THIS PAGE has been CHANGED to cover both the AT and the PCT. The new CHECKLIST has the file name "golden-checklist.txt" please correct any links that point to this old "AT-checklist.txt" to the new name... ****** BELOW IS OBSOLETE ******** APPALACHIAN TRAIL COMM COORDINATION CHECKLIST 22 Jun 09 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 0) Take a camera. QST Article to follow. 00) Take Ham radio hand-out pamphlets for onlookers 1) Set up your D700/D710 APRS digipeater radio on 144.34 MHz and set the volume so you can hear what is going on on the channel. This channel is shared with Balloons and ATV, so we want to be aware of any conflicts, and hear how the packets are sounding... 2) Set up your D700/D710 radio as a stand alone digipeater operating in APRS mode. A PC is required for the initial setup prior to the event, but is not required during operations. That radio will be used only as the DIGI and voice coordination on 445.925 MHz voice. See D700/D710 settings: www.aprs.org/hamtrails/D700-settings.txt 3) It is good to have a SECOND APRS low-power station running APRS for this event to use for operations, communications, and observing the event and logging. This can be another D700/D710 or D7 or full-up APRS station. Use this station all day on the 144.39 National APRS channel for set-up, coordination, and chatting with other stations. USE your STATION callsign without an SSID. In my case, my call will be GDHILL. (while the digi call is GDHILL-8). 4) Using this auxilliary station, LOGON TO CQSRVR early on EVENT day on your normal 144.39 APRS channel even before you leave, so that you will receive all EVENT group messages that day. Using your assigned station callsign (without SSID) send a message to CQSRVR and include in the message your stataus: MESSAGE TO: CQSRVR MESSAGE BODY: CQ AT CQ AT leaving home... etc... This message will be re-directed by the CQSRVR engine to all other similar stations who have also sent their message to CQSRVR. You will remain logged onto CQSRVR for a few hours, so send a new message each time your status changes so that others will see your status and so that you remain logged onto the CQSRVR. You can only send one such message per 30 minutes... See www.aprs.org/cqsrvr.html 5) MONITOR the band-B 445.925 VOICE channel, but also have an additional radio monitoring your PUBLISHED coordination repeater. You will monitor this repeater from the time you leave home, until you return home, so that you can be reached from the other stations even when you are not at the mountain peak. 6) CHECKIN to the ECHOLINK CONFERENCE NODE "WASHDC" from 11 AM to Noon (or longer if your local Echolink repeater will be OK with it). This way we can all TALK if needed. 7) CALLSIGNS: Use ONLY the designated callsigns and SSID's below in the DIGIPEATR D700/D710. The SSID's help us remember the sequence from Georgia to Maine. Use the ROOT CALL (without SSID) for your secondary station whether it is on 144.39 prior to the event or 144.34 during the event: SPRNGR-1 CLNGMN-2 ROAN-3 COMERS-4 AOMTN-5 WHTRCK-6 MDMTN-7 GDHILL-8 CMLBCK-9 SAMSPT-10 GRYLCK-11 N1NCI-12 MTWASH-13 KQ1L-14 (might still be KQ1L-6 and only be WIDEn-N?) KATHDN-15 LKOUT-1 Lookout montain 1 hop beyond Springer HTSVLE-2 Huntsville, 2 hops beyond Springer WPA-1 Western PA group if they join in CTLINK-1 Connecticut Group if they link up 8) STATUS TEXT: Two suggestions. Early on, you might want to beacon your intentions.. such as "have to leave at 4pm". Later on, once you have received several other stations, you might want to beacon "QSL 123456" meaning you are seeing packets from the main digi stations 1, 2, 3 etc.... 9) MESSAGE COMMUNICATIONS: There are several ways to use messaging for this event. MESSAGE SERVER: Logon to CQSRVR using CQ AT CQ AT as noted above. This will work for your station on 144.39. COORDINATION: Prior to the event and during set-up, CALL-to-CALL messaging should work on 144.39 using the national APRS channel. EVENT COMMUNICATIONS: In addition to the STATUS text that is included in each of your position packets (see above), you can alos use APRS messages sparingly. Since messages are only captured by addressed stations, but BULLETINS are seen by all, it is recommended that all official AT-GOLDEN-PACKET messages use the BULLETIN format, addressed to BLN#xxxxx where xxxxx are available characters we can use as a truncated TO-address. For example a message specifically to GDHILL but wanted for everyone to see, send it to BLN1GDH for example. MESSAGE OVERFLOW! Be warned, the D700 can only hold 10 or 16 messages and then it will REJECT ALL FURTHER MESSAGES. You will not be alerted, but your station will then hear no more and you will be jamming the net with REJECT packets. So keep PENCIL notes of messages and DELETE them when read to make sure that you always have enough room for incoming. SUMMARY CHECKLIST for any COORDINATION COMMS (subject to change): 0) FRIDAY before you leave, print out this page, and adjacent sites 1) Begin day with message to CQSRVR CQ AT CQ AT from station call-0 2) Initial coordination on the PUBLISHED repeater for adjacent nodes 3) Monitor 445.925 simplex direct when you are in place 4) During test times only, (backup) try VOICE on the AT channel 144.34 5) Use assigned AT-CALLSIGN-SSID on AT DIGIPEATER station on 144.34 6) Use same CALL-0 on other 144.39 coordination packet station 7) This way you can message other stations in the blind on 144.39 8) You can also message stations in the blind on 144.34 AT. 9) Remember all identical root callsigns will capture a message A) but only the SSID-MATCHING station will send back an ACK B) Send group messages via CQSRVR (allowed 1 per 30 min) as needed C) Send point-to-point messages using assigned calls. D) Send EVENT messages to BLN#xxxxx where xxxxs can show recepient D) Keep HOP7-7,HOP7-7 msgs brief and begin one less than 1 per 10 min F) Use HOP2-2 or so or 144.39 for coordination messages or others... G) Delete older messages to make sure to have room for incoming (D700 holds 10 (or 16?) but D710 holds 100) Save settings and callsigns in a PM, so that if power is cycled, you come back up and can continnue operating properly. Be sure to have set AUTO-PM-SAVE-OFF so that any screw-ups during operating do not get re-saved into the PM... Bob, WB4APR