What do I need to set up an iGate and digipeater?

Status
Not open for further replies.

ClemsonSCJ

Member
Joined
May 29, 2018
Messages
227
In that case how far are you from WD4EOG-1,if not to far you might want to but up just a Digi to expand the APRS coverage bit if to far in distance a Igate/digi would do your area good..........
WD4EOG is 15 miles line-of-sight from my house. I don’t know how high their tower is, but the terrain itself very advantageous for where I’m transmitting/receiving from. Paris mountain is double the distance yet I’d be way more apt to hit it than the Clemson towers.
 

jeepsandradios

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Jul 29, 2012
Messages
2,005
Location
East of the Mississippi
If you watch YouTube videos and read reviews, the UV-50X2 actually puts out around 75W on 2m unless you key up longer than about 30 seconds continuous. Then it drops to around 35ish I think. Granted by the time it hits my antenna at 35ish feet it will be a bit less.

My digi is almost non stop keying and receiving at all my sites. I can't imagine that radio will last long but YMMV
 

nd5y

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
11,228
Location
Wichita Falls, TX
If you watch YouTube videos and read reviews, the UV-50X2 actually puts out around 75W on 2m unless you key up longer than about 30 seconds continuous. Then it drops to around 35ish I think.
Wow. Any radio that behaves like that has major problems, is poorly designed, or the antenna or the test equipment is bad, or the person who made the video doesn't know what they are doing.
 

ClemsonSCJ

Member
Joined
May 29, 2018
Messages
227
Do you know how many APRS users are in your area .....
Doesn’t look like a lot, and looks like 75% of what is there is all weather stations.
 

Attachments

  • 9278C9CB-BE67-4E35-9E67-AF7912E82817.png
    9278C9CB-BE67-4E35-9E67-AF7912E82817.png
    287.6 KB · Views: 12

AK9R

Lead Wiki Manager and almost an Awesome Moderator
Super Moderator
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Messages
9,293
Location
Central Indiana
Many APRS weather stations do not transmit over the air and, instead, inject their data directly into the ARPS-IS.
 

R8000

Low Battery
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
1,010
If you watch YouTube videos and read reviews, the UV-50X2 actually puts out around 75W on 2m unless you key up longer than about 30 seconds continuous. Then it drops to around 35ish I think. Granted by the time it hits my antenna at 35ish feet it will be a bit less.
Ummm..
Throw that radio in the trash. If you don't understand why this is bad, you are not ready to put up something that transmits as a service provider to the ham community.
These china radios are known for throwing spurs all over the bands. If your radio is acting this way, that's not good.
 

AK9R

Lead Wiki Manager and almost an Awesome Moderator
Super Moderator
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Messages
9,293
Location
Central Indiana
...as a service provider to the ham community...
You bring up an interesting point. Once you put up a digipeater, or a voice repeater for that matter, and the local amateur radio community comes to depend on that resource, how much responsibility do you have to the community to keep the resource running? Granted, folks will use a resource like this all day, every day and never contribute a dime to the maintenance and upkeep only to then complain bitterly when you take it down. But, I think before someone embarks on a project like this, they need to think about the long-term impact on the community.
 

tweiss3

Is it time for Coffee?
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Apr 24, 2020
Messages
1,070
Location
Ohio
You bring up an interesting point. Once you put up a digipeater, or a voice repeater for that matter, and the local amateur radio community comes to depend on that resource, how much responsibility do you have to the community to keep the resource running? Granted, folks will use a resource like this all day, every day and never contribute a dime to the maintenance and upkeep only to then complain bitterly when you take it down. But, I think before someone embarks on a project like this, they need to think about the long-term impact on the community.
This is a very good point. Thankfully, its not something that requires frequency coordination and won't result in holding onto a frequency pair that someone else could be using, but still a valid point.
 

jeepsandradios

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Jul 29, 2012
Messages
2,005
Location
East of the Mississippi
The main issue is if it does cause issues it normally congest the entire APRS network. We had issues in the NE with old digi's that never got changed to the new format and radios way off frequency. Took forever to get stuff cleaned up. It knocks out good stuff. The worst was all the guys with androids and baofengs TX every 30 seconds. The deviation was so bad nothing would decode but it would kill the digi with usesless noise.
 

edweirdFL

Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2004
Messages
580
Location
Daytona Beach, FL
You bring up an interesting point. Once you put up a digipeater, or a voice repeater for that matter, and the local amateur radio community comes to depend on that resource, how much responsibility do you have to the community to keep the resource running?

Assuming you have made no agreements, it's NONE.

I live in what was a black hole for APRS. I setup a low level APRS Digipeater and I-Gate using an antenna in my attic and 15 watts or power. I provide local coverage for about a 8-10 mile radius where before there was none. I think it's been up for 1-2 years and catches a lot of traffic from people driving through on I-95 or I-4.

If I were ever to see a high level station setup who's coverage overlapped mine, I would be happy to repurpose my setup for something else.

Likewise if I was to move somewhere else, I'd take it down without a second thought about the gap in APRS coverage that it might create.
 

R8000

Low Battery
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
1,010
. Once you put up a digipeater, or a voice repeater for that matter, and the local amateur radio community comes to depend on that resource, how much responsibility do you have to the community to keep the resource running?
Yes sir, that's how I look at it. Repeater and digi providers are offering a service to the ham community. In my opinion, when you make that commitment, you are now a service provider. With my digi's and repeaters on the air, I don't expect a dime from the users. If folks use it, find it useful and enjoy it, then that's all the payback I need. I don't want to be "that ham" that totally destroys VHF for everybody within a 10 mile radius with spurs.

Clemson, the big issue I have with this idea of using a china radio as a digi, these things are not known for their clean spectral purity. If that "70 watt" mobile is on a high spot cranking out packets on 144.39, 149.39, 151.24, 158.16, 160.575...etc, that's totally unacceptable. Most hams won't consider this as they haven't had experience with commercial/public safety radio systems and have to deal with intermod or interference. You mention spurs and you get the deer in the headlight look.

Hams will be the first to pound their fist, stomp their feet and cry for blood when a commercial system interferes with their ham equipment. But, when the tables are turned and the ham stuff is cranking out spurs/intermod everywhere, we have an obligation to respect our spectrum neighbors as well. It's a two way street...no pun intended lol. Again, you never want to be known as "that ham" who just doesn't care and pollutes the airwaves.

Clemson, I am not trying to come off as a jerk towards you but I am being a bit direct here because this is a very important topic. I am trying to hammer in a concept that many overlook. You need to be aware of your RF frequency neighbors above and below the ham radio bands. If you install a low quality transmitter and it throws spurs all over the band, that makes hams in general look really bad when the commercial/PS techs have to go out looking for it because you are jamming their systems. You didn't intentionally do it, but it is a side effect of a radio that was $50 on Amazon with about $50 spent engineering a copy of a copy of a copy of a radio with each time cutting corners to make it cheaper.
Receiver performance just hurts you and the hams who use it. If the receiver has no selectivity, then that's on us and at least doesn't cause harm to other users of VHF nearby. Your digi reliability will take the hit and stop passing traffic and you will be wondering why you aren't being digipeated.

Using china grade radios as repeaters, digi's, links..etc is never ever recommended. If you want to use one as your mobile or home base radio then....whatever. For a digi, you'd be much better off to purchase a used commercial grade radio. A simple, used, Motorola or Kenwood commercial mobile radio would make an excellent digi radio. It doesn't even need to be fancy. Just a simple 2 channel 25 watt mobile with an accessory connector would be the cat's meow. I use Motorola gear, but Kenwood makes several fine commercial mobile radios that would work just as well.

Clemson, I hope you reconsider your radio of choice and take the advice given to you. While you can use 5 devices with a nest of cables everywhere to make a digi, I prefer to keep it clean, professional and reliable with a quality commercial mobile radio and the WX3in1. One radio, one APRS device....done. No SD cards to corrupt, no OS to update just a simple device that works when you power it up.

I see a huge red flag here and I hope we can avoid it now before things go on the air and make APRS actually worse in that area.

Good luck.
 

kb9hgi

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Jun 17, 2003
Messages
490
Location
IL
I run a Digi/Igate KB9HGI-10 and use a Kantronics KC3+ a Yaesu FT-2800M and I have it hooked to a old computer that remote into and the software is Pin Point very easy to setup
 

belvdr

No longer interested in living
Joined
Aug 2, 2013
Messages
2,567
Doesn’t look like a lot, and looks like 75% of what is there is all weather stations.
That’s what I see here. A few mobiles, tons of weather stations, and digipeaters all over. APRS isn’t what it used to be here.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top