[aprssig] NJ hurts

[Steve Niles]

I love to work HF on a road trip like that.

Steve N5EN 

-----Original message-----
From: Bob Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu>
To: aprssig at tapr.org
Sent: Sat, Feb 26, 2011 15:51:13 GMT+00:00
Subject: [aprssig] NJ hurts

Nothing personal to the fine folks in NJ, but I just drove the full length  
of the state on the NJ turnpike and NOT ONE SINGLE RECOMMENDED VOICE  
REPEATER OBJECT ever showed up.

I was scanning all freqs, and could find a few QSO's, but my rig does not  
have a CTCSS scan mode, and so for 3 hours, I had zero ham radio  
connectivity.

This is NOT what ham radio mobile is about.  On the other hand, I passed in  
range of a dozen APRS digis.  and NOT ONE OF THEM was configured to the  
post-2004 APRS convention with a FREQUENCY object with the suggested FREQ  
and TONE for travelers IN ITS FOOTPRINT.

What can we do.  Is ANYONE LISTENING?

NJ was one of the early adopters of APRS, and there is a penalty to pay for  
being an early adopter.  That is, the usual ham radio resistance to change.   
Since APRS was established in NJ 18 years ago, it appears that some things  
have just not kept up with the evolution of APRS.

I'll check the list of STATE APRS Coordinators and see if we can find  
someone.  ANd it is NOT JUST NJ!

I passed through NY CIty and into CT, and still NOT ONE SINGLE FREQ OBJECT.   
ANd in NY, not only do you need to know the PL, but also the SHIFT/SPLIT  
becuase there are all kinds of oddball repeaters there.

Caveat, my radio may have missed a few.  WIth these objects only every 10  
minutes, one usually has a 50/50 chance of hearing one without collilsion  
while in range...

But NONE for an entire state?  Encompasing some of the highest density of  
ham radio operators in the country?

To see HOW to set up APRS for this local info, please see:
www.aprs.org/localinfo.html

Sheesh.
Bob, WB4APR

_______________________________________________
aprssig mailing list
aprssig at tapr.org
https://www.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.tapr.org/pipermail/aprssig_lists.tapr.org/attachments/20110226/7a47203b/attachment.html>