FRQCOORD.txt APRS AS A FREQUENCY COORDINATION TOOL ver 7.7 This file discusses how to use APRS as a coordination tool for all frequencies and also has a list of coordinated APRS frequencies. First, here is the list of known coordinations: COORDINATED Defacto operations (states dont coordinate packet) --------------- -------------------- Alabama (north) Missouri, Iowa, Illinois Maryland (DMARC) Ohio Virginia (northern, DMARC) Eastern PA Pennsylvania (south, DMARC) Utah New Jersey Georgia Forida Kansas Calif (north) APRS makes an excellent frequency coordination tool. We are using it in the Digital Mid-Atlantic Radio Council to display the location of all packet stations on all frequencies. Individual APRS.BK files are prepared for each digital channel. Loading these backup files gives an instant display of not only the location of all stations on the frequency, but also their radio range using the MAPS-POWER rings display. The interaction of stations and nodes with each other can visually be seen at a glance. To facilitate the organization of these files, we have begun to use the following naming convention. The first 5 characters are used to describe the geographical area, and the remaining characters identify the frequency: MDCVA145.01 MDCVA223.15 MDCVA441.05 MDCVA145.03 MDCVA445.925 .... MDCVA145.79 MDCVAVHF.ALL MDCVA220.ALL MDCVAUHF.ALL These files are distributed to all BBS's so that users can download them and see the current status of the network. Providing this database feedback to users is an important element in good frequency coordination. If the users can get quick and convenient access to the network database via these files, and visually see the topology of the network on all frequencies, then there will be a lot fewer problems with un-coordinated stations popping up in strange and often unwanted places. TO help users find the shortest and most effecient path to the packet network and BBS's, the files are also combined together in three summary files that show all stations on all frequencies in the VHF, 220 and UHF spectrum. ID/POSITION BEACONING ON ALL PACKET FREQUENCIES: To facilitate the distribution of position data to ALL packet users, all BBS's NODES and digipeaters are encouraged to beacon at least once PER HOUR. The beacon should contain a properly formatted APRS position report including the POWER- HEIGHT-GAIN data. The .03 % channel loading penalty for these beacons is insignificant compared to the advantage gained in network management. Any new user can use APRS to monitor any digital channel, and in an evening, gain full knowledge of the actual propogation of network assets at his location. The format is shown in README\PROTOCOL.txt. If you do not want to take the room for the full report, PLEASE at least include your 6 digit grid square [FM19dx]..... as the first 8 characters of your NText or QTC beacon. As long as it is enclosed in BRACKETS and is the first item in the BText, then APRS can place you on the map! DATABASE: Just monitoring these beacons from a single location cannot build the complete files needed, since no one station can hear every station. For this reason, we have requested that all digital SYSOPS in our area, submit the necessary position and power-height-gain data via packet message to our packet frequency coordinator. He maintains a D-BASE data base for easy manipulation of this data. Periodically, he dumps this data into the necessary APRS file format for distribution as the APRS...BK files. IMPORTANT NOTE: Although the above paragraphs give the general idea of how to use APRS as a general purpose Frequency Coordination display tool, it is actually better to save the data as HISTORY files vice BACKUP files. This is because re-loading BACKUP files wipes out what you already have in your P and L lists, while replaying a HISTORY file does a ONE-TIME display without changing anything! This means you can REPLAY a FREQ-COORD file and see all of the local BBS's or whatever you want, superimposed over the existing map display, without messing up what you already have displayed! A second advantage of using the HISTORY files for Frequency Cordination displays is that UNREGISTERED users are NOT limited in their use of REPLAYS. But they are limited to only one page on their P and L lists. By using HISTORY files then for distributing information about the location of stations for general use, permits casual non-registered users to see the full picture.