[aprssig] APRS Coverage in Key West

[Steve Dimse]

On Apr 26, 2007, at 4:59 PM, Robert Bruninga wrote:

>> I'll be traveling down to Key West next month...
>> Looking at the current IS stream I'm not seeing any
>> digipeaters or anything down there.
>
> I think it has a WIDE,WIDE,WIDE,WIDE system because the TNC's at
> remote WX stations are acting as the digis, and to upgrade to
> New-N would require new hardware.

Correct

> If they simply made the old
> TNC's WIDE1-1 only, then they would me minimally New-N
> compatible, but only for 1 hop.

The county has no interest in APRS in general, they simply use this  
for a very specific purpose, to get weather to the EOC in Marathon  
during hurricanes and other emergencies.

> Their primary mission is to get the WX data to the Hurricane
> Center in Miami, so there has not been a lot of incentive to
> upgrade.

No, that is secondary to providing the data to their EOC in Marathon.  
With no digis over 100 feet in the Keys, the path to Miami is  
unreliable.

> But for disaster response, I would think that
> upgrading to the higher network efficiency of the New-N system
> could be justified for incoming first responders with APRS....

There simply is no interest in their part. I tried years ago (when  
there still were a dozen local users) without success. Now there are  
no local RF users, so there is even less reason.
>
> Fortunately, running W,W,W,W on a linear string of digis in such
> a sparse area does not have the disadvantages of dupe
> multiplication that it has in 2dimensional systems elsewhere.
> SO maybe try W,W,W once you get south of Miami.

Few packets will get through to Miami and the Internet System. There  
is no IGate here, and no local RF users. Getting packets up there  
depends on propagation, it is not unusual to shut down for days. Look  
at any of the weather stations for a visual display of this (this is  
the Key West one):

http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?call=KQ4AZ-1&last=240

Bottom line, turn off the APRS rig, there are much better things to  
do here than play ham radio anyway!

Steve K4HG