I like it!! I think a Sunday morning works, say between 8am and noon in the local time zone.
Fran Signature Fran, W1FJM On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 8:12 AM, htwrobel <[email protected]> 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 > > > > > > > >
