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*                  ATGP 2018 Report for MT Equinox-12                    75
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Again this year I traveled to Mt Equinox in Vermont for the ATPG event; 
four hours to get there and five hours to get home (back roads). I arrived 
on the mountain at ~ 9:30am and setup. Although several hams I spoke to on 
146.52 simplex said otherwise, I followed the rules and kept the setup 
inside the car, with a D710G, 35Ah battery system and two 5/8 mag-mount 
antenna on the car ( one for 144.39 and the other for ATPG). I had a D72 
for 144.39 APRS and messaging.

By ~10:30am I made contact with Greylock-11/N4FWP by voice and packet. Next 
I heard from John/N2YP on Mt Utsayantha in New York, and John subsequently 
sent and received ATPG packets. Shortly thereafter I made voice contact with 
Mt Wash-13/WA1KLI and learned that his D7xx radio was dead and he would not 
be able to digipeat. Also on Mt Washington was KB1POR, and he and WA1KLI got 
together to setup a beacon  station using a Yaesu FTM-350.

As morning turned to afternoon, I received packets from MTSTJO-14, but voice 
contact was difficult. MTSTJO-14 was in voice contact with MTWASH-13. MTSTJO 
and MTWASH spent time trying to allow the chain to continue using KATADN-15 
to MTSTJO-14 to EQUNOX-12 to bypass the MTWASH digipeat issue, unsuccessfully.

In early afternoon, MTWASH made voice contact with KATADN and subsequently 
received beacon packets. Since the rely-thru-MTSTJO seemed not to work, we 
settled on  KATADN-to-MTWASH voice and packets, and then MTWASH beaconing  
with his message identifying the contact with KATADN. There was lots of 
additional work done between MTSTJO, KATADN and MTWASH in the afternoon.

By 1:00pm I received packets from SAMSPT-10, but neither I or GRYLCK or 
UTSAY were able to make voice contact with SAMSPT. After the SAMSPT packets 
came through, I began to receive ATPG packets from south and eventually 
logged packets from all of the stations south of me, 1 to 11 and UTSAY. 
This, along with the northern work above appeared to represent a successful 
chain from my perspective.

I also logged packets from KX4O-8, but never received and  packets or voice 
from the two new Canadian stations.

FWIW, I made several contacts on 146.52, 55 and 58 via an HT and mag-mount 
antenna.

I shutdown at 3:00PM and left Mt Equinox.

Comments and questions welcome.

Jeff Marden//N1JCM
EQUNOX-12
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Additional comments:

Everything packet I got from Sam's point was digipeated through Graylock or 
Equinox. Interestingly I also see from others reports that only a few of my 
beacons got out down the chain. They would have been N2YP (Ftm-350 vehicle 
through the Mt U Digi before I changed said for the ftm350), The digipeater
was UTSAY, and USAYNT was the ftm-350 when I changed it out about half way 
through.

John Rudolph
Amateur Radio Op N2YP
Unadilla,NY