DFW Area APRS RF Paths & Internet Connections

From: Pete Lovall, AE5PL, HamCom 4 June 2005

  RF Paths

Minimum hops for local coverage. APRS loses efficiency exponentially after 2 hops.
Internet backbone is the best method for long distance communications on APRS (get to nearest bidirectional IGate).

  Location   Path Minimum
Beacon Rate
(minutes)
Fixed/Home *WIDEDIGI or WIDE2-1 or *WIDEDIGI,WIDE2-1 or WIDE2-2 20
Wide Area
Digipeater		 No Path or Direct Path to Nearest IGate 10
Weather
Station		 *WIDEDIGI or WIDE2-1 5
Mobile WIDE1-1 or WIDE2-2 or WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 or WIDE1-1, WIDE2-2 3
Portable WIDE1-1 or WIDE2-2 or WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 or WIDE1-1, WIDE2-2 5
Special Event **SPCL or **SPCL, WIDE2-1 3
Airmobile WIDE2-1 5

*WIDEDIGI = Callsign-SSID of the nearest wide-area digipeater, For North Dallas Area = W5MRC-15
**SPCL = Callsign-SSID of the special event digipeater, if it exists
  • WIDE1-1 must only be used in the First Position of the path
  • For operation in the DFW Area, restrict number of hops to 2 maximum.
    More than 2 hops, QRMs the other 100+ APRS stations in the DFW Area.
  • Radios must be configured to receive on frequency before transmitting.
  • Unproto (destination) should be set to software indicator for most clients, or GPS if using GPS strings.
    The software indicator can be found at: http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs/tocalls.txt

  Internet Connections

  • IGates should be unidirectional (gate to APRS-IS only) unless your area is not already covered by
    a 24/7 bidirectional IGate.
  • IGate paths should be 2 hops maximum unless your coverage area is larger
    Do Not overlap coverage areas.
  • Connect to Port 14580 of a javAPRSsvr for proper IGate operation.
  • An up-to-date list of servers is at: http://www.aprs-is.net/aprsservers.htm
  • Set your filter as necessary http://www.aprs-is.net/javaprssrvr/javaprsfilter.htm
  • Your Internet path is TCPIP*
  • Your unproto (destination) is the same as for RF.

  Other APRS Settings Information

http://www.tapr.org/pipermail/aprssig/2005-April/005534.html
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/digi-users.txt
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/kpc3+WIDEn.txt
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/digi-settingsMD.txt
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/relaypaths.txt
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/wide23.txt
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/widenoff.txt

  Online Resources

http://www.aprs-is.net
http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs/
http://www.tapr.org/aprs.html
http://www.findu.com
http://www.jfindu.net
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?callsign-ssid


Last Updated: 12/19/2005 02:35PM CST