[BR BandPlan] Fw: [XBRAT] Playa Radio Communications

[Jeff Moore]

I know that there is some connection between AeroPac and StratoFox.  Is 
there any coordination going on in this case?
Jeff Moore
Bend, Oregon

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jamie Clay" <jamie at dph.com>

-----Original Message-----
From: arliss-bounces at aeropac.org [mailto:arliss-bounces at aeropac.org] On
Behalf Of Paul Hopkins
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 11:06 PM
To: Aeropac Members
Cc: ARLISS
Subject: [ARLISS] Playa Radio Communications

This is a first of a few emails about the radio communications facilities
that are available during AERO-PAC launches.  This time I'll present a brief
description of the radio facilities.  In the next emails I'll describe some
background history and more detail on how to access & use the systems.

The radio systems are setup and maintained by the club volunteers and are
available during the launches.  These communication tools have been used for
the past few years for a variety of things such as, coordination of rocket
launches, recovery, searches for rockets, tracking vehicles & payloads,
reporting project/rocket location, reporting/assisting stuck vehicles,
period check-ins with the flightline while exploring the playa, and calling
for medical assistance.

The radio communication systems are; 2 meter HAM radio repeater, GMRS/FRS
repeater, and a 70cm APRS digital repeater (digipeater).

The 2 meter HAM radio simplex repeater operates at 147.470MHz ctcss 100Hz.
This repeater has the largest coverage of the radio systems, covering all of
the playa and beyond.  It can be reached as far South as Empire, beyond
Sulphur to the East, beyond Hardin City to the north (towards Soldier
Meadows), and most of the western side of the Black Rock range.  I've even
used it from the east side of the Black Rock range bouncing the signal off
of the surrounding mountains.

The General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) / Family Radio Service (FRS)
repeater uses one of the shared GMRS & FRS frequencies.  This is a simplex
repeater (more about that later) which allows the use of inexpensive FRS and
GMRS radios.  With the lower power FRS radios, its coverage is a 10.5 mile
radius around the flightline.  Using the higher powered GMRS radios you get
more distance & coverage.  Putting that into playa geographic terms, its
coverage is  past the railroad tracks to the east from frog pond, trego
spring, more than 10 miles (from the flightline) up the Quinn river
(northeast), Black Rock springs (north), Mormon Dan peak (northwest).

The last system is a Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) repeater.
This is a digital repeater commonly called to a digipeater.  It is used to
fill-in coverage for the low power Beeline GPS trackers.  The Beeline
transmitter takes position information from a GPS receiver, reformats it as
packet radio data and transmits it on the 440MHz HAM band.  With the proper
receiver setup, you can receive the real-time latitude/longitude and
altitude of the rocket.  With the radio receiver attached to a computer
running APRS software, you can plot the Beeline location on a map of the
area.

In the next email, I'll explain the simplex repeater and how to use it.

Paul Hopkins
KE6DAX