[CRAPRS] Getting in to APRS

[Jerry Pasker]

>Jerry,
>
>Welcome to APRS and the CRAPRS mail group.  The list has not seen 
>much activity, nice to get a message from it!
>
>I provided all the equipment except for the antenna and did the 
>install at K0HAM-10.  It is a very good site thanks to the 
>generosity of Rob Nall, WV0S, Heartland Towers.  The antenna was 
>donated to the project by my son, W0JRT.  It uses an MFJ TNC with 
>UiDigi software and a GE Phoenix radio.  I have similar equipment at 
>K0HAM-9 near Chelsea also on a Heartland tower, K0KBX-1 on a tower 
>along with the Benton county repeater near Garrison, K0QVF-2 on the 
>SW side of Cedar Rapids and W0CXX-5 (different radio) at the 
>Rockwell Collins club station in NE Cedar Rapids.  Here at home in 
>Fairfax I use the GE radio with a KPC-3+ on my Igate.
>
>Here is a photo of the Chelsea site: 
><http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t17/k0qvf/?action=view&current=K0HAM-9_Tpwer.jpg>
>Here is a photo of the Morse site: 
><http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t17/k0qvf/?action=view&current=Morsetower2.jpg>
>
>A good digipeater in the Cascade area is a GREAT idea.  Some time 
>ago there was a station in Dubuque on APRS but have not seen him on 
>in quite a while.  If there is anything that I can do to help just 
>ask.
>
>Regarding the liability on your balloon project I do not have any 
>first hand knowledge however my son and some of his buddies do 
>helium/hydrogen balloons in the Kansas City area so may have some 
>knowledge, I will ask if they can help.
>
>Ron - K0QVF
>

Well, Gary gave me some encouragement, just the right amount, at just 
the right time.  That was a huge help.  I would still like to take 
him up on his offer to place a temp digi here for a short period of 
time, just to see if it really would be useful in this area.  I'd 
like to think that it would,but there just aren't a lot of aprs 
devices moving through this neck of the woods.

Or maybe I just need to see an APRS device running to keep me motivated.  :-)

The 35 year old coax on the tower has an outer diameter, measured on 
the jacket of 1 and 1/8th inch.  There are no markings on the jacket 
of the cable (probably long since weathered away).  It doesn't match 
any type of Andrew Heliax that I can find.  Any ideas of what I've 
got on the tower?  I've never worked with cable that large before. 
All the internet RF stuff I do is radio/antenna integrated, powered 
over ethernet.

I've got a stash of 50-60 ft of RG213U.  Would it just be better to 
plan on putting that cable on the tower instead?

When I get to the point of actually getting ready to turn on an 
iGate/Digi, I'll post back here so someone with more real world APRS 
experience than myself (that would be everyone on this list) can 
review my settings.

-Jerry