[pct-l] Amateur Radio on the PCT -- Part 1

[doodad.pct at hotmail.com (Doodad PCT)]

I have discovered that two other radio amateurs are planning a PCT thru-hike 
in 2006.  Are there any more?

Part 1 of this series treats trail-based Amateur Radio using a VHF/UHF 
handitalkie.  Part 2 will deal with HF (short-wave) Amateur Radio, mostly 
using Morse Code.  Part 2 won?t come for at least a month, since it awaits a 
new technical development.

On my NOBO 2006 thru-hike I will be carrying an Amateur Radio handitalkie.  
Including four extra lithium AA cells and a spare antenna, the whole system 
weighs 410 g or 14.5 ounces.  Its transmitter produces up to 5 watts output 
and it covers the 2 m band (144-148 MHz) and the 70 cm band (438-450 MHz).  
The Kenwood TH-D7A(G) also will receive other frequencies, including the 
NOAA weather forecasts.  The handitalkie uses narrowband FM for voice 
operation as well as transmitting and receiving 1200 or 9600 baud digital 
signals.  Since low-power VHF and UHF communication is essentially a 
line-of-sight affair, there are numerous Amateur Radio relay stations, or 
repeaters, which are used to extend the range well beyond the horizon.  On 
the more remote parts of the PCT, I assume that I will be out of range of 
any of these repeaters, but over the course of the trek, I certainly will be 
able to access many of them.  I suppose the most important information I 
will be asking other radio amateurs will be short-term weather forecasts 
when I?m out of range of NOAA transmissions.  Amateur Radio operation 
requires a license.  For more information see:

<http://www.arrl.org/hamradio.html>

My handitalkie, in addition to the standard narrowband FM voice mode, is 
especially designed for the Automatic Packet/Position Reporting System 
(APRS®), a communications protocol which was developed by Bob Bruninga, a 
faculty member at the U.S. Naval Academy.  An Amateur Radio station using 
APRS can telemeter its current position and speed and altitude and heading 
if it is coupled to a GPS receiver.  In practice, I won't connect them 
directly; I?ll just occasionally enter my geographical coordinates into the 
radio manually and transmit my current position and some additional 
information, such as my NOBO PCT mile.  Once transmitted and relayed by a 
terrestrial or satellite station, that information will appear on the 
internet.  For an example, see the current APRS data from W1AW, the 
headquarters station of the American Radio Relay League, the National 
Association for Amateur Radio:

http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=W1AW&radar=***&terra=4&topo=2

Be sure to scroll down so you can see the street map, the weather radar 
chart, the aerial photograph and the topographical map.

APRS operation with my handitalkie also allows me to send text messages.  I 
can send a message of up to 45 characters to another APRS station.  In 
addition, I can send a brief e-mail, but the e-mail address is included in 
that 45-character allotment, so the longer the e-mail address, the shorter 
the message must be.  Here?s how that?s done with a fictitious e-mail 
address, in a situation where a planned Post Office stop in Seiad Valley 
would delay hiking too long because of a long weekend:

TO: EMAIL
sis@homey.us SendWA/ORguideToAshlandDoodad

APRS relay stations are not as readily available as FM repeaters.  On the 
PCT, therefore, I will be using Amateur Radio satellites frequently to relay 
my APRS transmissions.  Two such satellites were built by midshipmen 
(undergraduates) at the US Naval Academy under the supervision of Bob 
Bruninga.  One of those (PCSat2) is attached to an arm of the International 
Space Station.  There are currently eight fully-operational Amateur Radio 
satellites in orbit, three of US origin, one multi-national, and one each 
from Saudi Arabia, Israel, India and Japan.  For more information on Amateur 
Radio satellites, check out:

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php

If you are already a radio amateur or would like to become one, please 
contact me off-list.

Doodad
PCT NOBO 2006

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