[aprssig] VHF Rovers Unite!

[Bob Bruninga]

VHF Rovers Unite!

For this coming Sept VHF QSO party(10-11 Sept), a cadre of APRS mobiles and
portables is going to man 15 mountain tops along the Appalachians from Maine
to Georgia (and anywhere else in the country where contesting is popular).  

Their APRS radio will be on the PROPNET frequency of 147.585 and will be
enabled for APRS digipeating.  Not only will they be able to see all the
contest rovers out there, but they will also digipeat any such beacons to
others so that everyone can see where everyone is.  These packets have
nothing to do with the contest or scoring, but they just support the mobile
rovers and portable operators in seeing where everyone is located.

This kind of ad-hoc system works if all mobiles and portable stations use
the same settings in their APRS radios and TNC's as follows:

FREQUENCY: 147.585 (the PROPNET frequency)
PATH:      TEMP7-7 (may need to reduce to TEMP3-3 if load is too high)
SYMBOL:    Rover or Portable (tent)
RATE:      Every 5 minutes

Now then, to make the ad-hoc network self-supporting, every well situated
station (mountaintop or mobile and ROVERS) with a D700 or KPC-3 should also
enable their own station for digipeating.  To enable your station as a
TEMPn-N digipeater also, use these settings:

UITRACE TEMP
DIGI ON

These need to be permanently set in the Radio TNC via the serial port prior
to the event.  In fact, these settings are now factory defaults in all
D710's and subsequent radios so that any radio, any time, can serve as an
ad-hoc digi for others on demand, by simply using the TEMPn-N path.

For details and background please see:
http://aprs.org/rovers.html

Make sure you test your station before the event!

Good luck in the Contest!

Bob, WB4APR