Appalachian Trail Ham Radio Survey Spring 2012

Hike Planning: The only need is for day hikers or weekend hikers to cover just their local length of the trail and to carry an APRS HT. Their coverage is automatically collected by APRS.FI. They will also be encouraged to make notes on voice repeaters and Echolink/IRLP links too. The only AT repeater guide I can find is 15 years old (see guide). There is also an IRLP node Map by KD3SU See google map and an AT IRLP list.

THROUGH HIKERS: The timing of the survey matches the annual northbound treck of a hundred or so thru-hikers that are attempting to hike the full 2175 miles. In this regard, we are happy to report the position of any through hikers and their status to the APRS map for friends and family to see on APRS.FI. In this case each APRS hiker is encouraged to hike North to South on his leg so that he encouters the maximum number of through hikers. You might want to prepare a small Ham Radio APRS handout to give to them when you ask for their trail name to let them know what we are doing. Please turn around and walk with them while chatting so as not to slow their progress. Use your HT to send a MESSAGE-OBJECT.

Logistics Support: The original idea to assist Ham radio hikers, was to have a ham radio chase logistics vehicle (SAG car) that would be available and provide one-way travel from the hikers car to the start of his hike back to his/her car. In this manner, single hikers are accomodated. The car would be moved from south to north, allowing the survey hikers to hike north-to-south back to their cars and in this manner meet in passing the maximum number of thru-hikers. At this time it is not clear if this sag vehicle is available. The maps below can give you an initial idea of the trail in your area. Do not be confused by the 45 degree tilt of these maps from North. That makes the trail lay out pretty well on a map from top to bottom.

---[FULL SIZE]--- | ---[FULL SIZE]--- | ---[FULL SIZE]--- | ---[FULL SIZE]--- | ---[FULL SIZE]--- |

SAG Car Logistics: [This SAG car idea is on hold as we have lost one of our main hikers] The origional plan called for the following day hikes on the day indicated to get the logistics car to the next location. The present location of the car can be seen here. There are several ways that volunteers can manage the logistics to do this.

A1: Single person drives to SAG car, drives it to next location and hikes back.
A2: Couple drives to SAG car, both drive their car and SAG car to next location and they are free for rest of day.
B1: Single person drives to next point in PM, picks up ham thru-hiker, drives back to SAG car. (timing critical)
B2: Single person drives to next point in AM, meets Ham-hiker in SAG car, then drives hiker back to start. (timing critical)

Signups for Logistics: The following legs shown in Bold are still open. We are only beginning the planning process. But the following will give an idea of how it works.

March 2012:

April 2012: