Monday, March 5, 2018

#APRS on HF with APRS Messenger weekend review

Well, over the weekend there was only one station consistently in my heard list OH8STN. Finally just before closing the station sunday evening my neighbour PA4GB popped up on the screen and heard list as well. We exchanged some messages in MFSK16 and GMSK250. So unfortunate actually the only international station heard was OH8STN Julian from Finland, we exchanged some messages on both saturday and sunday. Actually Julian and I seem to have a very reliable path every day around 1400-1500 UTC although today I already heard him strong in the morning as well. Late in the evening I saw some weak PSK-63 traces in the waterfall but APRS messenger didn't decode any of them therefore I have questionmarks about the receiving ability of the program. According APRS.fi I was heard in Romania and Puerto Rico. Not bad for 25W. Antenna first day was my inverted-V 2x20m apex 12m, the second day I used my 7m long multiband vertical at 9m agl. Interesting to see some of the participating stations had more luck then others. 30m is not really the band for short skip at least not in Europe. Personally I hoped for some spots from USA/Canada but unfortunately it didn't happen. However I found it interesting to test the software over the weekend. Not shure it could be useful in the field however. Though for contacts inside europe it probabely would be better to use the 80m or 40m band.



The heard list is not complete as I know OH8STN, PA1SDB and PA4GB did receive me as well. Why they don't show here is not clear to me?

No comments: