I know next to nothing about APRS but my neighbor was asking about standing up a digipeater to improve coverage out here in Elbert county. Seems like a VHF radio, TNC and a duplexer and I could have my antenna pull double duty for Elizabeth DMR and a fill-in digipeater. Anyone played with APRS that can Elmer me?
AB0L (Formerly N0KAI)
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Kenwood TM-V71A, Kenwood TS-590S, Icom ID-4100A, Yaseu FT-891, TYT MD-UV380, TYT MD-380, Kenwood TH-D7A, BTECH UV-5X3, µBITX V5, µBITX V4, QRPGuys 40/30/20m DSB Digital Transceiver
Hi Jeff - I've never built a digipeter, but wouldn't mind jumping into the deep end with you to figure it all out. It is relatively as basic as you laid out on the hardware side. Add some basic software and internet connection and the digipeter should "talk" to aprs.fi online. I'm game in figuring it all out with you!
73,
Dan-N2SRK
Thanks Dan! My neighbor Don, KE0G, is on the road right now. I'll have a chat when he gets back to see what he's thinking. From what I've been reading this morning, if it's merely a WIDE1-1 digi, this could be a really simple project on a Raspberry Pi. I'll keep you posted!
AB0L (Formerly N0KAI)
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Kenwood TM-V71A, Kenwood TS-590S, Icom ID-4100A, Yaseu FT-891, TYT MD-UV380, TYT MD-380, Kenwood TH-D7A, BTECH UV-5X3, µBITX V5, µBITX V4, QRPGuys 40/30/20m DSB Digital Transceiver
Looking forward to it, Jeff! Should be a cool project. Maybe we can work on it over a series of Elmer Nights together?
73,
Dan
Jeff,
just saw saw the post (got to check the forums more frequently). Setting up an APRS digipeater on a raspberry-pi is easier than you might think. KM4ACK has a YouTube channel that does that from scratch to a running digipeater. I followed his method & settings and was working in less than an hour.
The place one one is really needed is the Parker area.
Brian WA0R
Yeah, I spoke with the local coordinator and I'm not a terribly good candidate for a WIDE1-1 as my coverage is largely the same as the digipeater at the Flintwood firestation. The biggest need for the SKYWARN folks is a digipeater East of Kiowa.
I'm monitoring the 2M shared pairs now to see if anything's free for a potential analog repeater here in the future.
AB0L (Formerly N0KAI)
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Kenwood TM-V71A, Kenwood TS-590S, Icom ID-4100A, Yaseu FT-891, TYT MD-UV380, TYT MD-380, Kenwood TH-D7A, BTECH UV-5X3, µBITX V5, µBITX V4, QRPGuys 40/30/20m DSB Digital Transceiver
Yes I can imagine you and W0ARP would be the same. I of course am in that little whole below W0ARP. I tested areas in my neighborhood with an APRS HT so I knew we needed a fill-in.
Just as an aside I did the same test w/ my HT in Parker and very little of my APRS packets made it to a digipeater/I-gate from Mainstreet down to 20 Mile
hope an analog pair shows-up for us.
Brian WA0R
