[aprssig] More APRS-over-VARA Testing on Cross-Country Road Trip Next Week

[Stephen H Smith]

On Sunday 16 June 2024, I will be departing from entral Michigan on a 
cross-country road trip to Los Angeles.  I will have "Studio B" (my mobile 
hamshack and radio operations trailer) in tow.

Once again, I will be doing side-by-side comparisons of classic HF AX.25 packet 
APRS and APRS-over-VARA-HF.  I will alternate beacons on AX.25 and VARA, each 
mode on a 10-minute cycle while enroute.  Both modes are originated from the 
same computer, interface, radio (Yaesu FT-891) and antennas (Quicksilver Radio 
ham sticks for 60 and 30m) in the car.
     Note that because this is being run as a full laptop-based APRS setup (not 
a dumb transmit-only tracker), I should be able to receive/send APRS messages 
on any of the three modes (VHF, HF packet, HF VARA).
     Three instances of UIview will be running side-by-side from separate 
folders to generate the three modes.

For the first day out (Sunday 0-500 miles / 800 km), I will be operating on 60 
meters "Channel 5" (5.403.5 USB).  Plans are for the first overnight in Des 
Moines IA.  For the rest of the trip (too far away from my home igate/webserver 
for 60M), I will be on the  usual 30 meters APRS frequency -- 10.147.600 USB 
with standard 1600/1800 Hz "KAM" tones on 300-baud AX.25 and standard VARA-HF 
tones.

I will be using WA8LMF (no SSID) for 2M and direct-to-Internet beaconing via 
cellular,   WA8LMF-2 for the HF AX.25 mode,   and WA8LMF-3 for the HF VARA 
beacons.  Thus you can distinguish the posits from the three modes on sites 
like findu.FI or my own personal APRS webservers at

<http://WA8LMF.net/map>

I also have a dedicated Road Trip Tracker up at my web site:

<http://WA8LMF.net/RoadTrip>

This tracker plots all three modes with their three different SSIDs. It plots 
only what is heard  off-the-air on HF RF, as heard from my home QTH  (no 
Internet).near East Lansing MI.  (The two-meter WA8LMF [no SSID] is plotted 
from both off-the-air and the APRS-IS Internet feed.)    The road trip tracker 
plots posits on 3D-looking relief maps, so once I get to Denver and the 
beginning of the "real west" (the Rocky Mountains), the map display should be 
quite interesting.

The outbound trip will be on I-80 across Iowa and Nebraska, I-70 across 
Colorado and Utah, and I-15 Utah to L.A.   The return trip about a week later 
will be along the lay of the old Route 66 (I-40 Barstow, CA - Arizona - New 
Mexico onward to the eastern US.

As an added "side-show" to this trip, I will be running my "Mobile SSTV 
LiveCAM" from a second  HF rig in the car on 15 or 10 meters if the higher HF 
bands are open.  I have a web cam pointed out the front window that 
automatically grabs and beacons a live SSTV image every ten minutes. This gets 
especially interesting when I get west of Denver into the Colorado Rockies and 
the Utah red rocks desert.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
Skype:        WA8LMF
EchoLink:  Node #  14400  [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
Home Page: http://wa8lmf.net

APRS-over-VARA igates now operating on 30 & 60 meters
<http://WA8LMF.net/map>

"Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels
<http://WA8LMF.net/Aliner>

-- APRS over VARA  --
<http://wa8lmf.net/APRSoverVARA.>


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