Northern Illinois APRS Network

[KA9FLX]

All,

Been pondering this for some time now and cannot get a straight answer.

For the NE Illinois and NW Indiana area, what would be the correct configuration for a fill digi. Here in the SW burbs, we have a terrain based coverage hole that locally we have been using a "fill digi" to help the gap. Additionally, I have sort of filled the gap without resorting to a digi by setting up a receive only IGate, so that if I at least hear a tracker for example, it gets dumped into the overall internet system.


Still, I want to make sure the digi we are running in the Oak Lawn area is not doing things that are detremental to the APRS network overall. It seems where we are located is about right for a digi anyway to fill in what appears to have been a gap.

The fill digi is a TNC-X with X-Digi daughterboard. It is currently configured as a Wide 1. It has definitely improved local coverage of many of our trackers and others who are transitioning the area, and to date, I have not seen any eveidence that it is causing any problems.

Nevertheless, I want to try to stay as aligned as possible with what the rest of the area is doing.

Any information would be helpful.

73,
Bob - KA9FLX

[KK9H]

Hello Bob,

If your TNC-X is set to digipeat only WIDE1-1 then you have it set perfectly as a fill-in digi. The fact that your station can also put what it hears onto the internet is another bonus for any APRS stations around you.

Generally, as long as fill-in digi stations are at least separated by a few miles, then they are very useful, especially for mobile and portable APRS stations.

73, Don KK9H

[KA9FLX]

Don,

Thanks! You confirmed what I was thinking!

The local group down here was discussing the best approach, which again we thought at least one active WIDE 1 digi and a couple of fixed Igate stations, the latter of which we currently have at least two in operation under Xastir.

Both stations are only gating RF traffic to the internet. There is a setting for gating internet to RF, but I believe that would not be a good idea.

Not sure exactly where that setting would be useful except perhaps in a rural area where there was little if any surrounding digi/Igate sites. In that case it might be useful to RF only users who would like to see what else is out there, but have no internet connection for getting data beyond the local "pod".

However, that is anything but the case in the Chicago metro area.

I've been reading a lot of B. Brun's papers on the New Para, but have never as stated previously, been able to find a consensus on which way to implement.

Thanks Again!

73,
Bob - KA9FLX