[aprssig] Field Day site-to-site texting

[Bob Bruninga]

Every FD site will usually have APRS on line.  Remember, you can contact any
other FD site in the world on your APRS channel. (144.39 in North America).

Just send them an APRS text message.

Of course, this assumes you know their callsign.  To facilitate learning who
else is on the air, send a CQ FD message to the APRS CQSERVER and your CQ
will go to every other CQ FD site on the planet.  This has nothing to do
with FD rules and points.  It is just a way to have fun and be able to
contact any FD site without knowing apriori their calling freq.

Just send an APRS message to CQSRVR and make the first two words of the
message be CQ FD .... for example, "CQ FD from Bob in Annapolis, MD".  These
do not count for points, but are a great way to have ham radio fun with
other sites.

This will log you onto the CQ FD message group and from then on, you will
get ALL OTHER such messages from all other such stations.  When you DO see
an incoming CQ FD message, now then you know their callsign and can MESSAGE
THEM DIRECTLY from then on.

To keep the load down, you can only send one CQ FD message once every 30
minutes, but you will remain logged on for up to 12 hours.  After no
activity, you will be dropped.

Oh, for more info about APRS and Field Day, see http://aprs.org/cqsrvr.html

Bob, WB4APR