[aprssig] Appalachian Golden Packet Report!

[Bob Bruninga]

The Appalachian Trail Golden Packet event for 2011 was a SUCCESS!

We had APRS stations on top of all 15 mountain peaks and packets were
exchanged all along the route.  We did not get the Golden-Packet end to end
yet, but we got from Georgia up to Mount Washington in NH with Yours-Truly
being the "weakest link" until the final 30 minutes.  Everyone is pumped for
next year.  My count has over 43 people involved, each doing heroic efforts
as you can read about on the ATGP web page:
http://aprs.org/at-golden-packet.html

Of course, top honors goes to Tim KA1YBS who climbed nearly a mile straight
up to the top of Katahdin in Maine carrying radios, a 5AH battery, tripod
and beam!

Follow the links to each mountain top to read their detail reports.  Below
is a quick summary put together by our resident NETCON shack potato Lynn,
KJ4ERJ who was stuck in Florida too far away to join in physically.  

Everyone interested in joining in next year, please join the AT yahoo group
on the above page.  Also, join in the Pacific PCT group if you live out
west.  They hope for success next year.  Bob, WB4APR

-----Original SUMMARY by LYNN Message-----

Wow!  The most successful attempt yet!  From where I was sitting, it was
quite exciting, but I had the possible advantage of seeing the bigger
picture than just sitting out there in nature hearing a radio braap a packet
every now and then.

Cliff Notes Version:  All links confirmed communications with easy
bi-directional traffic among the south 1 through 8 early in the afternoon.
The north end came online later with 13 and 15 being heard by 14 reliably.
Site 10 then reported copy on 11, 9, and 8 along with High Point and 5PTS-8
(alternate GDHILL-8).  Site 11 confirmed copy from 13 at 14:12pm making the
final individual link.  Site 10 subsequently confirmed 13 and 9 reinforcing
the northern links.

So every link was proven, but no single packet traversed the entire path, in
fact, until just before the end, nothing North of 8 was heard by anything
South of 8 and vice-versa.  Bob gets the "weakest link" award this year.  I
also suspect that MTWASH was not a digipeater as GRYLCK and SUGRLF never
heard each other and we know that SUGRLF was also not a digipeater so the
KATHDN link would have been manual anyway.

What follows is the extended time-sequenced details for those that are
interested.

Saturday evening, AL0I-1 set up a receive-only IGate in Boone, NC on the
144.340 event frequency.  This was within earshot of ROAN-3 and provided
visibility for me into the packets on the south end of the path.  These are
the packets in the ATGP.txt attachment.  Any timestamp without a
parenthetical is from this log.

(APRS) indicates direct APRS messaging on the national frequency with
KJ4ERJ-12.
(CQ) indicates information received via CQSRVR transmissions on the national
frequency (see CQAT.txt) (Phone) indicates phone calls to KJ4ERJ

10:12:53 ROAN-3's first beacons started coming through to APRS-IS

10:51:04 CLNGMN-2's first packets arrive on APRS-IS via ROAN-3, a
message/ack exchange with ROAN-3

11:24:45 SPRNGR-1 appears via ROAN-3 including an APRS message exchange with
CLNGMN-2

11:35 (CQ) CLNGMN confirms contact with SPRNGR and ROAN

12:15:09 CMRRCK-4 comes online with beacons.

12:15 (Phone) SUGRLF-14 confirms in place, but nothing heard

12:20 (APRS) CLNGMN-2 confirms CMRRCK-4 and AOMTN-5

12:30 (Phone) Jeff, KB1POR-9, agrees to go back up to top of Mt Washington
(story later)

12:30:40 AOMTN-5 beacons make it through to ROAN-3

12:36 (Phone) Confirmed packets between SUGRLF-14 and KB1POR-9 on MtWash

12:38 (Phone) Confirmed MTWASH-13 packets received at SUGRLF-14 (BLN1
"Ready")

12:45:27 HWKSBL-6 shows up via ROAN-3

12:47 (Phone) Confirmed KATHDN-15 packets received at SUGRLF-14

12:49:33 GDHILL-8 completes the southern set via ROAN-3

12:50 (CQ) GDHILL Confirms in place

13:04 (CQ) GRYLCK Setting up late (apologies)

13:09:51 Ack'd message exchange between SPRNGR-1 and GDHILL-8

13:29 (Phone) Pete, KB1PCK, on Dennis Hill (GP-DENNIS) reports copying
SAMSPT-10 and GRYLCK-11 (along with TRSX2S?)

13:33 (Phone) Continued strong reception of KATHDN-15 at SUGRLF-14

13:33 (APRS) GRYLCK-11 confirms reception of SAMSPT-10, but suspects not
reciprocal

13:36 (CQ) SPRNGR confirming 1 through 8

13:52 (Phone) SAMSPT-10 confirms copy of GRYLCK-11, W2TTT on HIGHPT,
CMLBCK-9, GDHILL-8 and 5PTS-8 (alternate site)

13:55 (Phone) SUGRLF-14 still receiving MTWASH-13 now showing "Unattended"

14:12 (APRS) GRYLCK-11 confirms reception of MTWASH-13

14:18 (Phone) GDHILL-8 confirms CMLBCK-9 and SAMSPT-10

14:19 (CQ) GRYLCK-11 confirming SAMSPT-10 and MTWASH-13

14:22 (Phone) SAMSPT-10 confirms MTWASH-13 and CMLBCK-9

14:25 (Phone) SUGRLF-14 reports that KATHDN-15 is heading down the mountain.
SUGRLF-14 isn't a digi, so not much of a loss for a direct packet.  APRS
link from 14 to 15 was solid.  MTWASH-13 is slow, but consistent.

14:27 (APRS) GRYLCK-11 confirms reception of SAMSPT-10

14:32 CMRRCK-4 securing at 15:00

14:34:22 N3QBI (near Edenville PA) confirms 1-8 with 6 & 7 direct
(interesting becauses I logged NO packets from MDMTNS-7 on APRS-IS, did it
have a sufficient path to get out through ROAN-3?)

14:45 (Phone) Pete at DENNIS confirms MTWASH-13, SAMSPT-10, and both APRS
and voice with GRYLCK-11 (good to know because GRYLCK has no cellular
coverage!).  This makes Dennis Hill a good position for a -12 next year?

14:52 (Phone) GDHILL-8 reports that the HOP7 digi had been disabled, just
enabled.

15:00 (APRS) GRYLCK-11 copied CMRRCK-4

15:07 (APRS) GRYLCK-11 copied HWKSBL-6

15:16 (APRS + CQ) GRYLCK-11 reconfirms CMRRCK-4, HWKSBL-6, SAMSPT-10,
MTWASH-13

15:32 (CQ) GDHILL securing NOW

15:33 SUGRLF confirmed QRT

15:34 Weather moving in on AOMTN, going QRT at 15:45

15:37 (APRS) GRYLCK and SAMSPT QRT

15:43 GDHILL confirms all secure at 15:45

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Shack Potato

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