VK2XB- Indy - truck mobile missing from APRS

 When I occasionally  look around on APRS, I often spot Indy VK2XB mobile somewhere in his big rig (semi-trailer truck), but I havent had time to look around for past 6months, except for my own travelling between new home  in Yass Valley and back to Sydney and have been doing that each week for a few months.

Anyway, back to VK2XB,  I had a look on APRS to see where he travelling and I noticed he hasnt been on APRS since January. I thought, oh I hope nothing bad happened. I did some searches and spotted an article in March on Brisbane Radio Society but not much else. 

VK2XB truck mobile today

 I listening on 40metres, 7.100 a group chatting away, heard Indy VK2XB call into the group, he mobile in the big rig out near Goolgowi and Merriwagga, out western NSW, on way to farm near Hillston

VK2XB/m on the Kandos 40metre Net

 whilst listening to the Kandos 40metre Net on 7.093 this afternoon,  heard Indy VK2XB call in, nice to see him mobile, checked the APRS and sure enough, we can see him mobile in the truck taking some freight to Melbourne. 

VK2XB truck mobile aprs

 

I mentioned some time ago about two truckers I see on APRS, one of them is Ian "Indy" VK2XB ,

here is a video from VK2XB and a magazine article

Radios in "new" (to me) Truck! New job - new truck! (youtube.com)

Meet the truckie who 'yabbers' to cosmonauts (bigrigs.com.au)

APRS and some big trucks

 I often looking at APRS map to see what vehicles or balloon experiments are active on APRS, or following friends who are travelling and using APRS, but also spotting a few regulars, these are truck drivers who I see traversing big distances for their daily work. These are VK2XB and VK2LPC. 

Both use DMR and other modes. I have heard Ian VK2XB call on DMR, but not for a while now. At the times when I did hear Ian calling, I was too busy doing work at my desk to answer him.  I used to work Ian occasionally on our local 2metre rptr when he driving petrol tankers in Sydney many years ago. I think from seeing his APRS path, he might be doing grain haulage and other freight. In recent months I been trying to pay more attention to checking where he is on APRS and listen for him on DMR.

I passed Ian a few months back near Goulburn when I was mobile from Sydney to Albury, I wasn't paying attention to the APRS heard list at time I passed him, I didnt realise until an hour or so later, otherwise I would have flagged him down, or got his attention somehow. 

Similar thing happened earlier last year, we had stopped in at Young, then headed south to Junee and  VK2LPC-14 was returning home, again I wasn't regularly checking APRS Heard list and I think I passed him as he heading home.

Google Maps APRS for VK2XB mobile

Google Maps APRS for VK2LPC-14 mobile