This would be about the same is using a MIC E repeater wouldn't it? Our 147.255 machine in Metamora IL has MIC E on it.. It recieved the packet on the input of the repeater and digi's it out on 144.390.. <br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 4:52 PM, Bob Bruninga <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bruninga@usna.edu">bruninga@usna.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">APRS provided great tracking of the 4 SWEEP hikers and nearly 150 event<br>runners at the Hike Across Maryland event. We used 144.39 +600 split<br>
digipeating for a tripling of packet reliability to well above 90% from the<br>poor 30% or less on previous attempts with normal operations on 144.39<br>simplex. You can see a summary of these techniques on the web page:<br>
<br><a href="http://aprs.org/HAMsupport.html" target="_blank">http://aprs.org/HAMsupport.html</a><br><br>Unbeknownst to most hams, APRS is easily used to record the positions and<br>sttus of almost all 150 Hikers during the day too by using text messaging<br>
(from two young hams under 25 who have no fear of texting on a key pad)...<br><br>I handed my two kids a TH-D72 APRS radio for their sweep hike duties and<br>asked them to MESSAGE every hiker # they passed. My son got to see the<br>
radio the night before, but daughter only got instructions on how to operate<br>the radio and APRS during her 10 minute breakfast. TO them, learning the<br>radio was no big deal. It was as simple as their cell phones!<br>
<br>After the event, I was amazed! AJ's dozen or so messages reported the TIME,<br>Location and hiker number of 98 different runners. My daughter's dozen or<br>so messages reported about 48 during their few hours on the trail!<br>
<br>THey said it was no big deal, No different than sending a tweet or an<br>email. And remember, that my daughter had only seen a D72 for the 10<br>minutes while I trained here during breakfast before her hike (never used<br>
APRS before). She picked it up instantly. AJ had only seen the radio the<br>night before but was an expert overnight.<br><br>In contrast, I just dont understand why hams have such a complete aversion<br>to the value of APRS text messaging! We have hams that have owned their<br>
APRS radios for nearly a decade and do not send or respond to any text<br>message information.<br><br>Looking at the message list in my kids radios AFTER the event when they got<br>home, there in their radios were the TOTAL 40 or so APRS messages sent by<br>
everyone at the event, containing the time and hiker number reports from<br>HIKER-1, HIKER-2, NE3R-7 and WASHMT.<br><br>With just an APRS HT anywhere over the 40 miles of maryland, anyone could<br>just hit the MSG key, scan the messages, and FIND the last report of the<br>
hiker # they were interested in. There was just no need for us doing voice<br>to call a station to ASK when did they last see hiker X. It was all there<br>in every APRS radio that was ON.<br><br>THe reason I didnt see this during the event, was because I was at the<br>
finish line at Harpers Ferry and did not get setup and receiveing anything<br>until the late afernoon, and by then the messages from these hikers were<br>finished.<br><br>Actually, I was very bored there at the end of the trail, because there was<br>
no hiker # info for me to ENTER, since by then the other checkpoints were<br>closed down and there was no one to see the data. APRS ACTIVITY AT ANY EVENT<br>IS A *** DATA *** INPUT *** function. Not a sit and watch event. If you<br>
think APRS is just for displaying moving GPS units, then you miss the whole<br>point. Your APRS job at any event is to ***ENTER*** information so others<br>can access it!<br><br>BOttom line, there is no reason why we cannot report the passing of every<br>
runner at every checkpoint and have it accuulated in EVERY APRS radio at the<br>event. Two kids did it who had never even seen an APRS radio before.<br><br>With the hiker numbers reported in APRS messages, Then ANYONE with an APRS<br>
radio can answer the "where is runner XXX" question by just scrolling<br>through the messages from the last checkpoint and seeing WHEN that runner<br>passed a point.<br><br>We can do this.<br><br>Using the 144.39 +600 offset, we had very reliable APRS coverage the entire<br>
route! BETTER THAN VOICE too. I could text my son when he was in a<br>marginal area when voice was not working that well.<br><br>The THD72 and maybe the VX8R APRS radios have 100 deep message memories now.<br>SO capturing every message during the event is possible. THe older D7 and<br>
D700 radios would only retain the last 16 messages or so, and would only be<br>able to review only the last hour or so of hiker # reports, but in most<br>cases, those 16 messages each one containing 10 runner numbers would still<br>
cover the most recent info on the 130 runners who actually finished the<br>event.<br><br>There were LOTS of other lessons learned, but it will take me a while to<br>write them up.<br><br>Bob, WB4APR<br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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