[aprssig] setting up digipeaters & I-gates

[Jaye Inabnit ke6sls]

On Tuesday 20 July 2010 14:54:10 Stephen H. Smith wrote:
> Jaye Inabnit ke6sls wrote:
> > I am most interested
> > in finding low power I-gate hardware that I can install either here at my
> > QTH or at our low level repeater site.
> >
> >  
>
> 1)     Don't confuse digipeaters (RF-->RF relay function) with igates
> (RF<-->Internet connections).    Digipeaters are located at places with
> good radio coverage; i.e. ideally on hilltops or tall buildings.   Igate
> setups are located where you have always-on Internet access.  

Hi Stephen:

I'm not sure how you might have interpreted my questions regarding I-gates and 
Digipeaters as confusing the two--I have a good grasp of packet as I  
mentioned in my original post.  

The link you included was very helpful.  I just finished reading it and have 
as many questions as I did before reading--which in my case is a good 
thing :)

Now that I'm back at my QTH, I want to start defining good hill top gear--KPC 
by Kantronics seems like a good choice but I'd certainly like to hear what 
other node operators are using on their hill tops.  Here, I have access to 
some VERY good locations--locations that are very much needed since this is 
serious canyon country.  We are a responsive ham group here on the coast, so 
I will certainly have plenty of good help too.  Anyway, I'd like to use gear 
that is future compatible (non-locked in firmware etc) so updates to APRS 
routing can be facilitated without replacement of costly gear.

I think I'll set up an Igate here at my QTH.  I only use Linux so any Igate 
ops lurking, please feel free to post suggestions/help/tips via this list.  
Just a quick perview of Igate software available looks interesting, however, 
I will need to read much more about it since I don't want to listen to 
traffic as much as I wish to add "our" traffic to the APRS servers.  

I've been sending packets for over 12 hours and yet to have any heard by an 
Igate using 5 watts and a very high gain antenna.  It's very clear I need to 
get a hill top digipeater in place to cover the towns of 
Trinidad>Mckinleyville>Arcata>Eureka>Loleta>Fortuna>Rio Dell (These towns 
account for most activity and usually can't hear each other even though 
distance is relatively small).  These towns are 0n HW101.

Finally, are backbones used for APRS via local digipeaters?  I'd really like 
to see how other communities like ours are set up to handle the difficult 
terrain.  Relieving packet dups/congestion at 1200 packet speed is obviously 
very important.

Thanks again for your help, input, and review!

73

-- 
jaye, ke6sls

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