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*                  ATGP 2019 Report for GD Hill  by Bob, WB4APR          75
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Quick report for GDHILL.  Links were quick and OK, except MDMTNS-7 was not
decoding all my packets.  We suspected a deaf D7XX on his end, but he 
changed radios and still was not perfect.  I had to go to High power and
move my fixed antena to see if I was in a null.  These should not have been
necessary, since I can hit MDMTNS with an HT and stub atnenna from my site.

This year we had good UHF voice with Camelback but only when he pointed his
beam my way.  Otherwise, I could never raise himi when I wanted him.

I learned 3 things:

1) You guys are amazing! to do this every year.  I was exhausted, but my 
strong son pulled me through (and up, and down, the mountain and tower etc)

2) I had a D72 HT without an antenna at the site and found it was essential!  
It saw EVERYTHING that my station digipeated and nothing else.  This was a 
real eye to what was going on and along the chain.  Since I was entering 
data , sending messages, reviewing lists with the main D710, there are so 
many packets I would not have seen, had it not been for the D72 always 
displaying every one.  Also it constantly proved that my station WAS 
digipeating and which way consistently and always.   If I had relied only 
on what my D710 displayed I would have been half in the dark

3) Forget 1200.  9600 worked so well and so fast, that we can easily double 
our throughput speed and don't have to wait ten minutes for each possible 
golden packet.
4) I had solid links both ways, but MDMTNS was having problems hearing me 
100%.  We suspect the common 10dB front-end-filter failure but not sure.  
This is a problem that normally no one is aware of because it is so rare 
to try weak signal work, and so normal repeaters and digis have plenty of 
signal.  When I had my lab in the past, I wouild test each rig before the 
event.  A good number have failed.

My 30 year old nicd pack of D cells maintained voltage from beginning to 
end at 12.8v due to a 1 amp solar panel in parallel.  Didnt need the 5 
spares we hauled up there.  And I was operating at high power half the 
event to solve the link south.

Again, you guys are amazing!

I didnt even try the satellite,  Was exhausted and didnt have an SMA 
connector for the HT and arrow antenna.

Bob, WB4APR