Some time ago I built an Internet gateway (iGate) for monitoring APRS packets and sending them to APRS-IS.  It never made it to the blog partly because it was built out of Direwolf, so it was mostly software configuration.

Since then, I’ve had trouble keeping soundcards running in the same configuration and the iGate was offline for some time.

Last summer (or the one before it, I don’t remember), I bought the components to a packet station: an AEA PK-232 TNC, a Kenwood Mobile, and a broken power supply.  The broken power supply is still broken, but the rest is up and running.

The APRS Receiver Setup

The setup for the PK-232 is courtesy of LA6YIA on Google Groups:

XFLOW OFF
AWLEN 8
PARITY 0
RESTART
CONMODE TRANS
TRACE OFF
HID OFF
BEACON EVERY 0
PACKET
RAWHDLC ON
HPOLL OFF
PPERSIST ON
KISS ON
HOST ON

The APRX setup is not groundbreaking, but it’s below, too, since it may help someone…

Then, since the ultimate test is to make it work, I wrote a simple Arduino Sketch using the Argent Data APRS Arduino shield and my trusty IC-T90A…

Obviously, this only transmits once, and it is using manually-entered location, but it does the job.

Look! It’s here!

And of course, I could find some repeats in the log:

I’m in the log!

So at this point there should be better coverage in the far east of Cincinnati.

73!

I built an iGate.

I basically used the instructions from KB9MWR, although aprsx was giving me fits.  I have soundmodem running on Debian (it’s much easier to get it working there than Ubuntu), and the latest aprsx compiled locally.

Hopefully by the time the evening rolls around, more will fill up this map gated by me.

Note that my location on the map is near, but not at, my house (not that I’m not really hard to find, with the magic of ULS/QRZ and Google Street View).

You can see the stats on aprs.fi.  At the time I’m finishing this post, I’ve only gated 6 stations through and they are only digipeaters and weather stations.  I have seen position packets through, but I don’t know if they are not being gated or if they are but APRSIS isn’t sending them because they are duplicates.

Either way, coverage on SR 32 (a high traffic highway) and SR 125 (a high traffic roadway) now have some coverage, and it looks like a local nearby digi is down for now (the owner has indicated in a blog post that he’s moved, so it may be back sometime).

-73-

I worked a little more on the IC-706 Friday night and located a bad ribbon cable to go along with the bad filter.  I sent an email to Icom in the wee hours of Saturday morning, so I’m sure I’ll hear from them on Monday (or they’ll hear from me on Monday, one or the other).  Since I’m waiting on parts, I moved that aside for getting into possibly building a packet station.

I started with a box I bought at a hamfest late last year.  The part of the box that I saw first was a TinyTrak3 chip inside.  I saw a Motorola commercial HT second.

So I got into the HT, a Motorola HT90.  It had a few minor challenges, like a short when I connected power to it (which was not with the battery, of course).  Once I fixed that, I installed the two crystals (which one of the prior owners dropped about $75 on in 2002!).  I had to tune it to transmit right on 144.390 (see the image in the gallery with my little test adapter).  Once I did all that, I plugged it into the computer and installed and configured soundmodem.

Aaaaand… nothing.  In fact, looking at aprs.fi, there was nobody in the area that was traveling.  I left it on to (hopefully) get a few receptions on it.

-73-