[aprssig] Another Road Trip Testing APRS-over-VARA Coming

[Denis Barton]

Ok Stephen, I have marked your trip in my note book. At this time I can 
xmit and rec using VARA and only rec using packet. If you go through 
Manistique, say HI to my old hometown. Have safe trip.

73, Denis

WB8SKP

On 10/6/2024 11:11 AM, Stephen H Smith via aprssig wrote:
>
> Over the period  8 October 2024 to 26 October 2024, I will be on 
> another extensive road trip, running HF APRS both over classic AX.25 
> packet, and over VARA.
>
> A friend of mine is flying from Los Angeles to Chicago on the 8th. I 
> will then take her for a fall color tour of northern Michigan, before 
> driving her back to Los Angeles.  This will be a long looping 
> itinerary west from Michigan on I-80 to the Mississippi River, then 
> south following the Great River Road (the secondary roads along the 
> banks of the Mississippi) to New Orleans.   Then west across Texas to 
> northern New Mexico, southern Colorado and Arizona back to 
> Calfornia.   For anyone wanting to log four states in one 
> transmission, I will be stopping at the "4-Corners" point on the 
> Navajo Nation where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet at one 
> point.
>
> I will be operating HF exclusively on 30 meters this time (no 60 
> meters tests).  As in the past I will use multiple SSIDs:
>
>   -  WA8LMF (no SSID) is 2M VHF 144.39 and direct-to-Internet cellular 
> data.
>
>   -  WA8LMF-2 is 30M HF conventional 300-baud AX.25 packet APRS
>
>   -  WA8LMF-3 is 30M HF APRS-over-VARA
>
> Because these are full desktop-type APRS installations (3 instances of 
> UIview) running on my newly-commisioned Panasonic CF-53 "Toughbook" 
> mobile laptop in the car, I can receive APRS messages on any of the 
> three modes.  As before, the mobile rig is a Yaesu FT-891 running into 
> a 30 -meter Quicksilver Radio "QuickStick" hamstick-type mono-band whip.
>
>
> My personal APRS igate/mapping-webservers   will be following my trip at:
> <http://WA8LMF.net/map>
> (These displays only show what my home station in central Michigan 
> (East Lansing area) is hearing OFF-THE-AIR --  not from the Internet.)
>
> Additionally, my new "RoadTrip Tracker" page at
> <http://WA8LMF.net/RoadTrip>
> will provide a series of fixed-scale shaded-relief maps of the trip. 
> The road trip tracker uses a combination of off-the-air reception and 
> the APRS Internet feed.
>
>
> 30 meters normally has a skip zone of 250-300 miles; I.e. my home 
> station in Michigan could never hear anything CLOSER than about 
> Chicago, Cincinnati  or Toronto, Ontario.  Travels anywhere inside 
> Michigan were never heard by my 30M igates when I was the ONLY 
> APRS-over-VARA igate on the air.
>     Now that WA7GMX in the state of Washington, and WB8SKP in western 
> Kentucky now appear to be running full-time APRS-over-VARA igates on 
> 30 meters as well, the HF coverage should be much more consistent 
> everywhere, even inside Michigan, then in the past.   My trip up north 
> in Michigan should be heard and igated by one or both of these other 
> stations.  (Assuming another solar explosion/geomagnetic storm doesn't 
> wipe out HF entirely!)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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