[aprssig] APRS on HF

[G0JXN Jim]

Hi Guys

Julian, my comment on misconception was general not personal.

At the moment conditions on 20m are poor so if you only listened a couple of 
times I would not expect you to hear much at all. There are now countless 
ways to have QSOs but the advantage of using APRS is that you can see who is 
QRV, you do not have to tune around the band and then wait to get your call 
in, or sit endlessly calling CQ in the hope that someone will want to talk 
to you. If an APRS operator is not at the keyboard you can leave a message 
and they can get back to you.

If you want to operate HF APRS for local communication then why not try and 
get a net going on 40m. Several of us Net14 lot experimented with 7.051 MHz 
LSB APRS and GMSK250 together and we found it quite reliable across the UK 
and the near continent. Of course mobile is not as easy as 2m.

It's a matter of what turns you on. My QTH is in the bottom of the Lea 
valley, 25m ASL. There is not a reliable digi in range so I might have one 
or two local stations on the map or see the odd vehicle on the M25 for a few 
minutes. I might just as well walk 100yds up to the high street and watch 
the traffic go by for I can't actually talk to operators in their vehicles 
on the M25. For the benefit of non UK members the M25 is the London ring 
road. Through Net14 on 20m I have had regular APRS QSOs with a number 
stations in 5 continents, and yes we do exchange personal stuff. A typical 
English person I speak English and a few word of French, and Rubbish much of 
the time, but I have a translation software that will allow me to converse 
on APRS in 6 languages.

As I said earlier, it is what turns you on, for example I see no point in 
contests where you sit endlessly waiting to contact a rare callsign only to 
give your full callsign, name and number and say 73. What's the point in 
that I ask.

There are HF mobiles on Net14 but we strive to keep crossband 2m and Igated 
to RF stuff at bay for it clutters up the frequency and serves no purpose. 
It is rife on 30m in Europe with some of the vehicles with a WIDE5-5 path. 
You couldn't communicate with them if you wanted to.

73

Jim, G0JXN/MB7UXN
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