I have placed my FT-2900R and an old i3 laptop into digipeater/igate operation in order to fill in some of the APRS gap in Huntsville. I noticed there was no APRS coverage over here, so I have set out to change that.

From what http://aprs.fi [1] shows, I have about a 10.8km range and have received station from up to 15km away at times. (Not counting the stations from 100km+ away cause those aren't daily and tend to happen only early mornings....)

If you have any two meter gear lying around collecting dust, I would suggest setting it up as a digipeater/igate and giving it a new life. If you need a TNC, there's direwolf for the PC or I can flash an Arduino Uno to work as a TNC for you.

Hopefully as time goes on, I can make another station and work with the town to place it somewhere like the lookout for better coverage.

I know this isn't much, but I am doing what I can to give back to the wonderful hobby that we all share.

Coverage: https://aprs.fi/#!v=gated&call=a/VE3MOW-11&timerange=9600&tail=9600 [2]

Station: https://m.imgur.com/a/H8Lson0 [3]