Old News (may still be news to you!)
2004 back to 1996

• Farmers Branch Repeater Interference
  (1/6/04)From KK5WT: " I am with the Metrocrest Amateur Radio Society club in Carrollton-Farmers Branch. We operate, and I maintain, the 145.210 repeater, 110.9 tone. Starting today someone has set up a packet station, or APRS not sure, on our 144.610 input freq. apparently with a tone, because it kerchunks our repeater every 3 min. I "think" it is a packet station, could be APRS, but whatever it is it sends a ~1 sec. data burst every 3 min. If you are set up for either or both modes and if so, could you monitor 144.610 and get back to me with a call sign so we can contact the operator?" I can;t hear it here but if you can, listen for it and let the op know (or me!)
  
• W5GDC-15 APRS Digi is off the air
  (11/29/2003) Kirwin, N0XLR, reports that the W5GDC-15 APRS Digi is off the air, and removed from the 850' tower at McKinney. They hope to relocate it to a new permanant home. In the meantime, Kirwin reports that it will up temporarily at the Farmersville home QTH of Gary, W5GDC. Look for it on the air shortly.
  
• North Texas APRS Workshop set for September 6!
  (8/25/2003) An all-day APRS workshop is set for Saturday, September 6, on the campus of UTD. This is a multi-track affair, with several presenters; there are still some slots available if you are interested! For seminar info, click here!
• New I-Gate in Palestine
  (7/15/2003) New I-Gate report from Jack, AC5DI : "Located in Palestine west of Anderson County Courthouse. I-Gates stations received directly on RF and digi's them also. 10 watts to Ringo Ranger II up 20 ft." Welcome!
  
• 2003 APRS HamCom Plans!
  (6/19/2003) John, WN5PFI had a work emergency, so our APRS plans for HamCom have changed. The Digital Elmer booth will not be manned this year. Sunday at 9 A.M., I have agreed to host the APRS Forum. This will be an interactive discussion... no presentations! So, please come and ask questions, give opinions, and help answer others' questions!
• APRS help needed for Bike Tour!
  (1/27/2003) From James, KBZDG: " The MS150 Red River Challenge Bike Tour will be held May 3 & 4, 2003. This annual event benefits the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in their fight against MS. This year, the tour starts at the Frito Lay in Plano, and parallels the Hwy 377 route to 32 and 70 into Kingston and on to Lake Texoma State Park for the overnight. Day two heads north to Madill, OK, and west into Ardmore for the finish. KB5ZDG (James Marple) is looking for APRS fixed and mobile stations, as well as a number of portable trackers to install into vehicles. APRS Route maps are another area we need help with. An APRS "guru" would be a fantastic asset to the event, and would greatly help promote APRS. Early registration is critical for ANY communications assignment. Go to www.ms150.org for lots of info and fill out the volunteer application at: http://redriverchallenge.ms150.org/rrc/new_site/Volunteers.asp Many area clubs and individuals have helped with this event over the past 14+ years (GARC, DARA, DARC, PARC, MARC, APRS-KC5GOI,N5GG,WB5NZV) and too many more to thank here! Contact KB5ZDG at the following : [email protected] .
  
• New Fort Worth Wide Area Digi
  (3/18/2002) From Kike, WB5QLD: "The K5FTW-5 digi on the air! As of 3/17, it is now a KPC-3 supporting WIDEn-n and TRACE and call sign substitution. The K5FTW digi at the Ft. Worth EOC has been changed to be a RELAY only. The K5FTW-5 digi will have better coverage since it is about 500 ft. above ground level and not surrounded by buildings. It is running about 25-30 watts.The sponsor for the K5FTW-5 digi is the Ft. Worth Chapter of the Texas VHF-FM Society. SYSOPS are Harold, K5SXK, and Mike, WB5QLD.
  
• New Dallas County EMWIN transmitter
  (3./17/2002) From Craig ,KV5E "The Dallas County EWMIN transmitter is now on the air (168.8125)as of 1500 today. The transmitter is located at 461 ft AGL on the Mesquite ISD tower and is relaying the 1200 baud EMWIN data stream from the Ft. Worth EMWIN transmitter. KA5PQK and myself installed the Quantar repeater and a new DB-224 mounted on the upper pod. The transmitter output is 100 watts (.1 reflected) and with 6dBd gain has an effective EIRP of 400 watts. With a 20 foot run of LDF-5 and a 6' LDF-4 jumper the transmission line losses are negligible.The radiation pattern is omnidirectional but should shadow very slightly to the NNE."
  
• New Call Sign at the Fort Worth NWS Office
  (8/16/01) From Mike, WB5QLD: "The call sign at the APRS station at the NWS Forecast Office in Fort Worth has changed to WX5FWD. Also it is now running APRS+SA. Just in case anybody had WB5QLD-1 specified in a path, it was added as an alias."
• Temporary Ellis County Digi
  (7/4/01) From Ken, KD5AIA: "I have temporarily setup a digi in Ellis county in my Barn. It should be up most of the time, unless the cats play with the extension cord again. I plan on doing a better setup when time allows. Location is 32 16 19 N 96 38 19 W 25watts, 3 element Yagi pointing towards Downtown Dallas at 25 feet. I am routing all data via W5DCR-3 to minimize dups and since that is the only station I can reliably hit from down south here."
• Palo Pinto Activities on the rise!
  (5/21/01) From Lance, N4ASW: "I am on the extreme west edge of Parker County..... functionally in Mineral Wells.  Realistically, I cover Palo Pinto County, as far as Palo Pinto Town, including north to Jacksboro.  We are going to be installing a digi in Possum Kingdon Lake area (upper northwest corner of Palo Pinto County) within 2-3 months.  We also have an excellent hilltop location in the North of Mineral Wells.... that I will be installing yet another digipeater in (150' tower)." Super, Lance!
• Upcoming APRS Activities:
  (5/3/01) From Guy, KB5GOI: "On May 4th, Denton County will be operating a disaster drill from 7:30 until noon.  We will be using APRS to handle messaging via the NTS message format included in the software.  On May 5 and 6, the MS150 will be ongoing and on May 26, the MADD bike ride will be occurring in Denton as well.  These events will also use APRS for tracking and non-priority messaging.  All stations that do not need to be on the air the days of these event will the thanked if they do not beacon.  This will help us reduce non-essential traffic.  We may have weather blow in on 4th 5th and 6th so the WX stations may be needed. Mobile stations that are not mobile are the biggest contributors to excess traffic.  Please use you best judgment and your cooperation will be greatly appreciated." IMHO, I agree with Guy that we should check our stations for excess beaconing. Watch the packets and you'll see how much bandwidth is wasted. There are a lot more folks on APRS now and we need to utilze our channel in the most effective manner!
• W5NGU-3 Now a WX Station:
  (4/16/01) From Guy, KB5GOI: "I have the wonderful news that the W5NGU-3 Digipeater is now a fully operational APRS DIGIPEATER and WX station. Monday night I uploaded the newest firmware that brought all the existing instuments on the WX station into working order. Every five minutes W5NGU-3 will transmit the rain, wind speed, wind direction and temperature.Visit http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?call=W5NGU-3&last=24 and view the last 24 hours of data. The time interval can be changed to suit the needs on an hourly basis." Guy also hosts a great home page for W5NGU-3.
• 2001 APRS News
  Not much new here. SW Bell started charging me for disk space over their stingy 2Mb limit, so I had to delete the old screen capture maps on this web site. Please let me know if new WIDE digis come on the air. Hey, what's up out northeast of Dallas... how about a digi in Greenville and points north? 73, Rich N5CSU

2000 News and Notes:

• Van Zandt WIDE on the air
  (12/20) From Rusty, WK5R: "I just thought I would let you let you know you can add my digi to your list. It is located 3&1/2 miles north of Wills Point, 1/2 mile off of FM 751. It's running 80 watts at 80ft and a preamp; the call is wk5r-11." Welcome, Rusty! Now, we need a wide up north of Greenville to continue the APRS expansion deeper into east Texas...
• Erath County WIDE back up
  (11/20) From Roy, N5TAM: "Got the Erath County digi (N5TAM-2) back on the air this morning!  It is using the same hardware as before...Alinco DR-140 and a KPC-3 Ver 8.2. We're using an unused dual band antenna somewhere on the tower....not sure which one it is, there's four on the tower!  It seems to get good coverage....beggars can't be choosers! ;-)  We should now have solid coverage from Rockwall to Brownwood."
• APRS Silent Key
  (11/20) From Mike, WB5QLD: "Tow Low, K5TKL, who usually had a D700 on in his vehicle as K5TKL-9, passed away November 17. He was 51.  He was one of those special people that liked to be on the trail vehicle in runs, walks, and bike rides. He will be missed for that and other reasons."
• Red River APRS
  (10/27) From Tom, KC5ILO, Clarksville TX: "I have started trying to work with APRS again and was wanting to find out who would be available to talk about APRS between Clarksville/Red River County in Northeast Texas and DFW area. At this time I can not get into the DFW area via radio. Both Leo N5JEP and Billy N5YSQ are looking at putting stations online with internet connections that would help. I have connected to the www.aprs.net site and uploaded My logs but was looking for someplace in Texas to work with to put this area of the state on the map. My limiting factor is that I live at the airport in Clarksville and do not have a tall tower to have a wide coverage area." If you have info or can help Tom, give him an e-mail.
• Move from StarText
  (10/5) We'll be moving from StarText to another ISP very soon, so please use dfwaprs.net as the URL to reach this site.
• New Dallas County WIDE to Debut
  (8/29) A new digipeater in downtown Dallas, W5DCR-3, will become the Dallas County WIDE digipeater this week. K5QBM-2 in Garland will become a RELAY at the same time. Pat, N5NPL is control op for the site, which is sponsored by Dallas County REACT. This will give us improved coverage throughout the county, especially south and west. Thanks, Pat!
• Something to Crow about....
  (8/29) From your host, N5CSU: I just returned from a ten day trip touring Oregon. I spent most of the time on the coast, and enjoyed APRS along the way with my H/t and mag mount. In most cases, I was in range of digipeaters, even miles from the closest town, and regularly saw traffic from up and down the coast 100-200 miles away. Often, I was able to see my packets when I could not use my Palm VII wireless or my pager, and was only able to use "analog roam" cellular. Pretty nice coverage area from an "amateur" service, eh?
• IGATE News from KC5GOI
  (8/15) KC5GOI has moved his IGATE from WinAPRS to aprsD213:  "This change was effective 8.14.00.  This hopefully will eliminate the loss of service when the Win98 pc crashes.  It is setup to send all of the weather data and requested trackers that are not "home" that WinAPRS was suppose to be sending.  I need feedback from those on the RF only feeds concerning hurricane and other weather related posts to rf.  This second operation of aprsD is behind my firewall at the house and feeds directly to my internet accessable aprsD server kc5goi-gw.flyingpig.net.  aprsD213 is a much robust APRS program and is intended to handle the job as a server.  WinAPRS is not.  But, aprsD does not provide a graphical display like WinAPRS or the others."
• Rockwall County WIDE is on the Air!
  (7/30) From Carl, W5SBH: "We have been preparing for the better part of a year to support the "Hot Rocks" bike ride here in Rockwall with APRS tracker support.  For the past three years, the Rockwall hams, assisted by groups from surrounding counties, have provided the communications support for this 1,100 bike event.  This will be our first year to add trackers.  Scott Hammond KK5PP, who is the owner of the primary Rockwall repeater on 441.525 (PL 141.3), agreed that he would install a digi at his high location to support the ride and the NE corner of the Dallas area, if he could get some assistance from others.  Well, Scott has provided some commercial repeater equipment with good narrow RF inputs, I contributed a KPC-3+ for the controller and Guy Story KC5GOI has been most instrumental in assisting with our "command set," to ensure we mesh into the area digi network most appropriately.  The digi is into its second week of operations and seems to be working in fine style.  It is currently running about 30 watts at about 30 feet, but at a naturally high location.  Scott, after a burn-in period, plans to install it permanently at about 80 feet up on his tower and increase the power output somewhat.  Like his voice repeater, it operates primarily off batteries, so is not subject to power failures.  We think it will be an asset to the multiplex and will be the NE link out I-30 from Dallas.  We easily connect with K5QBM-2 in Garland and, even at the low power and present lower antenna height, we can work direct into Guy's digi in Denton.  Hope the APRS community will become accustomed to the rock.
  
  "Incidentally, we have about 10 trackers promised for use at our bike ride.  We need about 20; so, if you can help spread the word, it might help.  Have the hams with the trackers give me a shout by e-mail, if they might be able to participate on August the 12th in Rockwall. " Contact Carl, W5SBH if you can help.
• Downtown Dallas Digipeater Planned
  (7/19) Pat, N5NPL, is working on getting a new digipeater on-line in downtown Dallas from about 200-250' HAAT. If it works as well as we hope, it will become the Dallas County WIDE and we'll make a QBM-2 a RELAY. More info soon!
• Editorial Opinion
  (7/18) From your editor, Rich, N5CSU: "Great to see all the new activity on APRS around the state. While everyone is free to use whatever icon they choose to send, it would be nice to adhere to one APRS unwritten rule; the green star should only be used by those digipeaters that serve the unique role of WIDEs in their respective areas. Though we are all digipeaters by default, the green stars should denote those digis dedicated to 24 hour coverage, answer to the WIDE alias, and have sufficient coverage to help give the rest of us a boost. Ideally, the decision as to which station should be the county or area WIDE should be a "community decision." Other than that icon, tho, I would like to see some more of the unusual ones used more often. Not sure how they will translate to Macs, Win CE devices or Palms tho..."
• New APRS Server Directory File
  (7/12) From Guy, KC5GOI: " Jeff Brenton has created a file that lists some of the known APRS servers.  He also created the routes so the name you try to connect to in the file routes to the selected server."
• Erath County WIDE QRT
  (6/30) Roy, N5TAM, reports that the Erath County digi, N5TAM-2, is QRT. The site is no longer available.
• NWS Messages on APRS
  (6/14): More info on the NWS messages from Ben: KC5NFU: "I saw you mentioned my putting up the NWS alerts on APRS.  How about referring people to this site if they are a WinAPRS user:
  http://home.att.net/~kg5qd1/Maps.html
  These maps have the corrosponding zone codes and will highlight the county in the appropriate color depending on the type of alert (watches in yellow, warnings in red) and if you double click on the county it tells the type of alert and when it expires.
  
  "I'm also playing around with Bob's Satellite and Tiny Web Page software. Pretty cool stuff!  Watch for the satellites on your D700."
• West Texas News
  (6/12): From Chris, N5LTC: "We recently replaced the TNC at SAG with a KPC-3 plus and made that site a WIDEn-n digi for the San Angelo area.  It has a call sign of N5LTC-3 and responds to WIDE, RELAY, TRACE, SAG and any WIDEn-n.  The site is south of San Angelo about 15 miles and covers the city well.  Rod, N5XXO has the Sterling City digi and a few others that he is putting the UIDIGI software in.  This will make these sites WIDEn-n capable.  We had a few hiccups due to lightning and Charlie, KC5EZZ repaired both the PA and receiver (at two different times) to get the radio going.  We also have an Internet server running in San Angelo feeding data to the APRS network.  We occasionally see stations from the Metroplex (via rf) and plans are to add another digi north of town to give us a permanent path both north, east and west of San Angelo."
• National Weather Service Messages
  (6/12) Ben, KC5NFU, is sending the local NWS weather watch and warning information as APRS bulletins. It's a valuable service but sometimes does not name the counties. Pete, WB0FEW, has sent along a good NWS link explaining the NWS/County Zone relationship. Download the Excel file for the Southern region.
• A New Shortcut to this page: www.dfwaprs.net
  (6/5) There is now an Internet service that, for $15 a year, will register a domain name and redirect requests to an existing home page. I've just registered www.dfwaprs.net to redirect to this page; it's now active!
• Local APRS Internet Server!
  (6/4) From Guy, Kc5GOI: "I now have my APRS server online.  It feeds local data to both primary and secondary APRS servers in Florida and to aprsTUL in Tulsa.  The following entries need to be made so users can take advantage of the server:
  kc5goi-gw.flyingpig.net    10152    KC5GOI APRS server
  
  Use TABS not spaces.  I am not willing to supply a buffered feed port at this time since I am using a 56k connection to the Internet.  That will change sometime this summer and I will be able to support more users and buffered feeds."
  Guy also reports that KC5GOI-11 in Cooke County will remain on the air permanently.
• New Wide Digi in Kaufman County
  (4/22) From Guy, KC5GOI: "W5EEY-11 went online last Sunday.  It now has the corrected lat and long.  It is located at 32 42 04 North 96 08 24 West.  It is a KPC3+ and is making use of call sub and will respond to FROG, W5EEY-11, RELAY and WIDE. It is the property of Mel Goodwin, W5EEY.  I send my thanks to Mel for placing a new digi in the eastern area of DFW." This new WIDE significantly extends our APRS coverage south along I-20. At 160 feet, it has a consistent path to QBM-2, allowing us all to see farther into east Texas, plus relay these packets on to Guy's Internet gateway in Denton. Guy tells me that, most days, EEY-11 makes it to Denton direct! Welcome aboard to the Frog digi and thanks, Mel!
• Glider Mobile!
  (4/10) From Colin, N5GG: "Now it's for real. I ran a few experiments with the PIC-E tracker inside the glider the past weeks and it worked fine. So, during this spring and summer we will see some APRS activity from the air. Look for n5gg-7 As you can see, I also got my US call now. It's N5GG. I'm no longer using PY2CGB. For the normal tracker operation I'm using n5gg-9 and for the glider operation I'm using n5gg-7, with the car and plane icons respectively. I also modifyed the PICE090 code, originally written by N6BG Byon. By the way, the original code is excellent! Good job Byon. The mods include the introduction of a speed dependant adaptable update rate. This means that the rete at which the tracker updates it's position depends on the speed the station achieved during that sample period. So, if you are moving over 68kn (for the glider...) the update rate is 10 seconds. If you are parked, the update rate is 15 minutes, to avoid unnecessary transmissions. The goal was to spare bandwith/frequency hogging and also maintain the update rate in a fashion that a tracker will not move farther than about 1/4 mile without having it's position updated. For those who want a copy of the code, please contact me on [email protected]. I'm also looking for volunteers to place it somewere on the web." And a later update: "I installed all equipment in the glider this last weekend and did some test-flying. It worked great and I was able to have an almost perfect trace waiting for me when I returned home and looked at the computer screen. So, keep looking for N5GG-7 on the weekends."
• KC5GOI-3 Down
  (4/10) That whole you're seeing on your map is explained by Guy, KC5GOI: " Sometime this weekend the power supply (on Kc5GOI-3) died.  We are in the process of repairing her but I do not know when it will reappear."
• New APRS TX Mailing List
  (3/27) From Roy, N5TAM, comes word of a new mailing list just for APRS Texas activities! "Welcome to the Texas APRS Re-Mailer.  The intent of this list is to promote the use of APRS in the State of Texas. To subscribe, send an e-mail to [email protected] with the word SUBSCRIBE as the body of the message. To post a message to the list just send your message to [email protected]. If you wish to be removed from this list please send an Email to [email protected] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE as the ONLY word in the body of the message." See you on the mailing list!
• News from South Texas
  (3/27) From N5SIM," way down south in McAllen, Alamo and Weslaco. New APRS stations on line! N5SIM, WA5MMY, KC5NLO and KC5WBG are sending out thiee signals. A new Wide will be in place within the month! It will be at 600ft in a penthouse at the top of a tower in La Feria Texas."
• ...And from West Texas!
  (3/27) From KE5PL: "A few digis in the Midland-Odessa area have made the QSY to 144.39. This includes Midland, Big Spring, Notrees and King Mountain. As we speak, Mark is on his way to McElroy Peak, near the I10/I20 split with his digi on .39. These nodes show the digi as a 5 pointed star on your APRS screen. These sites use the Pac-Com 5.0 software. Joe Milam informs me that the Midland Texnet node will be coming up with a port on .39. He also indicates that the DX cluster digi at Double Mountain (near Aspermont) *may* be moving to .39. We would like to see a local (Midland-Odessa) internet gateway, Robert. In my opinion, particularly with the internet as popular as it is, APRS is about the only useful purpose remaining for 1200 baud packet. James Nettles, one of the last BBS sysops on .01 advises me that he has ceased his BBS operation due to inactivity on .01. We intend to move the Midland .39 digi from the 350' bank building (unity gain) to the .01 site at 400' (6 db gain), and recrystal that radio for use elsewhere. Rod and I intend to make some antenna improvements at Big Spring which would allow the full time path from Midland-Odessa to San Angelo to return, if the Sterling City digi is still present on .39. Rod, Clayton and I tried to do something at Colorado City, but could not find the right feedline. Fred indicates he knows which one it is, so we may try that one again. What I would like to do, is see some discussion, and exchange some info and ideas so we can get on the same field of play. I am aware of the TAPR home page, but I want to know what is going on in West Texas and SE New Mexico. If any one needs any help in recrystalling, I do have a service monitor. I rely on Rod to do the software thing. As gung ho as the Permian Basin is on storm spotting, I am surprised that we do not see any more APRS activity than we do. As Greg aptly put it, after traveling about West Texas and New Mexico last week, there is quite a bit of APRS activity, but we just need to connect the dots."
• New WIDE digi in Brownwood
  (3/4) Our APRS coverage from D/FW continues to extend to the southwest, with a new wide area digi in Brownwood, K5BWD-10. Further information, anyone?
• APRS+SA and WX Stn Available On-Line
  (3/3) Pete, WB0FEW, has moved north to Melissa, and, with a full-time link to the Internet, provides on-line access to his weather station and APRS+SA station. Check it out!
• Experiences with the Kenwood D700
  (3/3) I consider myself lucky to have had one of the first Kenwood D700 APRS mobile rig in the D/FW area. I've had it in since mid January and have really enjoyed it in the Jeep. The screen is large enough to read from my console, and its a real kick to see flashing bulletins take over the screen as they come in! Only complaint is my mobile beacon includes elevation (compressed) which is only decoded on another D700. There are now a few other locals plus an OK City mobile I see quite a bit. Watch for a "-8" SSID, the national consensus on D700s (+1 from the "-7" standard for the D7A Kenwood data-talkie).
• New WIDE in Copperas Cove
  (2/17) From Bob, W7KPW: "I have just installed a new WIDEn-n DIGI in Copperas Cove, Texas. I am using a Yaesu FT-2600M Radio at 60 watts. Kantronics KPC3+ 8.3 Tnc. This Digi is Solar Power at 1350 feet asl with a 6.7 db gain antenna. It is getting into n5tam-4 and into Austin in the afternoon. The Call is w7kpw-1. This should open up Dallas to Austin in the afternoon real well. It is a 70 mile jump to n5tam-4, and in the day time it just don't
  make it let. It is a new Digi and I will be working on it to see if I can get it to work better." We can see it here vai TAM-4 quite often, Bob!
• New Denton County Club APRS page
  (1/2) Guy, KC5GOI, has a new URL and look for the Denton County ARC APRS page. Check it out at www.kc5goi.net/aprs/dcaraaprs.htm.

1999 News and Notes:

• K5QBM-2 upgraded to "Wide n-n"
  (12/29/99) The Dallas County Wide is now running Kantronics version 8.2 software with the WIDE n-n function enabled. This means that you will see the K5QBM-2 callsign inserted in place of the alias WIDE when it is digipeating a signal as a wide. It should also cut down on multiple retransmissions of the same packet. QBM was the last north Texas WIDE to upgrade; our D/FW LAN is now WIDEn-n enabled. You can help make the network more efficient by changing your home station's path to a WIDEn-n format. If you can hit a WIDE directly, instead of using RELAY,WIDE, use WIDE2-2. This will shorten your packet length, and provide 2 WIDE retransmisions of your packet.

• Comanche County Wide on the air
  (12/23/99) From Roy, N5TAM: "Continuing the APRS march down highway US 377/67 toward San Angelo, we just installed a new wide area digi in Comanche.  Using an Alinco DR-140 radio and a KPC-3 ver8.2 so it is WIDEn-n enabled. The call on the digi is N5TAM-4.  Also, I'm happy to report that the K5QBM-2 system in Dallas County system is now on the emergency power system at the Raytheon plant, a massive diesel system.

• News from the Texas Panhandle
  (11/17/99) From Ben, WS5R: "You've probably seen it, but we have a new WIDEn-n digi up in the panhandle, WS5R-3, a WIDE/Relay/Trace in Hendley. It should help link us with the DFW during openings, showing 140 stations on screen from NM, TX, OK, AR, LA and AZ. We also have a digi up in Amarillo, KB5QIO-7." I've seen both stations on our map here during the wee early morning hours!
• N5CSU now at the new QTH
  (9/13/99) After 8 years in far north Dallas, I've downsized to a cottage just east of Dallas' White Rock Lake. The station is back on air and I hope to have the weather station on-line soon. And watch for the HT as a kayak mobile from the lake; too bad there's not an icon for it!
• Glider Mobile soon?
  (9/28/99) From Colin, PY2CGB (Fort Worth): "Right now I'm running a very precarious station from the apartment (HT+MagMount 1/4). This will (hopefully) improve in the near future, since we're moving to a house in Lewisville during October.A little bit of background: I'm from São Paulo, Brazil and was transferred here about 18 months ago. I had my FCC license issued almost a year ago, but never activated the station. But now, since it looks like I'm going to stay much longer,  I decided to make use of my FCC license and put the station back on-line here. You know: once infected with Radiococcus Frequenciae, always infected... I've been involved with Ham stuff since '77 and was running a packet BBS in São Paulo for nearly 7 years, so you can see it's an old passion.
  "I'm also a pilot / glider pilot and fly out of the Texas Soaring Association in Midlothian,TX. I'm going to perform some tracking experiments while flying a glider in the next couple of weeks, depending on the delivery of my TH-D7. I'll announce it when time comes, so that people can track me if wanted." Welcome Colin!
• E-Mail Instructions
  (9/20/99) I've add instructions on how to send an Internet e-mail message from APRS to the bottom of this page.
• Roanoke back on the Air!
  (9/13/99) "KC5GOI-3 is back on the air in Roanoke.  It is more of a relay now than a wide.  She is at 30 ft at 25 watts.  33.01.25 N  97.18.01 W.  It is a KPC3 ver 8.2 but for some reason she is not doing the call sub like it should. It is digi'ing to relay and wide aliases. 73, Guy Story"
• APRS White Paper
  (9/13/99) Download this great 25 page white paper from Ian, G3NRW, zipped and in PDF. Look closely for some local calls on one of the maps....
• Erath County WIDE on the air!
  (7/31/99) APRS expansion to the southwest of the metroplex continues! Roy, N5TAM, is "happy to report that N5TAM-2 is back on the air after being stolen back in 1998! It's located about 200 ft up a broadcast tower located SW of Stephenville. We're using a KPC-3+ and an Alinco Dr-140 data radio.  My thanks go to Mike, N5SCC, for getting the tower space for the digi!"
• Digi Callsign Changes
  (7/5/99) Guy, KC5GOI, reprogrammed the Denton County WIDE to W5NGU-3 today. You may have also noticed that the Tarrant WIDE, WA5YVC-11, is now sporting the fitting call K5FTW-- the change happened last month.
• Denton County APRS News
  (7/1/99) From Guy, KC5GOI. "The DCARA went up with a APRS web page today.  I am the Chairman of the APRS committee and threw up the page today - http://www.infospeedway.net/~kc5goi/aprs/dcaraaprs.htm
  On the digi front:  In the next couple of weeks, KC5GOI-3 will be replaced by W5NGU-3.  I am going to relocate goi-3 to Roanoke shortly after. Both digis will support callsign substitution.  I will add KC5GOI-3 in the list of calls that ngu-3 is to replace calls on, so there should be no change in its operation."
• APRS and the Gulf Coast Hurricane Net .
  (6/24/99) From James, N5JZ. On Tuesday, June 22, the Gulf Coast Hurricane Net had a drill, and check-ins with APRS were asked to contact stations out of state and as far away as you could. I did make 8 out of state contacts, with the longest one AA3JY in PA. The drill was a good chance to show the message section of the APRS program"
• Info from Denton.
  (6/10/99) From Guy, KC5GOI: "We had a decent turn out for the event.  We wound up having 6 trackers running with decent sucess.  The biggest problem was one tracker had a ground loop (mic-e) and one was intermitant (different mic-e).  I know what to do about the intermitant one but the ground loop is tough to fix.  Seems like if the gps receiver is on a seperate power inputthan the mic-e a major ground loop occurs.  also, I installed a kpc3 with ver 8.2 in goi-3 monday and have been tweaking it for performance." Guy also may have some news sooo on addtional digis north of Denton.
  (5/21/99) The MS150 last month was a blast with all the APRS activity. Want another chance to use your stuff. Saturday, May 29, the Denton ARES group is providing communications for the MADD Mothers bike ride here in Denton. They are looking for APRS and non-APRS help for the event.  Contact Andrew, KC5HHR via e-mail.
• Internet E-Mail via APRS.
  (3/24/99) A detailed review of the Kenwood TH-D7 appears in the April issue of CQ VHF. One thing I learned from the article is a method to send e-mail from APRS. Perhaps everyone else already knows this, but, if you are in range of an IGate (e.g. KC5GOI), you can send a message to any Internet e-mail address via APRS. Simply use "email" as the TO callsign. Then, in the message portion, enter the full e-mail address, follow it by one space, then type in the message text. It really works!
• The National Weather Service in Fort Worth is on APRS!
  (3/20/99) Here's the latest scoop from Mike, WB5QLD:
  "APRS is now running at the NWS Ft. Worth, WB5QLD-1. They provided us a computer on Monday. Running a KPC 3+ (as a RELAY); WinAPRS 2.2.6. Currently it is using a radio and antenna that will be required for voice operations in severe weather. The antenna is 70 feet up the tower. Next week I will install a radio loaned by Greg (KB5GLV).  At that time I will probably shift to the antenna at 30 feet.  We will also survey our antenna options.  The tower has a lot of antennas currently. We might even look at roof mounting on the building. I also will have to see what kind of antenna to get and how to pay for it. When required, I can set the system up as a temporary IGATE.  I have played with that a little. It is set up so that county warnings can be issued (manually). Do not expect weather service people to do this, however."
• More Kenwood data talkies on the air in D/FW.
  (3/16/99) More Kenwood TH-D7 "running men" have joined the airwaves. Bob, KC5EJK-7, has just come on. He joins Cor, KD5GIB-7, a new ham who has already gotten messages to me via IGates from New York and Chicago, as well as via TexNet from Austin. That makes at least 4 Kenwoods that I have seen since Christmas.
• Improved Coverage for Dallas WIDE.
  (2/24/99) K5QBM-2 at Garland has swapped tower and antenna locations with K5QBM-1, the long time ESY digi on 145.09MHz. We are now at just over 100' with a DB-225 four-bay J-pole and 45 watts. Indications are that we have much better coverage than the old site, and it is providing a solid link to the KC5GOI IGate in Denton.
• TEXNET Links Dallas and Austin APRS.
  (2/16/99) KF4RN-4, the TexNet port in downtown Dallas, has begun piping any signals it hears to Austin, and a node down there is returning the favor. Watch for KF4RN-4 in the path of Austin area stations, and you'll see it working!
• New Hood County WIDE.
  (1/23/99) We now have a new WIDE digipeater near Granbury, thanks to James, N5YXO. It's at a rural location on high ground, and has already proven to expand our coverage to the south and west.
• APRS Weather Station News.
  (1/12/99) Bobbie, K5BL, now has a weather station up in McKinney. Also, weather stations at both WA5RRN and N5CSU are now using WinAPRS.
• We've joined the APRS Webring!
  (1/9/99) We're now a cog in the nationwide APRS Webring; give it a try at the bottom of this page!

1998 News and Notes:

• 12/23: It's great to have the Internet'ted APRS stations appearing on our local maps, and to have our stations being uploaded to map.aprs.net. Thanks to Guy, KC5GOI! If you haven't seen your staton on the Internet yet, try the map.aprs.net address; here's an example: http://map.aprs.net/n5csu
• 12/22: The Kenwood TH-D7 handie-talkie with built-in TNC and APRS is now available for around $450. Santa brought me one; watch for n5csu-7 and the "Running Man" icon when I am portable. I've heard that are are two or three others on air locally and more on order; typically, we'll use a "-7" as an SSID. It's a great little rig! For those interested, there is now a separate mailing list for HT users and those thinking about it.Check out the mailing lists on TAPR.
• 9/3: The North Texas Balloon Project will attempt Mission #10 this weekend!
  • Downlink: 144.390 MHz APRS Format
    GPS telemetry information in APRS (NEMA) format will be beaconed every 30 seconds. The packet format is the common 1200 baud AFSK found in all TNC's. The digipeater callsign will be KG5IE-11.
  • GPS:
    Precise longitude, latitude and altitude data will be provided by a modified Garmin 45 GPS receiver. An active GPS antenna furnished by "Radioland" will be used.
    
• 8/25: Guy, KC5GOI, reports that he and Clint, KD5BYY, now have a 24 hour I-Gate on the air from Denton. He will allow 3rd party messaging.
• 8/18: There may be later info on this, but here's some exciting news from Bob, WB5AOH, in Austin via Mike, WB5QLD: "I  have reworked TexNet to handle APRS packets from node to node.  Currently Waco has an APRS port on 144.39, and I am testing a couple in Austin, although they are just on the bench, not in a good location yet.  We have interest in Sherman, Denton and San Antonio.  I assume you guys around D/FW will be interested also, particularly if I tell you we may have a site available in Downtown Dallas that all it needs is a 144.39 radio and swap the eprom (assuming we get to keep the site. I heard a bad rumor we might lose it, but have no details). I think our goal might to get about 50-75% coverage along I-35 from Sherman to at least Corpus and maybe farther by next summer. We are also working to merge some of TexNet with the Internet, and one of the things high on the list (after we use Internet to fill in gaps in TexNet itself) would be to make a permanent feed from TexNet APRS packets to the various APRS server bridges.  That is still in the planning stages." Great news? You bet!  If you're not a member of Texas Packet Radio Society, you really should be!

• 7/4: Good news from Guy, KC5GOI: "KC5GOI-3 is now on the air.  It is at 3313.43N 9709.39W 25 watts at 320 feet on a Ringo Ranger."  This puts it near I35 and US380 in west Denton. It's a great addition to have a wide area digi along I35!
• 5/12: We now have another full-time weather station on that air, KC5GLG in rural Tarrant County. John's home QTH  is in the Rendon area, along TX 1187 East of I35, where he has a Davis weather station on the air; you'll also spot him mobile. Welcome!
• 5/12: Great news from Roy, N5TAM:   "Just got the N5TAM-3 digi working today.  It's on a 150 ft PURPLE water tower in Alvarado (US-67 and I-35W).  Using an Alinco DR-140 data radio (50w), a KPC-3 (ver 8.2), and a 4.5 db gain antenna.  It shares the tower with 442.025MHz 88.5PL repeater.  Now that that project is finished,we will start working on getting the N5TAM-2 digi back on the air in Hood County soon.  We may need to pickup a new antenna at Hamcom as the dual band on the tower looks to have been hit by lightning.   The digi will probably be on the same tower as the 442.575 and 148.08 repeaters.   N5TAM-2 will use the same radio and tnc as N5TAM-3.  Those radios are $180 at HRO!"
• 4/20: Ron, W5RKN, reports from Austin that their WIDE APRS digi, WA5LHS-1, has QSY'ed to 144.39. We'll be watching for the Austin stations again during band openings!
• 4/10: Bob, KC5EJK, has the GGA MNEA data he collected from the balloon launch last weekend. E-mail him if you are interested in a copy. "I think the balloon got up to at least 85,000 ft before it burst. I was intending on uploading the data in real time to the www.aprs.net server but it was unavailable. Roy, N5TAM saved the day and used the back up  server address, ilnorth.aprs.net port 23, to post the data. Other APRS users with net access may have also done the same and relayed data to the net. The alt and location plots looked real nice."
• 4/10: Mike, WD5CWZ, reports that his WD5CWZ-2 WIDE digipeater in Livingston, QSY'd to 144.39MHz yesterday. We should see his digi during good band conditions; in fact, we saw his BLN up here today!
• 4/4: Great signals from the North Texas Balloon Project Launch; check out the screen shots above!
• 4/2: Several new stations have popped up lately, including KD4WLZ in NE Dallas, WN5PFI in far north Dallas (Addison?), W5TFV in Argyle and KC5GOI in Denton. Welcome, guys and send me an e-mail so I can add you to our roster!
• 4/1: Roy, N5TAM, reports that the N5TAM-2 equipment has been stolen so we've lost our Hood County digipeater until further notice. On the bright side, K5QBM-2 returned to the air with a new Kenwood TM-261; this should solve the persistent problems we've had with QBM.
• 3/5: We've settled in on 144.39MHz and the QSY is spreading south. Heard from Mike, WD5CWZ, in Livingston, TX who will be moving his Wide-Relay digi as soon as the crystals come in. See you on band openings, Mike. Houston and Austin folks--- what's your status?
• 3/1: We've moved to 144.39MHz!
• 2/28: There's an on-line map plotting the progress of the move to 144.39MHz nationwide; it seems that about half the country will have switched by March 1.
• 2/13: I've heard from Anthony, AB5QR, in Houston; he saw our QSY announcement on the APRS SIG this week. He's passing the word there and thinks that the Houston bunch may move to 144.39 the same weekend. On another subject, if you are interested in EMWIN, an e-mail discussion group has just been established. Browse the News at  www.weathernode.com/wnode.htm for details.
• 2/5: From APRS local bulletins and e-mail I've received, it looks like March 1 will work out for our QSY to the new nationwide frequency of 144.39MHz. All of our wide area digis and weather stations will be moving. We invite all Texas APRS users and neighbors to join us in a QSY on Sunday, March 1st (or the next day if the station is at the work QTH).  I've posted a message to the TPRS PMS and notified TPRS. Please help us get the word out throughout Texas!
• 1/25: The ARRL Board has come out in favor of a proposed nationwide APRS frequency at 144.39MHz, in deference to a proposed worldwide 145.80MHz MIR ham frequency. Most APRS folks on the APRS sig seem to agree with this change. (See the 10/18/97 entry below).  There is no official nationwide cutover date; each area can move over on their own. Florida seems to be leading the way. As a suggestion, I propose that north Texas (perhaps ALL of Texas) QSY to 144.39MHz on Sunday, March 1. Will this be a problem for anyone? That should be enough time to get the word out.
• 1/03: D/FW weather stations are discussing using the alarm feature to issue alerts for severe weather. What we've enabled now is that any winds above 48 MPH will trigger an alert at that weather station, and the blue dot will go red on your map. Other alarms are specific to each station.
• 1/02: Santa brought me a Davis Radiation Shield, which is now installed. It protects my Peet Bros. temp sensor from direct sunlight and will give more accurate temps-- no more 132 degree readings from my patio!

1997 News and Notes:

• 12/03: Alan, KB5ZUY, is now joined by Jim, AA5MM, in helping our local stations get onto the www.aprs.net map: "I'm also doing that periodically thru APRSA4i which includes a TCPIP interface as well as TNC interface.  It's still beta but it does work rather well.  I'm able to plot on the street atlas program all of the stations contained on the APRS.NET as well as gate the information from here to the internet.  Hopefully between the two of us gating, it'll stay pretty updated." Super and thanks!
• 12/02: Got an e-mail from David, [email protected]. His Benbrook 2-way HF/VHF gateway is missed! "Having a marvelous time here in Waterford, Connecticut, right near the Lond Island Sound, working at the Millstone power plant.  Local radio activity is limited, but the nearby gate in New York (W1GTT) is handy to get my posit back home.  Whenever I travel more than a couple of miles, I turn on the tracker using W,G,G,W path, seems to work ok.  Still on 145.79 here, no serious discussion on moving.  Local guy has a Wide, at least one tracker, and either a Mic-E or MIM; very involved." David will be back in D/FW sometime next year, he writes.
• 12/02: Have you stopped by www.aprs.net lately? It takes 5 minutes to load, but give it time-- it's worth the wait! Live APRS data from all over the country, and D/FW is on the map, courtesy of Alan, KB5ZUY in Richardson. He can't promise to keep the link up permanently, but we can always hope!
• 11/20: You may note the new call in Richardson, KD5CBQ. That's the new club call for the Raytheon E-Systems Richardson club. Used to be Electrospace, before their acquisition by the big R.
• 10/20: Roy, N5TAM, writes to tell us that the N5TAM-2 digipeater has been moved from Chalk Mountain to a QTH on US377 between Granbury and Tolar. It's using a PacComm Tiny Two TNC. He also reports that his wx station will be off the air for a time, and that James, N5YXO, has his gateway operational (HF receive only). Great to see the nationwide stations again, James. Thanks!
• 10/18: Local APRS'ers have been following the proposal for a new nationwide APRS frequency of 144.39 MHz. If this is news to you, here's the scoop...APRS users been asked by AMSAT to move from 145.79 due to continued interference with the amateur activities of the MIR spacecraft on 145.80. For the full story, check out the September "Digital Dimension" column in QST. It is also discussed daily on the APRS SIG, which all APRS'ers should subscribe to (choose the "digest" version). From comments I've seen locally, none of us have seen/heard any problems with this frequency, and are willing to move if a nationwide consensus comes about. No date yet set for the switch; the SIG is the best place to watch for developments. Locally, let's coordinate via messages on the air and an announcement here if a switch is imminent.
• 6/12: Congrats to Mike WB5QLD for installing a new PacComm TNC at WA5YVC-11. With its "trace" capability, it replaces the generic WIDE with its call on digipeats; this makes it much easier to tell what's going on!
• 5/29: Glad to report that the K5QBM-2 WIDE-RELAY digipeater is back on with a new KPC-3. The other one took a near hit during the 5/19 storm. We also have an Ultimeter 500 installed in the shack along with a professional temperature sensor housing on the tower. So far, though, I have been unable to get it talking to the APRS software.
• 5/28: Another home weather reporting station has joined us on 145.79-- K5SLT in Allen. Welcome aboard, Ken!.
• 5/15: AA7XC, Doug, now has an Ultimeter II weather station on the air from Kessler Park south of downtown Dallas. Great!
• 5/15: Anyone know what happened to N5TD-9? It heard Waco and we've lost the link to central Texas since it disappeared.
• 3/18: Bob, KC5EJK, recently posted a file to the SIG that will generate milepost positions for the White Rock Marathon. The file is available on-line.
• 1/13: Got e-mail from Roy, N5TAM, that included the screen shot above and this note: "Attached is a screen shot of the beginning of our trip out to San Diego that we started on 12-28-96. The time of this shot was sometime after 9 in the morning. We are about 10 miles east of Abilene or about 128 miles from WA5YVC-1 in downtown Ft.Worth.As you can guess, there was a GREAT band opening that morning! Dave, WB3FYV, also reported that he saw my beacon in San Diego! I had added a third beacon to the KPC-3 that had a path of relay,wide,gate,wide (every 20 minutes). Next time out there I'm going to have the laptop in the van and find out who was sending APRS beacons out in the AZ desert!"
• 1/1: Over the holidays, I put my old Peet Brothers Ultimeter II with rain gauge on the air. First, I had to purchase a bus mouse for the old 386/33 to free up COM 2 for the weather station. The interrupt on the bus mouse board then had to be moved from the default of 5 to 2 before the weather station could use the serial port. We are relaying the wx reports via K5QBM-2 in Dallas and WA5YVC-11 in Fort Worth, and also sending them out Dave's gate. Incidentally, the Adam 386/33 is dedicated to APRS. I'm using a Compaq Presario Pentium 125 for everything else.
• 1/1: We have another new WIDE digi, as N5TD-9 in Cleburne came on-board over the holidays.

Notes from 1996:

• 12/19: K5QBM-2, the Raytheon E-Systems Garland club station, is now a WIDE-RELAY for Dallas area stations. It seems to be working out just fine.
• Got lots of info from Roy, N5TAM in Granbury, via e-mail:
  • "The new weather station is a Peet Bros. U-2000 with a rain gauge. The radio at his QTH is an Icom 229A with a KPC9612. The computer is a 100MHz Pentium with 24Mb of RAM, 2 GB hard drive, and 8CD ROMs...one 4X speed, and a 2X speed 7 CD changer.
  • Here are some facts about the Wide-Relay on Chalk Mt.:
    1 It's on US 67 at the Somerville/Erath county line.
    2 Don't yet know what the HAAT is but the tower is at about 1300 ft.
    3 The antenna is a 144/220/440 Diamond 60 ft up a 300 ft tower.
    4 The feed line looks to be one inch hardline.
    5 Radio is a Yaesu FT2400...50w out..tough rig with excellent front end.
    6 KPC-3 for tnc for two reasons...I had an extra and the remote function makes it ideal for remote operation. I can change any setting from my home.
    7 The site was offered by Ronnie, WD5GIC; it's the site for the 147.02 and the 442.025 repeaters and link radios for his repeater system.
  • My van has a Garmin-45 (stays on 24 hours), KPC-3, and an Alinco 1200 data radio. The main radio in the van is a Kenwood 742 with 50, 144 ,and 440 MHz modules in it. Van has FOUR mag mount antennas on the roof (enough magnetic flux to warp the space-time continuum!) I use WinAprs as I like multi-tasking. Tomorrow I hope to get my packsat station back up with the new 32bit WiSP and 32bit KCT programs. Kenwood 790 with 144, 440, and 1.2 gig in it and a PK-96 tnc."
    
• Hope y'all got a chance to see the APRS activity during the recent White Rock Marathon. Several stations participated, tracking the runners' progress around the 26 mile race. E-mail Bob, KC5EJK, for a history file you can replay.
• I spotted a note from N5PAY that, yes, the N5PAY-3 digi in Temple IS at the 400 foot level! The combination of two well spaced WIDEs (Chalk Mountain and Temple) opens up all the central Texas activity to us here in Dallas/Fort Worth and vice versa. It also allows us to see Livingston and the Houston/Galveston area pretty consistently too.
• Dave's gateway, WB3FYV, to 10 MHz allows us to watch packet traffic across the US. The weather reports coming in from around the country throughout the day are neat too. Thanks, Dave!
• Also noted a bulletin from Houston that the AB5QR-2 WIDE digi in Houston just added a pre-amp. BSA Troop 152 sponsors the digi. Just got more info via e-mail from Anthony, AB5QR: "This is our current WIDE-RELAY that we have in operation until we can get a more permanent one up. Yes, it is sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 152 and is on 24/7. The bulletin about the Pre-Amp was mostly for the local users noting that the coverage was upgraded--and it did help!! At the station we have a 9db. antenna up at 85ft. and a 10db. preamp and 50w."
• Here's more Houston info from AB5QR: "From my viewpoint I can always see WD5CWZ-2 WIDE-RELAY in Livingston and usually see WA5LHS-1, N5PAY-2 and N5TAM-2 along with many home base and mobile stations in the Austin area. The other day I saw the fist station I had ever seen in the D/FW area without a gate. I saw AA5WH in Garland with K5QBM-2 in his path."
• Lots of new stations coming on the air. Don't forget to put your name, QTH and e-mail address in your Status Beacon.

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