[aprssig] Thundering Silence

[VE7GDH]

Bob WB4APR wrote on 30/05/2005

> With 300,000 motorcycles participating in the
> Rolling Thunder ride on the capital of Wash DC
> today it is disappointing not to see a single
> APRS bike.

Actually, 73 of them were hams and 12 had APRS on board. Of those, 5 had a 
path of RELAY,WIDE5-5 and were ignored because all of the digis and IGates 
had dropped support for RELAY. Another 4 used the same path, but they typed 
the path in while hitting a speed bump and mis-spelled it as REELAY,WIDE5-5. 
The remaining 3 had actually adopted either WIDE2-2 or WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 but 
going over the same speed bump that caused the typos in the path, a power 
connector for the radio became dislodged.

I think that we should all chip in and get a bike for Bob! APRS would 
probably spread like wildfire throughout the group, with everyone checking 
their path (and power connections!) ahead of time. Unfortunately, about 
three years from now, the APRS network would collapse every Memorial Day 
weekend in the Washington DC area with everyone's aloha circle being about 
50 yards during the ride!

All kidding aside though, you are right. With that many people involved, you 
would have thought there would have at least been some APRS representation 
there.

73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"