TRIPS

On July 18th 2010, OD5KU, Elie, left OD Land to Europe by plane and joined with friends to pick up their bikes that were shipped earlier by sea container. Tracking started on the 19th the same day they took delivery of their bikes.
You can follow the tour of Slovenia Croatia Montenegro and back to Venice in Italy on APRS.  Elie will be riding with 4 other friends on mountain and coastal roads from the 19th of July till August 2nd
You can track them and see some pictures that they are sending on http://ku.od5.org

WEIRD STORIES

It was with deep sorrow that we tracked John, OD5RW's car being stolen and taken to the Bekaa on July 10th 2010.  APRS stopped on the highest peak at 1800m before the theives dropped to the other side of the mountain.  The tracking was possible thanks to the 5B land digipeaters and server.  The track and route stored on aprs.fi helped the authorities to catch the mob 3 days later when they used the same road to smuggle other cars.  John's car unfortunatly has not been found to date.  
You can still see the last track of the stolen car on :
http://aprs.fi/?call=od5rw-9&mt=roadmap&z=11&timerange=3600

AIS

The AIS server covering all eastern mediterranean is finally up and running in its TEST PERIOD by OD5RW.
You can check all ships locations in realtime on the server :
http://ais.od5.org
All information on this server are being gatewayed to http://aprs.fi where you can see, all the ships near Lebanon on APRS too.
The AIS information include:
-The name of the ship
-The length, width and draught of the ship in meters
-The MMSI number
-The IMO number
-The products carried by the ship
-The Estimated date and time of Arrival

DIGIPEATERS

The Lebanon server has been moved back to Tabarja on the 14th of July 2010
it has been working perfectly since. 

OD5RW-6 in Bteddine has been dismantled for good this time.

OD5RW-3 Maad is down since that last disastrous lightning strike that took away radio, TNC, Power supply, and even electric cables in the walls off.

OD5SX-5 iGATE in the north of Lebanon is online again after being fixed by Nabil on his last visit OD5 land

OD5KU-3 is down from time to time because of battery failure.  The radio seems to go to 145.000 when power is recycled.

Jabal Safi Digipeater is finally online thanks to the efforts of OD5TR, OD5RW and OD5KU. The coverage is amazing ranging from TYR, Western Bekaa, Faraya, Ballouneh, Ras Beirut.

The Bteddine Digipeater that stopped during the last storm was repaired by changing the final power module of the radio. The digi's test were completed.  Awaiting OD5KM to install it back in Bteddine once he has the time.

The first SATGATE in the region is finally up. Now we can extend the coverage by digipeating packets from the international space station (ISS) whenever it is over Lebanon.

The APRS clinic held on the 2nd of February was a success. Those who attended took a real bite in the APRS field. For those who missed it, they can still contact us for private "APRS coffee breaks" 
Click here for some photos of this event.

The Photo Gallery of this site has been updated. 
Just click on "Pictures and Videos" in the Left Menu to access it

COVERAGE NEEDED

Bekaa Digipeater is packed-up and ready to be sent to the town of KAMED in the western Bekaa with a line of sight to Zahlé. We are waiting for OD5UT to come back from JY land to install it. 

MANPOWER NEEDED

OD5UT will be needing some help to install an antenna for the new digipeater in the western Bekaa town of Kamed very soon

FUTURE PROJECTS

                              
           Balloon: OD5RW is preparing his first APRS high altitude balloon, the payload, power, tracker and telemetry are ready, but any help on controlling a timer controlled digital photo camera inside the balloon would be appreciated.

          Hamraft:  OD5RW is preparing a raft that will be left drifting in the mediterranean while transmitting information about it location, speed, visibility and the temperature of the water.   Tests will start in April.  All help concerning powering the raft with continuous 12V 1000mA is welcome.

AIM

Our main AIM was, and still is, to cover the whole OD5 land with APRS.