Tom - KI6FHA
Bob - KF7BVA
Frank - KG6JVE
Chazz - KF7FEN
Charlie - KJ6DSD
Bruce - KD6GCO
Dave - K6DTK
This will greatly simplify things as far as communications are concerned. Our guide in CDC and RRV will be using the radios extensively to talk about the areas and give everyone general information and answer questions. If you have an HT, you should bring it.
I will be posting the trip frequencies and some repeater information here shortly.
There are two areas we will begin developing now so that we will have enough time to be ready for the trip.
1. APRS.
To my knowledge, Tom, Bob, Frank, Bruce and Dave are running APRS in their vehicles. Charlie and Chazz, if you want to get set up, we can get you started with equipment recommendations and set up help. The set up can be the most challenging part of APRS. You will probably need a month or so to work out all the bugs and become familiar with how it operates.
The advantages of APRS include 1) ability of our group to keep tabs on all participants (especially useful in larger groups), 2) ability to give directions to other members of our group if we get separated, 3) ability of people back home to view our progress and know exactly where we are and 4) ability of everyone in our group to send email to family or friends and, in some cases, the ability to receive messages as well.
APRS works amazingly well, especially in areas where cell phone coverage does not exist. Our tracks from our trip last year in the Parashant are still available on APRS.fi and if you check it out, it is easy to see how well it actually works in extremely remote places.
At some point, we will need everyone to post their ssid, if you will be using one. I will update this post to include this info.
2. AIRMAIL
For those not familiar with the Airmail program here is an introduction from the Airmail website home page (http://id3431.securedata.net/siriuscyber/index.htm):
The essence of Airmail is the ability to send and receive email messages from your ham radio (just like you receive with your email account at home) anywhere in the world. It requires an HF radio, a Pactor modem (preferably III), a computer, and at least a General Ham license.Airmail is a messaging program (similar to Outlook) specifically designed for connection to a HF radio mailbox station. Once connected to a compatible station, message transfer is completely automatic. On the ham bands, Airmail can transfer messages automatically with any station supporting the BBS or F6FBB protocols, such as Winlink-2000 (http://www.winlink.org), Winlink, F6FBB and MSYS and other Airmail stations.
Airmail is one of the very few preferred and functional communication devices that work anywhere in the world and its ability to reach out hundreds or thousands of miles is one of its greatest strengths. Hector and I have been researching some installations and while we have not reached the end of the road, we have a good idea of the direction we will need to go. So, if you are interested, post up and we will get going.
If you want to participate, and need to upgrade to General, there is plenty of time to do so.