[aprssig] CQ FD shame on you

[Bob Bruninga]

Well, 25,000 APRS operators in the USA, and I saw a total of FOUR (4) sending out CQ FD (via the CQSRVR).  I made only a dozen field day contacts out of 12 hours operating.

This is the worst APRS performance at Field Day I have ever seen.  Im surrounded by trackers, WX stations, and houses with the lights on and nobody home.

My count of 4 comes from the CQSRVR that responds to your login by saying how many other CQ FD stations it forwared your message to.  In my case... 4!  In the entire country, only 4 stations were attempting to make CQ FD contacts using the system designed to make it happen.

And since one remains automitically subscribed for 12 hours or more after sending only one CQ message, it would seem to me that that was pretty much it.

FOrtunately a few people were out driving around with TWO-WAY APRS and I was able to get some 8 other LIVE HUMAN messages.

Even if you were not participating in field day, I'm sure you were out driving around sometime over the weekend...  couldnt you at least LOOK at your mobile radio screen and see any FD stations and simply hit MSG button to give someone a contact?  Is it asking to much?

Of course, only 10% of APRS users are on this sig, but all it takes is ONE PERSON per METRO area to have sent a CQ, and then that station would have gotten ALL THE OTHER CQS from all the other areas.  Then ANYONE in that metro area could have seen all those responses, and even if he did not know how CQSRVR works, he would STILL have seen all the callsigns and could have joined in with messages...

Sheesh...
Bob, WB4APR