No problem Ev,
First a disclaimer: I nearly never operate a VHF+ contest from home. I
almost never operate a VHF+ in a single op' category. I do not want to
have this conversation co-opted or hijacked into an argument about
allowing or not the use of APRS data in a contest.
Since there are relatively few rovers in the southeast, and very few
of them use APRS (or HamIM) I would hardly have called it a strategy.
Depending on where I am and what internet connectivity I have, I am
using the web server function built into UI-View on my home UI-View
server or one of the APRS-IS network connected sites. My favorite is
http://aprs.fi/ .
At home I have a receive only RF to internet gateway listening to the
standard APRS channel of 144.390 MHz. I forward ALL heard packets to
the APRS-IS network at large. My server never transmits RF on 144.390.
This allows me to provide a service to the Atlanta area community (and
beyond) as well as not cluttering 144.390 with extra stuff from
another fixed station. In my connection settings within UI-View, I use
the filter string of "filter s/p b/nx9o-9". This causes the network
connection to forward back to my server only the packets that have
their APRS symbol set to "p" and any packets originated from my truck,
NX9O-9. The net result is that my home server will always have the
latest data from any APRS station with the rover "p" symbol. Within
UI-View it is possible to sort the station lists by symbol which makes
the rovers easy to find. The NX9O-9 part of the filter is a selfish
indulgence that allows me to have all of the APRS-IS captured data for
my driving trips forwarded back to my home server and saved to a log
file.
During contests I have tried filtering down to only the rover symbol
and the callsigns of the few rovers expected or known to be within
range. This was done in UI-View when we had limited internet
connectivity at W4NH. With improvements to cellular data coverage, we
have been able to sustain better internet connectivity. Since there
were really only one or two rovers squawking APRS in the southeast at
most, I gave up on bringing the extra hardware to operate an APRS
receive station to the W4NH contest efforts. We use the internet
connection from the existing logging PC's to spot check for rovers (as
well as tropo', cluster and other VHF activity sites.)
In the end, its no big deal. Just another small tool to add to the
pile. Data connectivity makes a bit easier though.
Cheers,
Brian
NX9O
Usually 222 captain at W4NH EM85jm, but not this weekend for CQ VHF from EM74ao
On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 6:22 AM, Ev Tupis<w2ev@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> > Please consider changing you symbol from car (>) to
>> > rover (p). I use a symbol filter on my APRS feed that
>> > causes rover symbol stations to be highlighted. Just
>> > a thought. The rover symbol was recommended back
>> > when APRS for rovers was brand new.
>
> Brian...would you mind describing your rover-tracking strategy to the
> full-list? What software do you use, how do you set it up to highlight
> Rovers, etc?
>
> APRS (and it's simplex version called HamIM) is a very powerful and
> underutilized resource for tracking Rovers. We could all benefit, if you'd
> be willing to share.
>
> Kind regards,
> Ev, W2EV
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