A while back I installed QSNL39, a fill-in digipeater operating in Quesnel BC in 144.390Mhz. Due to it’s location it fills in the bowl very well, however it is not heard well (unknown why) by the Milburn Mountain machine.

I am now prepping a spare old laptop (using this as it comes with a built in UPS). I am adding the APRX software as it is a nice light weight linux digi that interfaces nicely with KISS TNCs. Currently the TNC-X I am using has a X-Digi Daughter board which is controlling the TNC, and I am unsure if I will continue to use it, or have the APRX software do all the controlling for. At this point, I expect I will be removing the board.

Installing APRX is very simple, here’s how simple:

cd /tmp
sudo wget http://ham.zmailer.org/oh2mqk/aprx/aprx_2.07.539-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i aprx_2.07.539-1_i386.deb
cd /etc
sudo vim aprx.conf

From here, I edited a few lines of config to suit my install

mycall VE7WNK-2
myloc lat 5258.77N lon 12229.61W
server bc.aprs2.net
<interface>
..serial-device /dev/ttyS0 19200 8n1 KISS
..callsign $mycall # callsign defaults to $mycall
..tx-ok true # transmitter enable defaults to false
</interface>
<beacon>
..beacon symbol "I#" $myloc comment "VE7WNK Quesnel Bowl Digi"
</beacon>
<digipeater>
..transmitter $mycall
..<source>
....source $mycall
..</source>
</digipeater>

 

Next, I saved the config and restarted the process as follows:

/etc/init.d/aprx restart

Next, I checked ARPS.fi to ensure that it was there, and sure enough, after about 20 seconds it appeared.

Once I have the unit installed I will be able to publish more information. I am excited to have this running and can not wait to see it in action.