MOUNT WASHINGTON, KB1POR 2011 REPORT                      26 July 2011
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                                           as reported by Lynn, KJ4ERJ

Ok, so what's the story with KB1POR-9, the "bonus" AT GP station on Mt 
Washington?

When I got my first call from John, WA1KLI on Sugarloaf, he reported 
being in place and ready, but not hearing anyone yet.  I confirmed 
that the south end was coming online, but I hadn't yet heard anything 
from the north end.  So, I decided to bring up a few MultiTrack 
windows (an APRSISCE/32 feature) on each of the northern stations to 
see if anything was moving on the national APRS frequency.

When I opened up GP-KATHDN, there was nothing moving anywhere in the 
vicinity.  Not a surprise there.

However, when I opened up GP-MTWASH, there was an APRS station, 
KB1POR-9, that had just left the top of the mountain.  Closer 
inspection showed that it was an FTM-350, and so was message capable.  
Not a digipeater, but at least a station.  So, I sent him an APRS 
message asking him to call my phone number.  About 2 minutes later, 
the phone rang.

Geoff said that my phone number came up on his radio.  I asked if he 
had heard of the Golden Packet event and he had.  I told him that 
our Mt Washington station was not yet on site, but the station to 
the north was available and would he mind going back up to the top 
to attempt a contact.  Amazing to me, he had both the time and the 
inclination to do so!  I filled him in on the HOP7-7 path and 
144.340 frequency and waited.

It was only 6 minutes later that I received contact confirmation 
between John on Sugarloaf and Jeff on Mt Washington.  Aren't 
Amateur Radio Operators amazing!  Thank you Jeff for being willing 
and able!

And it was only 2 minutes later that John called from Sugarloaf to 
report reception of the real MTWASH-13 station.  Geoff said that when 
he left the parking lot there was someone there setting up an 
antenna!

So, we ended up with a bonus contact on the links on the north end 
of the trail.  And that, as Paul Harvey was wont to say, is The Rest 
of the Story (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rest_of_the_Story for 
those youngsters out there).

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile and Win32
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And here is Geoff's REPORT:

Great job Tim!  The first few transmissions you made I could not hear 
you direct on Mt. Washington, however you must have moved because as 
you said I was able to hear you through the noise (S0-S1, but almost 
100% copy), if I was able to stay at the top when you had your beam 
I'm sure it would have been even better!  There was no way I could 
decode an APRS packet from you however with that much noise, that may 
be why MTWASH-13 couldn't copy you.  332 miles though is a great hall 
for 5W and a rubber duck!!

As a side note, I had ZERO interference on top of Mt. Washington on 
both the upper and lower parking lot with my FTM-350, there was an S0 
noise floor as well so it worked out perfectly.  I received my Kenwood 
TH-D72 back from repair today, so if we do this again and are in need 
of a station, I have a digipeater capable radio.

Geoff
KB1POR