Fill the Gap

UPDATED BELOW

Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, sent out a call for help to fill the gaps in the Appalachian Mountain chain of APRS stations attempting to achieve the coveted Golden Packet on Saturday, July 20.

Here is the text of WB4APR’s e-mail:

We have an urgent need for Ham Packet Ops on mountain tops in New Hampshire, Mount Greylock, MA, Sams Point, NY, Clingmans Dome in the Smokie Mountains and Roan Mountain NC.

This is a 4 hour event making our annual attempt at the Golden Packet, an APRS packet message from Maine to Georgia along the Appalachian Mountain Chain on Saturday 20 July.

All  you need is an APRS radio that can digipeat (D72, D700, D710) and a power source and antenna. (and Know how to operate it!)  All of these sites are “drive  up” except Sam’s point in New York.  The attempt is from noon to 4 PM.  Remember, Tim, KA1YBS has to begin in the dark to climb a full MILE straight up to get to the top of Mt Katahdin in Main and then get back down before sunset.  Hence, the 4 hour window.

This is our 4^th annual attempt and last year we were successful except for only one broken link in NH.  Will you be available to help make history?  The Golden Packet was proposed back in the early 80’s. It has never been claimed since the rise of the Internet that has eclipsed all DX packet attempts.  We will do this every year even beyond success.  It is a good test of emergency long distance packet techniques.

If you can activate one of the above 5 sites, please see detail links on this page for each site and learn all you can:

http://aprs.org/at-golden-packet.html

Think of this as Packet Radio FIELD DAY!  These 14 sites have been well surveyed and we know the links will work, if everyone can get in place and KNOW how to operate their radio.

Other secondary sites are also invited on Stone Mountain, GA, Lookout Mountain TN, and Huntsville Mountain.

Update: Bob indicated this morning that there are only two mountains remaining to be covered for this event: Killington, Vermont, and Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Surfin': Lemonade on Independence Day

In response to the ARRL's decision to drop his online column The Amateur Amateur, Gary Hoffman, KBØH, has relaunched his column independently at the-amateur-amateur.com.

The staff here at WA1LOU wishes Gary the best of luck with his new venture!

And this blog post represents the relaunch of my column Surfin', which was also dropped by the ARRL.

As I wrote in the first installment of Surfin' way back in December 2000, Surfin' discusses webpages related to ham radio. In each installment, I will strive to identify and describe interesting and unique websites devoted to hamming. If you have any suggestions, please send them to me and I will consider them.

Anyway, enough with the preliminaries and on with the relaunch of Surfin' --- long may it wave.

Until next time, keep on surfin'!

Time to make lemonade

The suspense is over!

After waiting four weeks for some word from ARRL Headquarters about the suspension of my weekly online column, Surfin’, I wrote to Headquarters this morning to find out what is going on.

Here is the response I received.

We have decided to discontinue the web columns 
("Surfin'", Gary Hoffman's "Amateur Amateur" column, 
and Sterling Coffey's youth column) at this time, 
and to renew the website's focus on news. Tad Cook's 
solar report will remain, as it is akin to a weather 
report.

Our reader studies have shown that news attracts 
and maintains a very high readership, whereas 
readership of the web columns is low. In our effort 
to give members what they want, we are increasing 
our efforts to publish ham radio news. You may 
have noticed that the web news crawl has been 
particularly active in recent weeks -- a result 
of our new initiative. 

Thank you for your service to the League.

That’s all she wrote.

Savin' Surfin'

I don't know if you read my weekly online column, Surfin' on the ARRL website. If you do read it, then you may have noticed that it has been missing for the last two weeks.

As I wrote here in my previous post, that's because as of June 4, Surfin' has been suspended until further notice as "the focus of the League’s web offerings is being reevaluated."

I have received no "further notice" and I fear the worst.

If you enjoyed reading Surfin' and would like to see its return, please tell ARRL Headquarters (e-mail hq@arrl.org) and more importantly, tell your ARRL Division Director (his/her e-mail address is listed here: http://www.arrl.org/divisions). Thank you!

Surfin': In Suspension

I was informed today that Surfin' has been suspended until further notice as "the focus of the League’s web offerings is being reevaluated."

And so it goes.