[aprssig] Kansas APRS SAR?

[Jim Duncan]

Ian wrote:

> What does it mean to "coordinate" a digipeater? Are these all WIDE digis
> with enough distance between them?
> 
> 73, Ian N8IK 

I'll answer that one... Back in 1994 the major digipeater owners in 
western Missouri and south/southwest Iowa met at a truck stop in 
Eagleville, Missouri. The purpose of that meeting was to coordinate our 
digipeater placements so we could manage the number of WIDE's and place 
them in strategic locations (high ground, good antennas, reasonable 
spacing). At this time APRS was in its infancy in this region of the 
country.

KU0G (your humble responder) was User #1 in the Kansas City area, first 
going on-the-air in January, 1993. That was soon followed by the 
installation of Kansas City's first WIDE (WV0T-9). Mike Rosenbloom 
(N0GGU) and another ham related to him (I think it was his dad but don't 
hold me to that) already had a system of four WIDES covering the area 
from Graham, MO, well up into Iowa. We all got together and discussed 
how best to cover the primary highways to allow a mobile to pick up 
coverage from the next WIDE just as he would be running out of the 
coverage circle of the last one. From those plans grew the first 
"coordination" of APRS Digipeaters (anywhere in the U.S. that I'm aware of).

Shortly after this (January, 1995) a group of interest hams met in my 
home and chartered the Kansas City APRS Working Group and established 
the club to promote APRS and help build the network of digipeaters in 
this area. We also established the KCAWG website at www.kcaprs.org. 
Unfortunately, being not too familiar with domain name ownership our 
domain name was not registered as OWNED by the club and after an effort 
on the club's part to migrate to a new server we were locked out by the 
gentleman (and I use that term LOOSELY) who had been providing the 
website server space. He refused to relinquish control and we didn't 
have the $2000 up-front bond required to initiate a dispute of ownership 
with ICATE (is that the right acronym for the people who control all 
domains and so forth?).

Fast forward to 2002... By this time there were a number of digipeaters 
starting to crop up and KCAWG began serving as a coordinating body for 
APRS digipeaters. While nobody was ever turned down, we wanted to ensure 
that we didn't end up with a WIDE on every corner and that such 
digipeaters would meet certain coverage standards before being certified 
as "coordinated." KCAWG was loosely responsible for coordinating 
digipeaters within a 120 mile radius of Kansas City. While we really 
weren't interested in anything beyond a reasonable reach of KC, 
primarily because we didn't feel that it was appropriate to reach beyond 
the range of our primary operating area we did end up as somewhat of a 
clearing house for APRS digipeaters in Missouri and Kansas.

Just prior to the highjacking of the clubs website and domain name we 
had actually begun formally registering digipeaters, hence the table 
your see in the current website. The initial information in that table 
was started by me in 2000. They even had the audacity to place the 
KCAWG's callsign (W0APR) on their website trying to make it look like 
just a friendly change of direction by the club. Needless to say, they 
were told to remove the call as they were not approved to use it by the 
KCAWG (which still exists, on paper at least!).

FWIW: I had a "keep my mouth shut" agreement (verbal) with the guys who 
instigated the website take-over (they weren't even members of KCAWG!) 
which was given with the understanding that at a point six months to a 
year down the road that I would be brought into the "new organization." 
Suffice it to say, THEIR part of the bargain hasn't been kept and I no 
longer feel any particular reason to keep my end after waiting for 3 
years for an invitation that is obviously not coming nor was probably 
never planned to come!

OK, that's probably a MUCH longer answer than you wanted but, as Paul 
Harvey says: "Now you know the REST of the story!"

Jim Duncan, KU0G
Chairman and Coordinator
Kansas City APRS Working Group

P.S. Now people will understand a little more why I have been very low 
key on APRS the past three years (of course graduate school and two 
advanced degrees played SOME part!)...