After recently picking up a new FTM-300D radio for the car I noticed that there's an APRS blackhole coverage-wise in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges around the Bayswater/Boronia area of Melbourne. As I spend a lot of time I this area I've put up a fill-in digipeater to help, err, fill-in this blackhole.

The digipeater is operating under the callsign VK3GO-1 and is powered by a Raspberry Pi 3 running Direwolf for the TNC, a battery-less Yaesu FT-60R on medium power (which is about 2W) for the radio, connected to a J-Pole antenna approximately 4.5m above ground level.

Initial tests have show a definite improvement coverage around this area. Within the first hour or so of the digipeater being live I've digi'd packets from stations from Wantirna up to Montrose.

View more information directly on aprs.fi, including a coverage map showing where it has been heard (aka, where the stations were when they were digi'd)

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Written By
vk3go
Tags
aprs
Posted
18 Dec 2020
Updated
19 Dec 2020

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