It has now been 6 months since we had the internet installed at the hall. HF (VK2MB-6) and 2m VKF (VK2MB-2) APRS IGates were also commissioned at the hall to support the APRS traffic. Note that the club has also been running a 2m APRS IGate (VK2MB-1) at the repeater site since April 2013.
The IGates below are running DireWolf on a Raspberry Pi. VK2MB-1 is using an RTL dongle, all other IGates are using a “vintage” radio.
Here are some statistics on the installations. Please note:
- data has been collected manually from Google Maps APRS; other aprs sites provide different data;
- position packets are credited based on first into the database, and are not necessarily a reflection of the actual coverage of the IGate;
- we have had multiple outages at the hall in the first 6 months: lightning, power blackout, accidental disconnection of equipment;
- Sydney lock downs have affected mobile traffic.
2m VHF iGate
The 3 charts below show the same information, progressively zoomed for ease of reading. The bars show the number of stations credited in the month (scale on right hand side), the curves show the average daily position packets credited for the month (scale on left hand side). VK2MB-1 & 2 are both in Terrey Hills. VK2AUJ-1 is in Rhodes (Sydney Olympic Park).
The dotted line on the chart below is the club’s total contribution from the hut (VK2MB-1) and the Hall (VK2MB-2). The club has greatly increased its contribution to the aprs traffic in the Sydney basin … or stolen traffics from other IGates!
The bars below are double thickness, representing stations that are credited to 2 IGates (thick) or to only that IGate (thin).
30m HF iGate (VK2MB-6)
Installed in a RF quiet area at the hall using a full L dipole, our 30m APRS IGate is contributing well to the HF APRS users.
Also refer to these earlier posts related to the installation of the IGates:
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