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  • Anyone in COARC?

    From August Abolins@2:221/6 to All on Wed Nov 17 02:43:30 2021
    Does anyone here know anyone in the Central Ontario Amateur Radio Club?

    I'm inquiring on behalf of a friend who writes:

    "I did a bit of research on VA3FOY-3 near Beechmount, and it appears
    to have a fairly good TX reach (it is reaching the internet from a
    pair of nodes near Peterborough - VE3RWN and VA3KMC), but it does
    not seem to be receiving anything in your area or elsewhere.
    Not sure what's up with that....

    https://www.aprsdirect.com/details/main/sid/2786969
    It is located at 4504.18N/07758.22W == lat= 45.0696667
    lon=-77.9703333. "

    Above, "in your area", he's referring to the Bancroft area.

    The COARC website (http://coarc.on.ca/)is very skimpy on contact details, or I just didn't see anything.
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    * Origin: nntp://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/6.0)
  • From August Abolins@2:221/6 to All on Wed Nov 17 02:54:06 2021
    I forgot to add a few more of his comments:

    "The odd thing is that when you look at the statistics panel for VE3FOY-3 on this website, there are lots of other APRS nodes receiving what it transmits, but NONE listed that are heard by this digipeater.

    "That could mean that this digipeater has no receiver OR a broken RF receive path, OR simply has not heard any other APRS nodes (local or remote) because none have ever entered its RX coverage range this month (ie. all local APRS traffic was blocked by local hills or the RX antenna is directed at a specific area or the sky for satellite comms with the ISS).

    "I can only guess what info this particular digipeater is transmitting other that its own position and status. The receiver on this digipeater may be fine, just awaiting a natural disaster or search and rescue effort in its intended coverage area to service.

    "Sadly the expected coverage area is not announced in its status message. The APRS nodes that I maintain announce their expected coverage area by indicating the type and height of the antenna and transmit power level, for instance.

    "The callsign seems to be also assoicated with a VHF repeater run by COARC (Central Ontario Amateur Radio Club)."

    "My guess would be that the receive path is temporarily (long term) somehow broken or noone bothers with APRS there...

    "It may still be run by the local ham club, or maybe the digipeater owner now has a particular purpose in mind that is not publicly announced.
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    * Origin: nntp://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/6.0)