Upgrading APRS on the Outer Banks
Sun 28 June 2020
I recently had the opportunity to help a friend update the APRS digipeater in Buxton, NC. The digipeater has been in service for around fifteen years and during those years a few things have changed.
The digipeater used to transmit weather data from an Ultimeter weather station. That weather station was taken out of service many years ago but the digipeater was still attempting to transmit empty weather packets. The system also hadn’t been updated for the latest N-n paradigm, as recommended by Bob Bruninga, WB3APR.
Luckily, the fix was fast (only took two trips to the tower site…) and now BUXTON lives on with the latest settings. The digipeater is also transmitting two objects: 145.150BX and 444.925BX. These two repeaters are the main systems for the area and include net information as well as range of the systems.
An additional digipeater, WAVES, will hopefully be on the air soon, helping to fill the gap on the north side of Hatteras Island.