Tuesday 30 December 2014

If you want to make a comment

I see that only members of the Blog are allowed to comment on a post. I cannot find a setting that would allow comments. I am not to sure that allowing unrestricted comments by anybody and everybody would be a good idea either.
So, if you would like to make a comment about a post, send an email to 2e1ejc@dpars.net with the subject "Comment for the DPARS APRS Blog".
If the comment does not upset the many rules we have to abide by, I will then post the comment on the Blog.

Monday 29 December 2014



Here is a map, taken from www.aprs.fi, showing my travels today.
It seems I travelled a few miles, but I did stop for a Macdonalds (other fast food chains are available) on the way. It was worth it just to get back a map full of stations!

G0ROZ-3 Sorted

After sorting out M1ABD I took a drive up to Eggardon Hill. I picked up the keys, but when I got up to site I found I had the wrong keys! On the way back down to Dorchester, Bob (G6DZM) called me up on the radio and I had to admit my mistake! It is my age you know!!
When I finally got into site, I found the computer was completely locked up. I had to switch the power off before it would re-boot. Once it re-booted itself there was no sign of a fault and G0ROZ-3 was back on air.
I did notice that the keyboard was not working (The only thing I do not carry a spare of!) but whether that was the cause of the problem or not I could not tell.
Hopefully it will keep running until I can get a new keyboard up there.

M1ABD-3 appeared back on the map again. It looks like I cannot see it from home unless it digi's through M1ABD or G0ROZ-3 first.
I used to be able to see it direct, so I will have to go and check out the system very shortly to see if there is a fault.

M1ABD Sorted

The computer at M1ABD was showing a window that said it could not open the COM port. It must have failed to shut it down when it did the auto-reboot on Sunday morning. A re-boot of the computer put it right and M1ABD is back in action again.
Now on to Eggardon Hill and try to sort out G0ROZ-3.

Sunday 28 December 2014

More Problems

M1ABD, M1ABD-3 and G0ROZ-3 were all missing from the map again this morning.
I have to go to London today so I will not be able to get around and fix them all. I will do this on Monday.
We will have to look an almost empty map for now. :-(

Saturday 27 December 2014

M1ABD-3 has re-appeared on the map. They must have been running on generator since last night. The APRS kit only runs on non-essential supply and does not get generated power.
Only G0ROZ-3 to be sorted out now. :-)
Back from the trip up the hill. It appears that the TNC had become confused and was only showing a busy light. A quick reset of the TNC and it burst back into life again.
I now see that M1ABD-3 and G0ROZ-3 are off the map. www.aprs.fi says that they both last transmitted at about 2330 Hours last night. I don't believe that all three stations went off air at the same time!
I will wait and see if the auto-restart  sorts the problem out. If not I am in for a bit of a drive around the County.
Once again I woke up to find an almost empty APRS map. Just 2E1EJC and G4RS plus a few other station North of me. A check on www.aprs.fi showed that the last beacon from M1ABD was heard at 2342 Hours last night. It just so happens that we had a brief power outage around the same time in Blandford Forum. It would appear that, once again, a flaky power supply has confused the computer at M1ABD and, once again, it had occurred during the night.
I will take a trip up the icy slopes of Bullbarrow Hill once I have had my Weetabix (other breakfast cereals are available) and my second cup of tea.

Thursday 18 December 2014

M1ABD vanished from the map at around 1700 Hours last night (Why does it always stop working just as it gets dark?). I took a trip up the hill this morning and found the computer turned off. I re-booted the computer and all appeared to be well, although there was no indication of what caused the problem in the first place.
Two hours later M1ABD stopped working again. Once again I took a trip up the hill. This time the radio and TNC was off and the UPS had an alarm showing. I was unable to clear the alarm or turn the UPS back on again. So I disconnected the UPS and ran the power supply direct from the mains. The radio and the TNC burst back into life and all appeared to be working again.
I have brought the UPS back to the workshops to try and find what the fault is. I suspect the batteries are no longer holding a charge, but I will run some tests to make sure.