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If you are interested in RV tracking Fri afternoon

kevinh

Well Known Member
The best thing for me is being able to tell semi nervous SO's of travelling partners that they can track us from work. Here's a sample email. If you are interested in following our flight to NE California here's the sort of email I send to friends...

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We should be departing 1 to 1:30ish Fri, arriving 2:15-3ish (definitely by 4pm)

You can track us here:

http://www.mail2600.com/cgi-bin/track.cgi?call=KI6GII-1&last=1

Keep in mind that these ham radio trackers are done by volunteers, so I'm not sure of the coverage, but it should be good.

Our expected route is:

http://runwayfinder.com/?loc=ksql;O89

The airport we are going to:

http://airnav.com/airport/O89

We'll be coming back Sunday morning (or possibly Sat PM depending on how the thermals are)
 
So, it looks like a fair number of missed packets:

http://www.mail2600.com/cgi-bin/track.cgi?call=KI6GII-1&start=2008-06-19&stop=2008-06-23&elim=0

I wonder if removing WIDE1-1 my path (now just WIDE2-1) is causing fewer packets from reaching igates?

Previously I had flown almost as remote treks and still had almost all packets received. Unless someone things this is a dumb theory, I'll be adding WIDE1-1 back the next time I have the energy to remove the wingtip.

Btw: LOTs of fires and smoke in CA today. Flew over one huge one - fortunately the inversion layer kept the smoke pinned below me but it was just like flying over a cloud deck - zero vis to ground.
 
Antenna Pattern?

Looking at the digipeaters that your packets went through on the north and south bound legs, it seems you might have some directivity due to the wingtip antenna. You have a couple of cases where traveling north, you use one digi, and traveling south in the same area, you get another. I suppose it could be the case that people aren't leaving their equipment on 24/7, but that would be surprising.

Paige
 
Looking at the digipeaters that your packets went through on the north and south bound legs, it seems you might have some directivity due to the wingtip antenna. You have a couple of cases where traveling north, you use one digi, and traveling south in the same area, you get another. I suppose it could be the case that people aren't leaving their equipment on 24/7, but that would be surprising.

Yah - but I'm still more inclined to believe that removing WIDE1-1 must have a lot to do with this. Just a few weeks ago I flew a very similar route and almost all packets were received.

I'll do more testing...
 
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