APRS в польских Альпах

В этом году, в мае месяце, Боб Брунинга (WB4APR) побывал в польских Альпах и был удивлён той активности APRS, которую он обнаружил там. В результате этого родилась его статья, которую вы можете прочесть на англ. языке.
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Using APRS in the Polish Alps

Wife arranged a quick visit to see daughter in Poland, I carried the VX8R, mic/GPS, and lightweight charger to avoid baggage charges on my one rolly bag under 10 kg. Without the manual, there was a lot of on–the–job training. After 12 hours in Heathrow and Stanstead airports in London, I copied two APRS stations. On arrival in Krakow, Poland, my radio filled completely (40 stations) in 30 minutes. Although it takes five key functions to move from one station text to another, eventually I got into a rhythm and could scan through all 40 stations in a few minutes to see what was going on around me.

Coverage in the Old City Krakow with all the tourists was good. Using the above scrolling technique, I found one frequency object and three stations announcing their frequencies. Glad to see they were up on the New–N paradigm as well! But since I did not know the repeater offset in Europe, nor the tones, I was never able to make a contact. I sent BLNs asking about the frequencies etc, but never got a message back. Shame on me for not doing my homework before I got there.

The next day we went along with my daughter’s student group and their Polish professor south on a bus to Zakopanek, then a small bus to the mountains where we were dumped along side the road and pointed up the mountains saying “its only a short walk from here.” Our rolly bags gave us the big advantage to all the hikers with heavy backpacks... for the first 30 minutes. Then it was a scene out of Laugh–In as we had to carry our rolly bags the next 6 km and two hours up the mountain path to the “lodge.”

Next day, the short 300–lb Polish professor suggested we go on a short hike (4 km and 600 m straight up). We got to the top of Grzes at 1650 meters with clear horizon in almost all directions on the Slovac border. The HT was buzzing with stations, and I was excited to enter mine. Anyone who has heard my talks has heard me say that “no one needs a GPS unless they are lost or cannot read a map.” So I had left my GPS down at camp, and figured I would just pull it off the map when we got wherever the professor was leading us. Later we learned his nickname was “mountain goat.”

The trail had lots of people, everyone had a map of all varieties. No one had a GPS, and none of the maps had any coordinates! So my radio continued to beacon my position as if I was in Krakow! ARGH...

We had lunch sitting amongst the bushes out of the wind and then we started back down, but not the mountain goat. He said “no, this way.” My wife and I and the English professor, who was also along suggested “no... this way.” Three hours later we were back at the lodge, but I was able to monitor the travelog on my HT from my daughter and her friends who followed the mountain goat up another 6 km along the mountain ridge and 400 m up to the mountain Wolowiec at 2050 m. As they came down, there was snow and a group in front of them slipped and slid and had to be evacuated by helicopter.

Anyway, using only the VX8R slipping in and out of my pocket was a joy. Also, I think next trip I will not take the speaker mic, but just use the GPS attached right on the HT. I normally never use a speaker mic on any of my HTs as just something else in the way, so I think I bought the speaker mic/GPS to make sure it was high on my body. But the sensitivity of the VX8R GPS is so good, that using the GPS mounting clip to the HT itself would better match my style and be more compact.

The radio ran all day (10 hours or more) and the VX8R was still running on its original charge. I did not use the GPS, but I was in frequent QSO with my daughter, so the radio was on the whole time.

By Bob Bruninga, WB4APR
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Источник: http://www.tapr.org/psr/psr109.pdf или http://www.tapr.org/pipermail/aprssi...ay/029606.html