[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] Appalachian Trail Golden Packet

Wed Aug 4 20:39:48 EDT 2021

Just wanted to pass along a little info about the event I participated
in late July.

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

Every year Bob Buringa (Creator of APRS) sets up an event to pass APRS
Packets from Georgia to Maine using 15 relay stations along the trail
or close to it. This year I manned Hawksbill Mountain out in
Shenandoah National Park.

I've attached some pictures, after action reports and even a pamphlet
I handed out as curious hikers inquired about what I was doing.

I just wanted to share because it was a neat experience and I was able
to play radio while being outside.

73
KO4ARL
-------------- next part --------------
************************************************************************
***                     ATGP STATION HWKSBL-6 2021                   ***
***                           Operator KO4ARL                        ***
************************************************************************

Equipment:
	- Event Radio: Kenwood D710GA configured using www.aprs.org/hamtrails/Radios/D710G-settings.txt
	- HT: Kenwood TH-D74A APRS on 144.39
	- Antenna: MFJ-1532N 4.5db Gain on 2M https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-1532n
	- Antenna Tripod: MFJ-1919 https://www.gigaparts.com/mfj-1919.html
Location:
	- 38°33'19.2"N 78°23'42.4"W Shenandoah National Park, Luray, VA 22835
	- https://goo.gl/maps/ZrSQAeWiQsRuLRB79
Timeline:
	- 0631L To: ANSRVR Message: J GP (Join Group) via APRS-IS android app APRSdroid as KO4ARL-9
	- 0632L To: ANSRVR Message: CQ GP HWKSBL Enroute via APRS-IS adroid app APRSdroid as KO4ARL-9
	- 0632L-0839L Transit to Upper Hawksbill Parking, Luray, VA 22835 https://goo.gl/maps/S7c4fSgdzZZcYjmQ9
          APRS.FI Track https://aprs.fi/info/a/KO4ARL-9 
	- 0638L RX Message from KJ4ERJ "See you in motion"
	- 0839L-0930L Load up and Hike to Hawksbill Summit via https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/virginia/upper-hawksbill-trail
        - 0930L-0950L Set up and power on D710GA
        - 1012L Contact with KJ4ERJ via D74A/APRS 144.39 WIDE2-2 Power on heard 7 9 11
	- 1027L 6-9+11 Heard
	- 1156L 7-11 Heard
	- 1200L-1300L Still hearing to the North, Troubleshooting connection to the south via Cell/APRS with KJ4ERJ (Potato)
	- Was using voice on event frequency, my inexperience and focus on making sure the D710GA Digipeated I was unfamiliar how
	  to change to the B-Side for PTT. 
	- Corrected B-Side PTT and tried 445.925 with No Tone, (T) tone (100.00hz), CT tone (100.00hz) calling any station
	  and nothing heard around 1300L 
	- Station list as of 1249L 7-12 with a message of 13 heard via voice
	- 1327L BLN1 sent "THUNDER TEARING DOXN"
	- Wrap up and Hike down safely returning to vehicle
Narrative: 

I joined the groups.io some time in 2020, and always wanted to be apart of the Golden Packet event. The time spent hunkered away during the pandemic really drove me to make sure I got out and saw the event, assuming I would just tag along with a veteran of Hawksbill. June 2021 the family and I were looking forward to getting out of the house, so we made another journey out to Shenandoah to get some exercise and see another part of the park. Atop of Hawksbill I scouted around and figured it was completely doable aside from the numerous people that visit and the desire to take the largest Panoramic pictures possible and I would be ruining it with my antenna.... :).

After the hike I logged in and saw Hawksbill empty on the spreadsheet, I threw my call down and started reading up on the previous years. Similar to 2019 Ron and I share the scarcity of time working at the Pentagon, but I pressed ahead and got my 710 from HRO in Woodbridge. I used previous years reports to solidfy my plan of getting some type of extendening antenna mast and affix it to the drain pipe on the rock structure used on the summit. As well as programming my radio using the files provided by Bob and the group on APRS.org.

Now commited, I built out my pack with a 20Ah Bionenno Battery, D710GA, Antenna Stand. Which should have weighed in with water and snacks around 30Lbs or so. Well I got the great idea, lets try a POTA/SOTA if the GP is going smoothly. I added my ICOM 7100, Rasberry Pi, Wolf River Coil, Laptop, 50 ft of Coax along with some extra wrenches etc incase I had to work on any of the rigging. I didn't weigh the pack but it must have been pushing 60 - 70 lbs. Never again will I try to combine events or carry two Mobile/Base Station radios up a mountain. 

As for the event, I feel everything went pretty smooth. I forgot how to change over to B-Side when keying up to talk on the Voice Freq 445.925, I got a contact with I believe John KX4O via Voice on the event freq 144.34, who was listening and I-Gating my packets (Thanks John) and he was nice enough not to correct me on the radio that I was on 144.34. Later in the day I was not recieving anything to the south, I was in contact with Potato via APRS messages and he suggest I try and raise AOMTN-5 via 445.925. After a couple of attempts MDMTNS-7 sent me a message saying they hear my voice on 144.34, so I scrambled to try and figure out how to switch over to the B-Side. Success, I attempted a few voice contacts with Any station -- HAWKSBL -- Radio Check | using no tone, (T) tone of 100hz, and (CT) tone of 100hz. I was never able to make contact with anyone on 445.925. 

Through out the day I had many of visitors, Hawksbill is catagorized as an easy family friendly trail to one of the Highest Peaks in Virginia. Undoubtly every decent day the trail and summit get hundreds of visitors and today was no different. I experienced everything from curiosity, to bewilderment, and even the thought of who is fishing up here?. I ended up with about a dozen geniune questions between photographer duty about what I was doing, I used my trifold to explain what ATGP was and how we were using Amateur Radio to make a radio relay from Georgia to Maine using packet radio. The biggest draw back of the day was the flies and direct sunlight, this time of year flies just swarm the top of the mountain and will not think twice about using your entire body as a landing pad. 

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ATGP.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 266347 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/alexandriaradioclub/attachments/20210804/78c53df4/attachment-0001.jpe>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ATGP.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 397444 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/alexandriaradioclub/attachments/20210804/78c53df4/attachment-0001.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 399055 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/alexandriaradioclub/attachments/20210804/78c53df4/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 0.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 570915 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/alexandriaradioclub/attachments/20210804/78c53df4/attachment-0003.jpg>