The system includes a powerful digipeater placed high on a mountaintop overlooking the Spokane area, and another fill-in digipeater with a bi-directional I-gate that makes for a complete APRS system using no more than two hops. Other fill-in digipeaters, operated by other parties, may also repeat or gate beacons or messages in the local area.
Digipeated packets containing beacons and messages are reported to the Internet based global APRS-IS network so anyone in the world can see the information. Also, any packets from the global APRS-IS network, destined for stations nearby, will be transmitted by the WA7DRE APRS I-gate transceiver, and repeated by the WA7DRE-11 mountaintop digipeater. If the destination station cannot receive the packets directly, other nearby digipeaters may echo the packets to help ensure the packets are received.
A good place to find, and monitor, stations reporting to the APRS-IS network: http://aprs.fi/ or http://aprsdirect.com
To learn more about the entire APRS system: http://aprs.org/
The WA7DRE APRS Digipeater and I-gate system is composed of the following hardware and software:
WA7DRE-11 Digipeater:
- Location: Summit of Mica Peak near Spokane Valley, WA
- Antenna: 5/8 wave, two meter antenna placed above the roof
- Transceiver: Icom V-8000, TX at full power, 75 W
- TNC Device and digipeater: Byonics TinyTrak4
WA7DRE Digipeater and bi-directional I-gate:
- Location: Near Cheney, WA
- Antenna: Comet GP-9 colinear antenna mounted 70' up in a tree
- Transceiver: Motorola Maxtrac 300 transceiver, TX at full power, 45 W
- Digipeater and Gateway Device: Microsat WX3in1 Plus 2.0 with broadband Internet connecton
For more information about this Digipeater and I-gate system, or to report a problem, please contact:
Randy Wilkinson - W4LKS
email: w 4 l k s (at) h v a c w a r e . n e t
phone: 509-993-7739