Sounds like an interesting and fun idea, you can count me in.
Dave - KB1PVH
On Thu Jul 1st, 2010 8:12 AM EDT htwrobel wrote:
>DStar is a really terrific new technology for the ham community. The
>innovative use of gateways and reflectors has made possible an easy,
>convenient wide area network where hams from around the country (and the
>world) can talk. I love the mode, but I have been wondering why the
>simplex side has been largely ignored.
>
>
>Given the high audio quality and somewhat improved range over
>traditional FM in the VFH / UHF bands I wonder what might be
>accomplished in a purely simplex manner. Given the recent awareness of
>the possibility of cyber attacks on the internet, or the possibility of
>solar events damaging the network infrastructure I wondered what DStar
>might offer as a partial solution.
>
>
>
>As test of the capabilities of DStar I have wondered if it would be
>possible to pass a message from corner-to-corner across the country, say
>from Boston to San Deigo. Some folks say it can't be done, some think it
>might work. I would like to try.
>
>
>
>I envision something like the 'wave' at a stadium. (remember the RADIO
>RELAY part of ARRL?) Everyone gets a chance to play.
>
>
>
>Here is the outline of the proposed experiment.
>
>
>
>On a selected date, with lots of advance notice, a message will be sent
>from a Boston station operating on the local simplex frequency. That
>message would then be passed to as many other stations as possible.
>
>
>
>The rules are really pretty simple – pass the message via simplex to
>any station south and/or west of your own position. Basically we need
>to contact stations with a grid square lower than our own, or a local
>station in the same grid that is south and west.
>
>
>
>I propose that the experiment be conducted on some convenient day –
>like Sunday morning, with a two to three hour window in the local time
>zone.
>
>
>
>The message exchange will simple be the (short) message, callsign, and
>gridsquare. The submitted QSl data should include the time and
>frequency as well.
>
>
>
>If we can collect all the QSL info from each operator we could look for
>all sorts of interesting data like longest single hop, most messages
>sent, most messages received, highest miles-per-hour, fewest hops per
>mile, activity by state and probably a bunch more. I would love to
>crunch the data and make it available to the Dstar community.
>
>
>
>I have a lot of questions so I'm looking for any suggestions or help the
>group can provide. Some questions are:
>
>
>
>1. When is the best time to try such an experiment?
>
>2. Would it make sense to try it more than once, maybe every two months,
>maybe alternating direction?
>
>3. What to do when the chain is broken? This is a big one since it
>wouldn't be much fun the have half the country waiting for a new station
>to fill in a blank space. I'm really stumped by this one. Is there some
>sensible way to start a new message on the far side of a broken chain? I
>suspect someone in our group has the answer.
>
>4. How to report contacts to some central site. I'm sure the contest
>folks know exactly how to do this, but I really don't know the mechanics
>of collecting QSL data.
>
>
>
>Anyway, I hope this might start some discussion that can get the
>experiment launched.
>
>
>
>Thanks & 73
>
>
>
>Ted W1GRI
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