[aprssig] Track of road trip

[Joel Maslak]

I have to say I'm surprised at how well I was tracked for the trip:

http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/track.cgi? 
call=N7XUC-7&geo=usa.geo&start=500

As you can see, the only major gaps were eastern CO, western NE, much  
of OH, and parts of PA.  Small patches of the track were lost  
elsewhere, including, surprisingly, on my side-excursion from  
Philadelphia to Washington DC.

Some of the rural areas, other than NE and CO, had surprisingly good  
coverage because of a few well placed digis, while some of the more  
populated areas had surprisingly poor coverage (perhaps due to too  
many badly placed digis).  Of course some of the flat areas with low  
traffic levels (Kansas) are easier to cover with a small number of  
good digis than some of the higher traffic, but hilly areas (PA).

But, other than the major gaps in OH/PA/CO/NE, my very long trip had  
great coverage.  I might not have had packets heard every time I  
transmitted, but enough made it into the internet system that  
friends, family, and coworkers have been able to track me.  All of  
the tracking was done with 2m and a path of WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1.  I was  
very surprised with how often the IGates heard me direct, but  
certainly more than two hops - even in remote areas is unnecessary.   
The areas without tracks were areas in which I didn't hear any other  
stations on RF.

Once I got back near Laramie, I heard another ham on VA (the only non- 
fixed station I ever heard on voice alert).  Even though I was worn  
out from the driving, I gave a call on both 144.39 and 146.52, but  
alas did not receive a response to either call.  I'm pretty close to  
concluding that voice alert is next to useless in real life, because  
(1) not many people use it, (2) use by unattended fixed (!) stations,  
and (3) because of the problems inherent in RF communication -  
sometimes things aren't set up exactly right or one person can hear  
the other but not vise-versa.

Before I left, I sent an email out to my department explaining I was  
going on vacation (as is procedure) and included something along the  
lines of, "If you want to see where I am enjoying my vacation, you  
can check out this link..." with a short explanation of APRS and a  
link to some general APRS info on the web.  I also gave a link the  
page I use to describe my car's installation.  I got some personal  
email from several coworkers watching me on the trip (things like,  
"How's Burlington?" and "You're in the middle of a flood zone!"), as  
well as some inquiries into how to become a ham (from one coworker)  
and how to get started in APRS (from another ham that works with  
me).  A friend of mine also found it very interesting and the link I  
sent her ("You can keep track of me on my way to visit you by  
checking...") has caused her to not only begin studying for her Tech  
exam, but also learn 5 WPM code so that she can use HF (I've been  
trying to talk her into going ahead and taking her General exam while  
she's at it).

I also did a short demo of ham radio which I mentioned here before at  
an event I attended.  That was well received as well.  People are  
interested in people that do weird things like track themselves in a  
society where everyone's trying to avoid having the government track  
them.  ;)

So I know that "tracking people's cars on the internet" is one of the  
things that some don't particularly like to see used as a major use  
of APRS, but if we get a new ham or two and another ham interested in  
APRS, I'm not sure it was a bad use.  After all, it's okay to do ham  
radio for things other than emergency services, such as simply having  
fun and being able to say, "Look at the cool technology I'm using."   
My answer to "why do you track your car," has been and will continue  
to be "because I can!"  I don't need to talk about the unlikely use  
of my vehicle in an emergency or public service event, I can talk  
about simply enjoying sending stuff over the radio waves.  :)  Of  
course I mention other uses of ham radio besides just "fun" stuff,  
but the "fun" stuff is why many of us got involved initially and it  
can still attract new hams!  (as I'm sure the emergency services  
stuff does too; Different people want different things out of their  
hobbies)

One long road trip with my APRS setup running and a few emails sent  
by me has possibly gotten one ham to become active again in a new  
area (for him) of ham radio and has encouraged two others to start  
the process of becoming a ham.  Not bad for something "pointless"  
like tracking the vehicle I use to commute to and from work.  :)

In summary, I'd encourage people to do "little" things like promoting  
their hobby a little bit in appropriate ways.  You might be surprised  
how well received it really is.  The only thing that will keep ham  
radio alive is new hams coming into the hobby.  Even if APRS is only  
a minor interest, or the new ham never sends out a single packet, it  
will make it that much easier to argue that we need our spectrum.