[aprssig] Baker to Vegas & APRS

[Phillip B. Pacier]

Greetings!  It is time again to get ready for the Baker to Vegas race.  
This year, we will likely have 50 or more teams tracked on APRS with 
trackers in the follow vehicles.  This is one of amateur radio's largest 
volunteer events, with over 250 hams participating in the communications 
effort.  Every year, there is much debate over the tracking and the 
impact it has on the local and regional networks.  I think I have come 
up with a way to address the issue and still keep the local RF 
monitoring stations happy!  At any rate, if you are going to be at all 
involved in APRS with the Baker to Vegas race, I encourage you to join 
the Yahoo group I just created for the purose at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aprsb2v  Right now, it is an open group 
and open to all for discussion.  However, if it gets rediculous, I will 
actually moderate the messaging ;)  Here is a quick list of some of the 
new things that will happen with the race:

1. The race has a new official tracking URL at www.b2vtracking.com
2. ALL teams who participate in the utilization of APRS during the race 
must coordinate their efforts with me directly, and have their APRS 
communication forms signed by me following an inspection of the 
tracker(s).  There absolutely must be a central coordination effort, and 
I have been chosen to be that effort by the race committee.  In order to 
accommodate all of the trackers with a high level of accuracy, the 
coordination is extra important.
3. If you are utilizing OC RACES, the LA Amateur Radio Club, or any 
other organization in building, borrowing, or using tracker boxes, they 
still must be signed off by me on the final coordination.
4. Anyone who operates and APRS tracker on the race course who is 
associated with a team but who has NOT coordinated their tracker with me 
will subject their team to a penalty as outlined in the 2005 version of 
the race rulebook.  This includes any support vehicles or campsites that 
have APRS tracking.
4a. Anyone who is not affiliated with the race or with a team who has an 
APRS tracker on the race course is HIGHLY ENCOURAGED to coordinate their 
tracker with me.  While we may be able to accommodate other trackers on 
the race course, it is not likely that we will be able to handle any 
trackers along the course that are not associated with the race.  You 
are more than welcome to monitor the RF activity on your interactive 
tracker, but we ask that you please turn your beacons off if they have 
not been assigned a time slot by me.
5. We will be utilizing a race-specific path this year that will 
activate only the digipeaters along the race course.  We will not be 
utilizing WIDE, RELAY, or WIDEn-N on any of the trackers.  This will be 
done to minimize the spilling over of race traffic into other local 
networks, while allowing us to run a wide enough path to accommodate RF 
tracking along the race course.

If you have any other questions or comments, feel free to join the group 
and/or send me a private email.  Thanks for your time!

73
Phil Pacier - AD6NH
Baker to Vegas APRS Coordinator