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--></style></head><body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal">A nice APRS DF challenge is the digipeater somewhere around Lanacaster PA that is shooting blanks.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal">DEAD carrier on each digipeat. This has been going on for more than a year! I remember hearing it while chasing our last balloon last summer. And again this weekend chasing our last balloon. But in both cases I was chasing balloons and did not have time to chase other bad things on the air.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">This is sad that no one is doing anything about it. We all have a responsibility:</p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style><span style>1)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span>LISTEN to the channel by ear every now and then.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style><span style>2)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span>Report and FIND bad signals (modulation)</p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style><span style>3)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span>Bad TXDelays,</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style><span style>4)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span>Bad SKEW in the tones</p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style><span style>5)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span>Digipeaters with bad TXDelays</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style><span style>6)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span>Digipeaters that are transmitting no audio!</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">These things are easy and fun to track down using normal DF techniques.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Practicing our DFing skills as radio operators is part of what we do. And MONITORING our local APRS channel and cleaning it up is what we need to do for a reliable netgwork for all of us.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">These problems are everywhere. Sometimes I think some people never even listen to the channel!</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Good luck DFing!</p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Bob, WB4APR</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p></div></body></html>