AT Golden Packet 2010 Quick Summary 26 July 10 ----------------------------------------------------------------- WB4APR Here is my quick summary for everyone. Looks like fewer stations were attempted this year, even though QST article on p99 of July 2010 issue gave good exposure. Success from Springer Mountain in GA up through TN and NC. Again, Comer's Rock in SW VA was not manned. But from Roanoke (AO mountain) through White Rock Cliffs, Maryland mountains, and GD Hill were all in contact. Nothing heard north of centeral PA however. Katahdin - no station Maine Relay - no station MtWashington - no station! NewHempshire - No station Greylock - No station Sams-pointNY - no report seen yet Camelback PA - Nothing heard from them G.D. Hill - OK Heard down to AO MD Mountains - OK Heard GD hill down to AO WV Mountains - OK Heard GD Hill down to AO but his HOPn-N digi NG AppleOrchard - OK Heard north to GD Hill Comers Rock - no station Roan Mountn - OK heard south to Springer Clingmans - OK.Heard North Roan to SOuth SPringer Springer Mn - OK Heard Heard North up to Roan Lookout Mtn - no station Huntsville - no station SPRINGER was heard to Roan. No detail report yet. CLINGMANS was heard both ways to Springer and Roan. ROAN was blocked from Public Parking lots at top of mountain because the park was closed! SO they had to choose one side of the mountain or the other. They were on the COMERS ROCK side but since it was unmanned, they were still able to link to Clingmans even though their line of sight was blocked. THey operated till 3 PM or so AO Mountain was the normal 144.39 digi switched over to 144.34 the week before for the event. It was heard well at the White-Rock Cliffs site on the VA/WV border. WHITE ROCK CLIFFS was one of the main heafty man-climb stations again this year and could easily hear AO and MD Mountain plus the link to GD hill. They were using a D700 configured 2 years ago by yours-truely, but for some reason it was not digipeating HOPn-N packets. SO the only way through them was to use the actual callsign WHTRCK-6. Then it was successful. GDHILL: D700 TX on Medium power packet and UHF: Antenna: single dual band vertical (3 dBi and 4.5 dBi) Schedule: DIGI on Air on battery about 12:30? RX SW to MD Mtns all 9 bars packet RX SW to MD Mtns all 9 bars on 445.925 voice Nothing ever heard from Camelback team or beyond Echolink? I did not attempt it this year. It was added to the event to test our readiness, but we had enough other problems than to add this to the mix... The stations that were manned this year seemed to be better prepared and more efficiently operated. We will definitely plan for this next year along with trying to get other long haul trails interested. At Field Day, we don't get no respect, never have in 20 years. Im tired of that. Lets make this a great annual event for VHF and Packet! I will make a more formal report, and Update ALL web pages with what you send me, but it will take a lot of time. Also will get an article into QST. Everyone should join the at-golden-packet@yahoogroups.com for the appalachian trail and pct-golden-packet@yahoogroups.com for those on the west coast. My main lesson learned in climbing GD hill in 105 degree effective heat and humidity was to carry ONLY what was needed. ONLY enough batteires for the 4 hour event, and ONLY enough water for the team for 4 hours, not 2 days. The D700 ran from 1230 to 1600 on medium power and only used about 2 amp hours of energy. We carried 52 amp hours of energy up there! Also PLAN ON RAIN! We are 2 for 2 so far at our site. Bob, Wb4APR