[aprssig] Re: San Diego Path Settings??

[Stephen H. Smith]

k1lpi at yahoo.com wrote:
> de K1LPI-1,
>
> Any one on the list using APRS in San Diego? It too me several days of 
> beaconing to get into the system. Only one packet and report reached 
> FindU and none since. I am at N32 47.79, W 117 13.67. Mission Bay at 
> Campland.
>
> I have tried wide1-1, wide2-2, and now trying relay,wide1-1,wide2-2. 
> Hearing very few packets on the frequency. Running 5 watts and a 
> KenwoodTH-D7A.
>
> Also tried running higher power with an amp. However, I wonder if the 
> delay on keying up drops bits? Is there a way to give a delay to the 
> kenwood before the first packet is sent?
>


WIDE2-2 or WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2 are the right paths for southern California.  
Unfortunately, geography is conspiring against you. 

1)  San Diego is an area of rolling hills and valleys, making the 
coverage of any nearby low-level digipeater very spotty.

2)  The coastline from Ensenada, Mexico, past San Diego north all the 
way up to Santa Barbara (about 90 miles north of L.A.) is a concave 
curve, yielding a low-loss path across water from just about anywhere on 
the coast to anywhere else.   This curving basically sea-level coastal 
strip, home to 17 million plus,  is backed by 2000-5000 foot mountain 
ranges where, naturally, everyone places their radio systems.

3)  Any high-elevation digipeater in any of the mountains framing this 
coastal arc hears absolutely non-stop traffic from the congested L.A. 
metropolitan area. 

[From my vantage point in Pasadena (about 15 mi northeast of downtown 
L.A. and about 35 mi inland from the coast) at 900',  I NEVER hear more 
than 2-3 seconds of dead air on 144.39, even at 3:00 AM.  When I beacon 
with a single-hop path from a 10W base station, I will hear THREE 
separate re-transmissions from three separate "super-WIDE" digis on 
different 5000-foot plus mountain tops.]

Bottom line, nothing less than 50 watts stands a chance in SoCal unless 
you happen to be practically underneath one of the digipeaters, as I am. 
[ I am about 3 miles southwestof the N6EX-3 digi in the San Gabriel 
mtns, and about 3000 feet below it with a line-of-site clear shot.  I 
can hit it fairly consistently with a TH-D7 on HI power. ]




--

Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
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