[aprssig] HAMFESTS and APRS

[Robert Bruninga]

As the HAMfest season begins, You need to make sure your club is
using APRS at the hamfest and primarily in front of the TALKIN
operator.!

Active APRS club members need to take on these responsibilities
for setting up APRS for netcontrol:

1) Set an APRS map in FRONT of the net control operator so he
can SEE all APRS mobiles as they come in.  This can give him a
view as to who he can call for road info.

2) Make sure the APRS system you place there has the APRS
Mile-Mark data base, and that the APRS display operator knows
how to use it.  In some programs then it is trivial for the
operator to PLACE any reporting station on the map by his
MILEMARK location.

3) Some Good APRS programs can even then move these objects by
deadreckoning as time progresses so that the net control can see
these people moving inward as well.  Think of it as a graphical
aid instead of him having to remember in his head where everyone
is and constanly repeating himself trying to find folks.

4) Make sure to place a HAMFEST object on the map using the BIG
EYEBALL symbol.  This is so that APRS mobiles can just "drive to
the word HAMFEST" on their maps.  Be sure to include in the TEXT
for that object, the talk-in Frequency and TONE as the first 15
bytes in this format:  "146.XXXMHz Tnnn" and then everyone will
know where to tune for the talk in.

5) If you use the above format, then anyone mobile with a D710
can QSY to that frequency and tone by simply pushing the TUNE
button.

6) Its nice to have the DISPLAY-contorl operator trained to also
put TRAFFIC, WRECK, POLICE, and any other useful objects on the
map for the benefit of those APRS mobiiles driving in...

7) Be sure to have a FREQUENCY OBJECT on the map at the location
of the repeater in use that shows the TALKIN Frequency too.

Unless active APRS people lead these horses to the water, then
it just is not going to happen.  APRS operators need to be
proactive.  As an APRS volunteer, volunteer to be net control
next time.  Though, the real advantage of this is to show THEM
what it can do... You already know.  Or volunteer to to be the
APRS-Display operator...

The APRS Display operator doesn't even need to be at the
hamfest.  You can do it from 40 miles away in your shack.  And
you don't even need to be the voice net control, yet you can
manage all the objects FOR HIM.  Let him concentrate on the
voice (wherever he is operating from).  Just make sure he has an
APRS display in front of him, and then from wherever YOU are,
you can listen to the talk-in net, and YOU place all the objects
on the map and you update them for him...

That's what APRS was designed for.  Operators INPUTING data for
the benefit of all others, not just tracking GPS's.!

Bob, WB4APR