[aprssig] Named stations without valid callsign

[Stephen H. Smith]

On 9/9/2012 1:16 AM, Sander Pool wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I drove from San Jose, CA to Point Reyes today and had my D72 running APRS. I 
> was just reviewing the stations I received and noticed 'TOULON' which was 
> forwarded first by 'COREY' and last by 'WARD'. These and quite a few other 
> non-hamcall stations appear to be operational in that area. All have an 
> arrl.net email address associated with them on aprs.fi so they appear to be 
> maintained by a ham.
>
> Is this use of non-callsign igate names allowed?

These are "tactical" calls and are the names of mountain top digipeaters.  The 
legal calls are usually in the comment field or status fields of the APRS beacons.
>
> As an aside my little 5W HT with duck antenna clamped to the window did quite 
> well. 100+ miles reception range in some cases.
>

Ahah!    Another easterner discovering what happens when digipeaters are 
located on mountain tops 3000-4000-5000 feet or more above the areas they 
cover, instead of only a couple of hundred on a "tall" tower.

As a W8 originally from MI who lived in CA for 30 years,  I always found the 
opposite amusing.     Amateur radio newbies who started their ham career in CA 
with 2M hand-helds using FM repeaters multiple thousands of feet up in the 
mountains that rim  Los Angeles, the Bay Area or the central valley of CA 
became accustomed to consistent ranges of 50-70 miles.  When they traveled east 
of the Rockies, they couldn't understand why the usable range of their radios 
dropped to only 5-10 miles!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
EchoLink Node:      14400    [Think bottom of the 2M band]
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> Thanks,
>
>     Sander W1SOP
>
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