[aprssig] Current Digi/IGate Best Practices?

[Matti Aarnio]

On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 01:09:44PM -0600, Rich Osman wrote:
> Howdy,
> 
> I'm trying to figure out the current best practices for digis and igates
> and not having a lot of luck after an hour of searching on line.  Most
> of what I'm seeing is clearly dated and an awful lot is flat wrong based
> on my dated information - that is I have more recent knowledge than the
> pages present and I haven't been active in APRS for several years. 

Having seen same lack of current documentation, I did write quite a lot
on this topic to Aprx manual while writing it:

   http://ham.zmailer.org/oh2mqk/aprx/aprx-manual.pdf

follow pointers on that same directory to software itself, and its documentation.
It is written for multi-platform UNIX, which include Apple Mac OS.

> Background:  I'm working temporarily in San Antonio.  It seems that they
> just lost the last local igate and there are several substantial
> coverage holes because of the few remaining digi locations and local
> terrain.  

So you really need small "install and forget" igate server, that can
be left running for years without mechanically wearing parts.

Pick a fanless embeddable PC with 128 MB or a bit more of memory, and some
serial ports.  Put on it a flash disk (run it in read-only mode), and you
should have a very long life system (plusminus thunderbolt damages.)

We have been happy with  eBox 2300DX JSK:
    http://www.compactpc.com.tw/ebox-2300SX.htm

Quite capable enough.  OH2RDK dual-band digi runs with two TNCs on one.
Having more serial ports, more TNCs, most of them rx-only, and you can
make multiple directionally selective receivers with common transmitter.

...
> The problem is exacerbated by the proximity of Austin and San Antonio
> and the population density between them. It'd be easy to add a digi to
> the mix and make things a lot worse without improving much.

So you really do not want to run very much Tx operation there.
Definitely Rx-iGate, and very limited Tx-iGate?

> -- 
> mailto:lists at n1oz.net     http://www.n1oz.net       ARS: N1OZ
> Rich Osman;  POB 93167; Southlake, TX 76092 (Near DFW Airport) 

Best Regards,  Matti Aarnio,  OH2MQK