[aprssig] Appalachian Golden Packet Report!

Sat Jul 30 16:51:06 EDT 2011

I managed to save the PM with the beacon on, so I may have fired of a
few from my mobile a little early, but then again, folks started
securing early, so if I hadn't, I may  have missed out completely.

On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 9:58 PM, Bob Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
> <*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
>    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/at-golden-packet/
>
>
>
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