Click on the buttons below to go to the
various
WA8LMF APRS mapping webservers.
These mapping displays are generated
by multiple instances of UI-View32 and it's companion UI-Webserver
program running on one computer.
|
30 Meters HF
60 Meters HF
Special
Events Webserver
Typically used for balloon
launches, hamfests, etc. When not showing anything specific,
this page shows the APRS Internet System (APRS-IS) feed for Michigan and
surrounding
areas, combined with off-air receive from my location in Haslett, MI.
Traverse
City Area - 2 Meters
Expanded views of
the northwestern Lower Peninsula of
Michigan & Traverse City area from the APRS-IS feed. These
are large high-resolution map images - larger than most
browser windows. Scroll around to see all parts of the maps.
IARU
Beacons Monitor
Real-Time
Monitoring of the 20, 17, 15, 12
and 10-meter IARU HF Propagation Beacons.
NOTE
1: This webserver
is using
TCP/IP ports14439, 14441, 14443, 14445 & 14447 rather than the customary port 80 for http .
As a result, you may not be able to access it from some corporate or government
Internet connections that severely firewall or otherwise restrict access to
uncommon port numbers.
NOTE
2: Radio propagation (i.e. reception) on 30 and 60 meters HF is highly sensitive to the level of solar
activity. When the solar X-ray flux plotted on the graph below has a
baseline above the first major division, or spikes
upward (i.e. a solar flare), 30 meters will have very poor conditions, or black out completely, causing very few (or no stations at
all) to show on the HF map.
X-ray radiation from the sun travels at the speed of light, reaching the earth
in about 8 minutes. When these intense blasts of X-rays reach the
earth, they can temporarily disrupt the ionized layers of the earth's upper
atmosphere (the ionosphere). These layers are responsible for reflecting
long-range (beyond the horizon) HF radio signals back to earth. The result
is a weakening or even complete fade-out of HF radio signals.
Real-Time Solar Activity Monitor (Last 72 Hours)
(Courtesy of US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
at
https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/images/swx-overview-large.gif
More solar activity information.
The changing values on this display are, again, due to the
ever-changing flow of energy and charged particles from the sun.
Courtesy of Paul L Herrman N0NBH
http://www.hamqsl.com/solar.html
| We hit the rock-bottom of the roughly
11-year-long solar activity cycle at the beginning of 2020. We are now
on the upswing, promising better conditions on the higher HF bands over
the next several years.
The graph below shows sunspot count, which
directly affects long-range (beyond the horizon) HF radio transmission
here on earth. |
Still more solar activity information
presented in the style of a local TV weather forecast.
Background on the WA8LMF Webserver Setup
The WA8LMF APRS webserver produces multiple map displays.
- The HF page displays 30-meter
(10.149 MHz) HF
APRS activity. This is live off-the-air (RF-only) as heard in Haslett, Michigan
(near East Lansing, MI); i.e. no Internet APRS feed.
- The VHF page displays live off-the-air
(RF-only) two-meters activity on 144.39 MHz, as heard in Haslett, MI; i.e. no Internet APRS feed. Three
additional maps show expanded detail in the Greater Detroit area, the
Lansing-East Lansing area and the Michigan State University campus.
- The ISS "satgate" page displays the
current position of the International Space Station and it's radio footprint
on the ground, in real time, as received from KJ4ERJ's Internet feed.
When the station passes within range of my receive system in Haslett, MI, (typically
500-800 miles / 800-1200 km), live off-the-air (RF-only)
position reports from stations on the ground, relayed through the station's
digipeater on 145.825 MHz, are plotted on the map.
- The Special Events page is used for ham fests,
balloon launches and other one-time events. It usually
produces two maps: One shows the vicinity of the event at county or state
level; the other is a close-up aerial photo view of the venue.
These displays are generated by 11 copies of UIview
running simultaneously on the same computer. They are served by the UI-Webserver
component of five of those copies of UI-View32 The VHF, ISS "Satgate",
Special Event and 60-meter instances are running in 4 separate VMware virtual machines using micro-Server2003. The HF page is
running directly on the Win7-64 host. All instances are connected to APRS Internet servers using filter ports
set to receive JUST my own callsigns, the ISS space station object, and the US
National Weather Service feed. All stations heard off-the-air in all instances are passed to the APRS Internet System; i.e. all instances
function as igates.
The computer's internal sound system is used for
EchoLink. All the APRS receive and transmit on the various bands is being
handled by three separate Behringer UCA-202
USB external sound cards.
- 30M HF is being received with the left channel of a
copy of the UZ7HO "Soundmodem"
software packet TNC, and a Yaesu
FT-891 transceiver connected to a homebrew magnetic loop antenna.
- 60M HF is being received with the right channel of
the same copy of the Soundmodem and a second FT-891.
- 2M VHF is being received with the left channel
of a second copy of the UZ7HO Soundmodem, and a Kenwood TM-211 transceiver connected to a
Comet 2M/UHF 19' "SuperGainer" collinear.
- The space station is being received with the
right channel of the second copy of the UZ7HO Soundmodem, a Kenwood TM-221
two-meter monobander and a homebrew "Texas
Potato Masher" satellite antenna (a variation on the M2 "Eggbeater"
antenna).
- The special events page is normally generated by an
IP link to the 2M VHF Soundmodem and/or an APRS Internet feed, rather than directly off the air with
it's own radio and TNC.
All instances of UIview are set to
capture and date-time-stamp an image of their map automatically every 1 minute.
- Instance 1, a.k.a "US 30M HF", shows a
static map (captured from Precision Mapping 9.0) of the entire continental U.S. and the southern part of Canada. From time to time, this may be pre-empted by a live
dynamic map for a special event such as a balloon launch.
- Instance 2, a.k.a. "Central Michigan 144.39
MHz", shows a static map (captured from Precision Mapping 9.0) showing
the southern half of the lower peninsula of Michigan and surrounding areas,
from Chicago, Illinois in the west
to Cleveland, Ohio in the east. This is an area about 340 miles (about 540 KM)
across west-to-east. Two meter tropo openings are evident on this map,
when stations start appearing from the western shore of Lake Michigan, and
from east of London, Ontario or Cleveland.
- Instance 3, a.k.a. "Tracking ISS" shows a
static map of the US and southern Canada. This instance also serves a
screen cap of the "Orbitron" satellite tracking program that shows the
current location of the ISS and it's next two orbits on a world map. This
screen cap is updated once a minute.
All of this, along with EchoLink, mmSSTV and
EasyPal "digital" SSTV is running on an Acer E3-111-P60S 11.8" "netbook" PC dedicated to 24/7
"Ham SuperServer" duty. (Review here)
