HB9TF-2 from Rx-iGate to Digipeater

After just over 3 months of operation with the updated software configuration running aprx, an analysis of the aprx-rf.log revealed very little activity on the well-known APRS frequency 144.800 MHz. Every now and then a ham could be seen making his or her way through Oberengadin, yet aside from that no other station, in particular no other digipeaters, could be heard by HB9TF-2. It appeared that, in contrast to the situation in more densely populated areas such as Zurich, Oberengadin was APRS no man’s land.

With the frequency literally unused in Oberengadin, the decision to activate digipeating functionality was a given. At 21:10 HB time on December 4th, 2020 the following configuration change was applied on HB9TF-2 to extend its functionality with digipeating:

root@aprs-lszs-hb9tf-2:~# diff /etc/aprx.conf /home/sysop/aprx.conf
23c23
<   beacon via WIDE1-1 symbol "W&" $myloc comment "hb9tf.ch APRS Rx IGate & WIRES-X RPT LSZS 439.2750 -7.6 TSQL 141.3"
---
>   beacon via WIDE1-1 symbol "W&" $myloc comment "hb9tf.ch APRS Digipeater, Rx-iGate & WIRES-X RPT LSZS 439.2750 -7.6 TSQL 141.3"
25a26,35
>
> <digipeater>
>   transmitter $mycall
>
>   <source>
>     source $mycall
>     ratelimit 30 60
>     viscous-delay 5
>   </source>
> </digipeater>

The following day on December 5, 2020 at 10:18:16 HB time, the very first APRS packet to be digipeated by HB9TF-2 originated from no one less than HB9TF’s honorary president Florian HB3XPA / K8RWB, as can be observed in the following excerpt of aprx-rf.log:

2020-12-05 09:18:16.375 HB9TF-2   R HB3XPA-1>TV3PP6,WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1:`<0x7f>N_l?"j/`"Gw}QRV 145.500_%
2020-12-05 09:18:20.824 HB9TF-2   T HB3XPA-1>TV3PP6,HB9TF-2*,WIDE1*,WIDE2-1:`<0x7f>N_l?"j/`"Gw}QRV 145.500_%<0x0d>

For any questions or feedback regarding HB9TF-2, please contact sysop@hb9tf.ch.