[OKDXA] VHF Packet Cluster

[Kim Elmore]

Hi Terry and all that responded,

Thanks for the info. The last time I was truly active was in 1995; in June 
1995, I moved here. I guess I was spoiled while I lived in the Denver area 
because the Mile High DX Association helped maintain a packet cluster that, 
as far as I know, was fed data only from local sources. There were a lot of 
very active DXers in the Denver area. However, I know that the MHDXA had 
gratis help from some engineers who simply enjoyed the challenge of making 
the cluster work, and so footed a fair bit of the load.  The cluster was 
state-wide, spanned the Continental Divide and had several nodes 
interconnected with a high-speed 70 cm backbone.

I'm only just becoming active again, and the amount of time I've been able 
free for radio has been disappointingly small.  I was aware of Sprint's 
wireless ISP option, but thought that they had stopped expanding the 
service a few months ago; I was unaware that there were any others. We'll 
probably avoid the satellite option for now, though if we ever build a 
house on the land we're buying, we might try it then.

I need a way to avoid using the phone line because my wife is a radiologist 
and has to take call form home.  When that happens, we have to leave both 
phone lines open, because she needs to receive images and talk to other 
docs or techs at the same time; the hospital doesn't maintain a way to send 
the images over the internet, so a telephone line is a necessity.

My location isn't ideal for anode and I don't have a particularly tall 
tower (an HDBX48 with 8 ft of steel mast sticking out of the top) so I 
probably wouldn't make a good node site, but would happily entertain one 
otherwise.  If we ever build on the land east of Norman, we'd have a better 
site even with that modest tower: it has an unrestricted horizon.

I've been wondering how useful spots from non-local sources are; I suppose 
it could help me anticipate when conditions might open up at my QTH, or 
help me map operating habits of some particular DX, but knowing that MA 
hears something juicy doesn't necessarily mean I'll hear it. On the other 
hand, the more ears, the better.

One of these Mondays, I'll try to check into the 75 m net. Unfortunately, 
6:30 pm is often when we're preparing dinner and so isn't a good time for a 
leisurely anything.  I hope you all did well in the CQ WW had a fine 
Thanksgiving!

73,

Kim Elmore, N5OP
                           Kim Elmore, Ph.D.
                        University of Oklahoma
         Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies
"All of weather is divided into three parts: Yes, No, and Maybe. The
greatest of these is Maybe" The original Latin appears to be garbled.