[aprssig] APRS at Dayton

[Robert Bruninga]

To Dayton, we also need all SYSOPS within 500 miles of Dayton to
make sure their DIGI is putting out the LOCAL recommended
Travelers Repeater freq objects to inform all travelers where to
find other travelers.  
These objects show up on the front panel of the APRS radios and
the HAMhud.  See the details on:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/localinfo.html

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Bruninga 
> Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 11:51 AM
> 
> The Good news:  Dayton has excellent APRS coverage potential 
> for Hamvention with existing stations and hardware.  Only new
> hardware needed is an Igate that is simplex to the arena.
> 
> The Bad news:  A quick look on FINDU reveals that less than
10%
> of the digis in and around Dayton are New-N compliant.
Without
> New-N, it is impossible for users or anyone looking at FINDU
to
> tell what the local Dayton network supports:
> 
> > 30% lack any PHG antenna height info
> > 80% don't show their path support "W#" or "W11"?
> > 20% still using RELAY and WIDE
> 
> TYPE CALL    HAAT DIS DIR Comments
> ---- ------- ---- --- --- --------------------------------
> DIGI W8GUC   160'  4  NE  No new-N, no path info, no Ovrly
> Home WA8ZWJ   40'  8  NW  no indication of W1-1 support
> Home KA8C     20'  8  E   no indication of W1-1 support
> Home N8QNM     ?   8  NW  no indication of W1-1 support
> Home WA8VIW   80' 12  S   no indication of W1-1 support
> DIGI KC8QBL-3  ?  19  SE  no PHG no New-N no path info 
> DIGI WB8BLV  160' 19  SW  New-N with "S" overlay, shows W3
> DIGI KC8KQE   40' 31  NE  home stn, no new-N, no info
> DIGI WA8SDF-1  ?  32  SW  no new-N no info, no W1-1?
> DIGI KC9CJJ-3 40' 36  W   New-N. recommends "W3"
> DIGI KA8ZNY10 160' 40 SE  old W-R-T, no New-N no W1-1
>  
> Simple fixes for Dayton Hamvention:
> 
> 1) Have all HOME stations support WIDE1-1 as an ALIAS. 
> 2) Have home digis show "W11" at start of position txt.
> 3) Have W8GUC support only W1-1 during hamvention weekend 
>    and keep its current "support" whether W# or W11 always 
>    updated in its position text.
> 4) put Overlays on all digis and include W# or W11 in texts
> 
> The nomencalture "W#" means for the digi to indicate the 
> maximum number of hops recommended in the area.  If that is 
> 2 hops, then put in "W2" if it is 3 hops, then "W3".  Only 
> if it is unlimited use "Wn".
> 
> The absence of any HIGH and wide area digis is ideal for a 
> high density situation like Hamvention, since it avoides the 
> problem of bringing in too much out-of-area QRM.  But this 
> then requires many home station or fill-in WIDE1-1 digis.  It 
> appears to me that two more home-stations or fill-in W1-1's 
> are needed to the SW and SE about 8 miles or so.
> 
> Is there anyone local to Dayton that will take on these
> challenges, at least to contact all of the above stations 
> and do the simple changes to W1-1 support, and update 
> position-texts PHG's and W#'s so that the network is self-
> explanitory?
> 
> Thanks.
> Bob, WB4APR
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > On Behalf Of Robert Bruninga
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 10:24 AM
> > 
> > I hope to go to Dayton this year and see lots of APRS...
> > I hope all travelers will set for VoiceAlert while enroute.
> > 
> > The operations of APRS in the center of Dayton can be 
> > greatly enhanced by just a few SYSOP settings at the major 
> > DIGI's in the area.  With these remote-sysop settings, 
> > hundreds of APRS mobiles can be accomodated.    See:
> > 
> > http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs/dayton.txt
> > 
> > Do we have the Dayton SYSOPS on here?  Do they see this 
> > as a viable approach?  Who can guarantee an Igate in simplex

> > range of HARA arena?
> > 
> > Mobiles do *not* need to change their mobile settings 
> > enroute Dayton, assuming they are using the receomended 
> > New-N settings already (WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 or 2-2).  That is 
> > the power of the New-N paradigm is that the local SYSOPS 
> > can make a few simle changes to accommodate these hundreds 
> > of users without expecting the users to change anything.
> > 
> > Either 1) TURN OFF your tracker when parked,  or 2) Set 
> > packet rate to 30 minutes while parked.  At Dayton, it is 
> > nice to see parked vehicles on all the screens, but only 
> > at the low 30 minute rate.
> > 
> > Since 52 will be useless, do we want to designate another
> > simplex APRS Voice frequency in the immediate area?  Why 
> > not the 445.925 alternate APRS channel?
> > 
> > Anything else?
> > 
> > Bob, Wb4APR