Dayton Mobile Settings: 14 May 2008 --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you like meeting new people on your pilgrimage to Dayton, here are the recommended settings for 3 VOICE channels. EVERYONE: 146.52, 446.00 and 144.39 with CTCSS 100 Monitor 146.52 and find contacts there. But if NOTHING heard, then all the rest of the time sit on 144.39 CTCSS 100. If there is anyone within simplex range, you automatically will hear a fractional second tone burst once every minute or so from their APRS Voice Alert System. VOICE ALERT: This setting for APRS mobiles transmits and receives with CTCSS 100. Even though the channel is full of packets, NONE of them have PL 100 except the direct packet from a nearby mobile, not all the digipeted copies. So if you hear a PL100 packet, then you are not only in SIMPLEX range, but the other station is in-effect "calling CQ" for anyone else running voice alert to contact him. His pings indicate that he has the volume turned up and is listening with CTCSS 100 just like you. Just key up, make voice contact and QSY to 52 or 446.00 (so you are not competing with all the other packets on the 144.39 channel). 446.00 is preferred by APRS operators, since the UHF will not interfier with their APRS receiving additional data while they talk. Although only APRS mobiles are Transmitting the PL 100 pings, everyone else can listen for these "pings" alerting you to their presence. Why is this better than 52? Because it is like an auto- matic "CQ 52" once a minute. This guarantees you will be able to make contact even in a passing situation. On 52, most contacts are ships-passing-in-the-night completely unaware of each other unless everyone is calling CQ every minute the entire trip. In a crossing situation, you are only in simplex range for about 3 minutes or so (2 miles a minute crossing situation). By using the automatic APRS Voice Alert system, you can't miss someone. Come join us. NON-APRS FAMILY TRACKING TO DAYTON: Even if you dont run APRS or dont have a GPS or dont have anything but an old TNC, you too can be tracked all the way to dayton. This is because the Global APRS system can at least identify the point of entry of a packet into the APRS-Internet system. So if you just transmit a packet, anywhere, anytime on the APRS frequency (144.39 in America), your location can be identified to the nearest digipeater that heard it. To see such a location use this URL (with your callsign): http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=wb4apr-9&vicinity=1 Notice that it is just a normal FINDU.COM URL, but you add "&vicinity=1" on the end of it. APRS MOBILE SETTINGS FOR DAYTON: Set your TNC or tracker to the path of VIA WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1. This will get you out farther than you can talk though any voice repeater, and should be sufficient. Set your beacon rate to 1 minute or 2 minutes. No less. APRS LAPTOP SETTINGS FOR DAYTON: First, let someone else drive so you can spend the 8 hour trip playing APRS like never before. Use the above path, but also put whatever Voice channel you are monitoring, make sure that is included in your POSIT PACKET so that all other APRS mobiles can see what voice repeater you are monitoring. SOFTWARE SELECTION AND MILEMARKS: Make sure you use an APRS program that fully supports the fundamental milemarks and Dead- reckoning! MILE-MARKS: Most mobiles will not have APRS, but ALL of them will know their position by their milemark. APRS has a built in mile-mark system that will allow you to place someone you are in QSO with on the map by just asking them their mile mark, entering the route number and mile mark, and BINGO you have placed a vehicle object on the map at their location. Assuming they are headed to Dayton, then you can enter an estimated CSE and SPEED. From that point on, that CAR and its object will continue to move on your APRS map toward Dayton and so even without GPS, you have a good approximation where that person is. You can AMAZE him by calling him every half hour or so and mentioning "I see you are approaching Crabtown". "How can you tell that?" Because I am tracking you with APRS. "But I don't have APRS". And you answer. "But I do"... MILEMARKS and Dead Reckoning were fundamental to allow APRS to see the Tactical Situation around them, INCLUDING all stations participating even if they don't have APRS. Once you put "joe" on the map moving to Dayton, ALL OTHER APRS mobiles within 100 miles or more of you will also see JOE on their maps. And if they have Dead Reckoning Enabled, then Joe should continue to move on their maps too. You can even enter his frequency in his object text, so that others know what freq to contct him on. If joe stops for a rest stop, next time he mentions a milemark, just click and drag him to the new milemark, and his DR will be updated on everyone else's map too. Without Dead Reckoining, the map display of an APRS client is always wrong. It always shows where things were 1, 3, 5, 10, 30 minuets ago, which is pretty useless in maintaining "situational awareness"!!! Turn on DR going to Dayton! And USE MILE MARKS and objects to show us everyone else on the road in range, not just the APRS folks. APRS was never desigend to be an end-in-itself, but to be a tool for ALL OF Amateur Radio. APRS WITHOUT GPS?! Sure, Just hook any-old TNC to your radio and type in a LAT/LONG posit and CSE and SPEED once eveyr hour or so. All surrounding APRS stations with DR turned on, will see you move on their screens. Before the trip, just copy down the approximate lat/long of some key landmarks about every hour on your route to Dayton. When you pass one, just type these into your TNC Btext in APR Sformat. Set yoru beacon rate to once every 2 minutes and your unproto path to APRS VIA WIDE1-1. This will update your position on evrone's map. And with DR on, you will continue to move on their maps.. VOICE ALERT WITHOUT APRS?! Sure, anyone can receive voice alert just by setting CTCSS on 144.39. But you can also PING if you want. Just load something like ">Joe Enroute Dayton Voice Alert" into the Btext of any old TNC and set the beacon rate to once every minute, again with CTCSS 100. Now all APRS people will hear you when they get in simplex range of you and may call you and you both then can go to 52. Be sure to set your UNPROTO PATH to "UNPROTO APRS" without any digipeaters, because beyond simplex range, you are only QRM. For more details, see this web page: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/VoiceAlert.htm ALL DIGIPEATER OWNERS: Make sure your digitpeater has the proper settings for the New-N paradigm. For details see: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/fix14439.html DIGIS IN DAYTON: Turn off WIDEn-N support except for ONE HOP. This whould be able to support 150 APRS mobiles which is typial of APRS in Dayton. TO do this (assuming you have set your digi for New-N above): 1) Set UITRACE to TEMP,30 2) Set UIDIGI ON WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2,WIDE3-3 This will cause these digipeaters to digipeat any/all mobiles ONE HOP no matter whether they are using 1, 2, or 3 hops. This will prevent any outside QRM from coming in. WATCH FOR RECEOMMENDED VOICE REPEATER FREQUENCEIS ON THE FRONT PANEL OF YOUR MOBILE APRS RADIO: Many areas are supporting the "New Local Info Initiative" which transmits local-direct info on the recommended voice repeater in their area for direct display on the D7, D700 and HamHUD mobile Displays. See: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/localinfo.html Hope I got everyting covered. I'll be PASSENGER mobile this year and will be playing APRS all the way from Maryland to Dayton on Thursday night and Friday morning. For more Dayton detail Recommendations, please see: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/DaytonPilgrimage.txt Also you can see a replay of Dayton 1995 on this web page: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/dayton.html Bob Bruninga WB4APR