APRS Digipeating and Path Selection 101

[DaveK]

I can see him:

http://aprs.fi/?call=W6LPB&mt=m&z=11&timerange=3600

For some reason on my computer the website only shown his position icon when using Internet Explorer. When using Firefox, the map centers on the same location, but no icon is shown.

I presume that is his shop.

What you are seeing is his last position on 4/14/09.

[cruiserlarry]

Our last board meeting was in March.

My point, however inaccurately stated, was I have been out since with others who can see me on their radio/laptop... and I have a VX8R with APRS/GPS that sees my vehicle...anyway, we'll have to check it out and see what might need to be changed; The whole scenario of choosing a digipeater path is something I need to be better educated about...

[unwiredadventures]

So, again, what would be the best path to use for local LA communications? WIDE1,1, WIDE2,2 ?

"standard recommended WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 path"

[hmfigueroa]

So, for those of us who are now thoroughly confused, is there a suggested digipeater path statement to use ?

I am currently using Wide2,2; should that be changed ?

I still stand by Wide2-2 If you look at the article that Ollie posted.

Today's recommended universal path settings under the "New Paradigm" are:
WIDE1-1, WIDE2-2 (Will produce three hops and will take advantage of home fill-in digis. Use in rural areas with low APRS activity only.)
WIDE1-1, WIDE2-1 (Will produce two hops and will take advantage of home fill-in digis. Use in busy urban and suburban areas.)
WIDE2-2 (Shortest path string. Produces two hops by directly using two high-level digis. Will work almost anywhere but especially recommended in the American west where high-level digipeaters are really high-level; i.e. on mountain tops thousands and thousands of feet above users, and can easily be reached directly without the help of home stations.)

In packet radio a packet sent and not decoded is all QRM in an area like Southern California where there are multiple Wide1-1 (low level relay) digipeaters you are more likely to encounter a "hidden node" collision which will effectively kill your report before it can get anywhere. The report will be longer and more prone to fail.

Using only the high level digi's only is doing the workhorse job of getting your packet out where the major players can hear each other and thus not interfere with each other. it is more likely to get your position report or message into an igate.

[OLLIE]

Hector,

Would you still recommend WIDE2-2 when we're all running around on the desert keeping track of each other or something else?

[hmfigueroa]

In the desert there are not many if any low level wide1-1 digipeaters so it will die there. The minimum would be wide2-2 or actually wide2-1 would give you one high level wide hop.

If you are only interested in monitoring a local group, no digipeaters at all are necessary if you are all in the same area. If you want to get a track out to the APRS-IS then at least two digi hops are needed.

[OLLIE]

In the desert there are not many if any low level wide1-1 digipeaters so it will die there. The minimum would be wide2-2 or actually wide2-1 would give you one high level wide hop,

I guess that makes sense. Thanks

[cruiserlarry]

I had both my handheld and mobile APRS units running today - they recognize and ping each other, both show up on UI-View 32, and on the VX8R display, but nothing on aprs.fi ...so there must be something I need to still set up - an IGate in the path - to get it to show up on the internet...

(I'm still a little confused if you can't already tell.... )

[hmfigueroa]

I had both my handheld and mobile APRS units running today - they recognize and ping each other, both show up on UI-View 32, and on the VX8R display, but nothing on aprs.fi ...so there must be something I need to still set up - an IGate in the path - to get it to show up on the internet...

(I'm still a little confused if you can't already tell.... )

OK Larry it may be that the path sentence in UI-view32 is not set properly

Under Setup, Station setup the Unptoto path should read

APRS,WIDE2-2

Give that a shot and we can work from there.

[sdnative]

In the desert there are not many if any low level wide1-1 digipeaters so it will die there. The minimum would be wide2-2 or actually wide2-1 would give you one high level wide hop.

If there are no low level wide 1-1 repeaters in an area, wouldn't the Wide1-1,Wide2-1 just default to a Wide2-2 (or similar) as most if not all high level wide repeaters will respond to a Wide1-1?

I will give Wide2-2 a try and see if I get better coverage out in the desert.