MB7UBN - APRS Igate for Bolton and north Manchester
MB7UBN - APRS Igate for Bolton and north Manchester
Recently we set up an internet gateway or Igate for the worldwide amateur radio APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) network to provide coverage for the Bolton and north Manchester area.
APRS is an international network of amateur radio stations providing real-time GPS based vehicle or event position reporting, weather reporting and simple message handling for educational, experimental or emergency use. APRS uses a common radio frequency of 144.800 MHz throughout Europe. An internet gateway provides a two-way port to the internet so that stations local to the gateway can be seen by others via the internet using APRS viewing programs such as Xastir or UI-View. The Bolton Igate MB7UBN is widely used by members of the local RAYNET amateur radio emergency communications group.
A selection of older "obsolete" equipment have been used to build the gateway and this web page has been written to encourage other radio amateurs to build similar APRS Igates.
The radio transceiver used is a Simoco PRM80. This has been set up on 144.800 MHz and provides about 16 Watts of RF power at the antenna, a Sharmans X-200 colinear omni-directional antenna. A Kantronics KPC-3 TNC unit sourced via eBay is used to interface the radio transceiver to the computer, a Panasonic CF-25 Toughbook PC (166 MHz Pentium 2 with 128 MB RAM) with Wi-fi access over our office network to a broadband internet connection.
In May 2007 the Igate computer was changed to a Panasonic Toughbook CF-25 Mk 3 using UI-View running on Windows 2000. This allowed the Igate to be set up as a full digipeater as well as an Igate. This was to provide an additional service to local Greater Manchester RAYNET members. The digipeater was set to repeat on RELAY, RAYNET, TRACE and WIDE so that packets from any APRS setup could be digipeated for emergency traffic even if it didn't meet the latest European APRS specification.
LATEST NEWS 17 December 2009
For about 18 months a receive only HF igate on 30m (10.1492 / 10.1494 MHz 300 bd) was running using an Icom IC-R71E receiver, Kantronics KAM Plus TNC and a horizontal dipole. This has now been replaced by a Yaesu FT-747GX transceiver with a ground mounted quarter wave vertical antenna. This is usually used on receive only but it can be switched to transmit as well when it's being manned. The callsign for the 30m igate is G4HYG-1.
LATEST NEWS 21 December 2008
Standard Guidelines for APRS in IARU Region 1
Latest APRS guidelines for IARU Region 1 from the recent Conference...please check that your APRS set-up is upto date.
Use WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2 for mobile trackers; WIDE2-2 for fixed stations and WIDE2-1 for Igates
Andy Pritchard M0CYP has written it all up in great detail on his website where he includes a tool to let you work out the correct new digi settings for UI-View. Click here to see his webpage.
You can check progress of the change in the UK using Andy's APRS network analysis tool by clicking here.
The callsign MB7UBN has been issued by Ofcom as a Notice of Variation for unattended 24 hour operation on the amateur radio callsign G4HYG held by Chris Moulding. Contact Chris via info@
Click here to see where Chris is using APRS on 144.800 or 145.825 MHz!
Click here to see where Chris is using HF APRS on 10.1492 MHz!
Click here to view recent APRS users of the MB7UBN Igate.
APRS is a trademark of Bob Bruninga, amateur radio callsign WB4APR. Click here to view Bob's website.