX PL tone of 100.0 turned on. A home station would program a
third channel with RX PL but not TX PL since you are too likely to
walk away from the radio and forget to turn off the PL.

When you are mobile and want to talk, you use the APRS channel with PL
enabled. If you hear a squawk from the radio it means that station was
transmitting PL100 so you can look at the display to see who the
station was because they are within simplex range and want to talk.
You pick up the mike and TX back to them on 144.390 voice, giving
their call, your call, and saying it is a voice alert reply so they
know what frequency to call back on. You then take the conversation to
simplex or a quiet repeater. Be advised that 146.520 is not the only
2M simplex frequency, 146.490, 146.550, and 146.580 work just fine as
well....  :-)

I think you are correct that all the local WIDE digis will respond to
WIDE1-1, but if you are thinking of using WIDE1-1 on a fixed station
to reduce repeats, I'd say no, and suggest the home station use
WIDE2-1 instead. A fixed station should always be able to hit the WIDE
digi so it should never need the "hit everyone" that WIDE1-1 would
give. I'd say it would be counter-productive because the home station
that replies to WIDE1-1 is more likely to be setup incorrectly and
might help generate another packet storm. I still want to use WIDE1-1,
WIDE2-1 for mobile or portable stations because they may need the
local home station for the first repeat when out of town.

If you are think specifically about home stations that beacon
infrastructure messages, I'd suggest they would be better configured
if they use the callsign of a specific WIDE digi that covers the area
of interest rather than use a generic WIDE1-1 or WIDE2-1 path.
Although if the infrastructure repeater has really wide coverage like
146.850 or 146.700, you might need the extended coverage that WIDE2-1
would provide. But most voice repeaters in our area are at their limit
with 25-30 mile range so a local beacon from a single WIDE would
probably be all that is needed. At least that is my opinion and
subject to change.....

If you want another interesting project, you could consider installing
an APRS receiver on the 145.825MHz satellite APRS downlink frequency.
I-gate the packets and take a look to see if there would be any
interest in repeating them on 144.390 also. I'd think it might be fun
to have the packsats and ISS whizzing across the APRS map. And it
would generate interest and show anyone when they are making a pass.
It would be a good use for a KPC-4 and second radio..... Collecting a
mix of data to retransmit on UHF 9600 would be the best way I could
see to make it worth while.

I just checked the ARISS.net web page and it looks like KD0KZE up in
Circle Pines is on 145.825 but I can't tell if he is acting as an
I-gate or only sending beacons. Also, the last position beacon
reported on aprs.fi from RS0ISS was back in April...... Maybe they are
not sending them any more....

Bill, your reply message to mnaprs got hung up. I'll kick it loose as
soon as I remember what the admin password is for the reflector. :-)

73, Doug Reed, N0NAS.