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*                  ATGP 2019 Report for MT Equinox-12                    75
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Hello:

Only change at EQINOX-12 this year was from a car to a van, meaning 
slightly higher antennas in the site parking lot. Some pictures in the 
Photo section

Same parking location, same radio and antenna for the event.

The Wash-13 voice signal from last year was low (but readable) as well, 
but when you moved this year the signal jumped to S9, removing the 
intermittent voice and packet reception.

So not sure about different results this year, but glad you found a new 
spot and ended-up with solid signals.

Thanks,
----------------------- full report -------------------------------------

Jeff Marden/N1JCM (formally KB1TJI as per Yahoo)

For the 2019 Appalachian Trail Golden Packet Event, I signed-up for station 
EQINOX-12 on Mount Equinox in Vermont again this year. Third year here for 
me (after 4 years on Mt Greylock for this event).

My trip took 3hr 45min from SW of Boston to get there, and 4hr 35min to 
return using local roads rather than the highways. 

Mt Equinox was a mix of foggy/overcast and sunny, but temps only made it to 
~85 degrees, with a nice 5-8mph breeze that kept things comfortable.

Equipment included a go-kit Kenwood D710G, A D72 HT, An Icom IC-208 for 
repeater and simplex contacts, an Icom IC-92AD for local repeater 
monitoring and a power kit with 35AH batteries; one for the 710G and one 
for the 208.  I had 3 mobile antennas, using a 5/8 dual-band for ATGP work 
and a tuned 2M antenna for repeater and simplex experimenting.

Initial setup was complete by 10:30am and 1st contact was with MtWash-13 
voice then digipeated packets. MtWash-13 moved around a bit after some 
trouble with signaling, but found an excellent spot and his signal was 59 
after that on both 1200 and 9600. They then established contact with 
Kataden-15, Mt St Joe and the Canada folks.

Made voice contact with SamsPoint-10 next, but too far for direct packets. 
His S3 to S4 signal on voice at my location was good enough for reliable 
comms.

Contacted Grylock-11 via the Mt Greylock repeater at ~11:45am and he 
identified delays in traffic that would make him late. He subsequently 
came up on voice and packet shortly after 12:30pm. Then I started to 
receive packets from SamsPoint-10 and south. Eventually I saw packets 
from all stations including the golden packets to/from Springer-1 and 
Kataden-15 at 1200 baud (see picture).

At 2:30pm local we switched to 9600 baud. I saw 9600 packets from 
MtWash-13 and north immediately, but was having trouble receiving/ 
decoding 9600 packets from Grylock-11. He agreed to move higher and 
subsequently his signal got stronger and I received and digipeated good 
9600 packets from him and south successfully.

In between ATGP events I was able to ping other repeaters in the area. 
Obviously being 3800 feet high provided me excellent coverage and I 
contacted repeaters in New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and 
Massachusetts. On some frequencies I keyed-up 2-4 repeaters at a time 
and had one “pile-up” as folks from 3 different repeaters came back to 
my call.

I monitored ANSRVR and ATGP messaging and received several messaged from 
GDHill-8 during the event, digipeated north thru our links.

We closed-down at 3:00pm local after getting a message on ATGP packet. 

It was great to work with the folks at SamsPoint-10, Grylock-11 and 
MtWash-13 again this year for our part of the ATGP event. Hopefully 
we’ll see/hear folks again next year.

Jeff Marden/N1JCM (formally KB1TJI)