Springer Mountain AT Golden Packet 2014 Report
Manned by: Tom KG4VUB, Frank K4SJR, and Glenn N4AZR
For 2014 we used the optional drive-up site at Springer Mountain. This site is located a short distance down the road from the actual summit, but has the advantage of an excellent line of sight path to Clingmans Dome across an open field.
We agreed to meet on the mountain at about 10am and we deployed my D700 digipeater and Diamond X30 vertical on a paint pole mast by 10:30am or so. While we were setting up Tom KG4VUB made voice contact with Larry K4AEC at Clingmans Dome off his mobile radio. We saw Clingmans Dome on APRS at about 11:10am and Roan came in a few minutes later. I set up a logging station running Xastir and managed to copy one beacon from Clingmans before it completely stopped working. I guess that is what you get for reloading Linux and not testing thoroughly before leaving home.
Oops!
At about 11:30am we saw Apple Orchard on APRS. This was interesting to us because we got word via UHF at about the same time that Comers Rock was still setting up. Did Apple Orchard reach Roan direct? This is an anomaly that should be looked at. I think we may have had a good 2m band opening on Sunday morning.
We spent the next hour or so watching stations fill in to the North and trying to get my logging station working. For some reason Xastir did not want to talk to my Signalink TNC. I have since gotten it to work perfectly with my D72 HT, so that's what I'll use for logging next year. I threw in the towel and Tom KG4VUB set up his TNC so we could at least see the raw packets. We were very happy when we saw Kathadin at about 12:45pm - we were all worried that Tim would summit Kathadin and head down before the rest of the stations got online. Lynn KJ4ERJ called me about the time we saw Kathadin and asked me to turn up my beacon rate to 2 minutes which I did right away, and my next beacon must have completed the Golden Packet from 1 to 15 at about 12:47pm.
Just for fun I tried to send a message to Kathadin with the text "golden packet". While waiting for this to send I stepped away from the D700 to get my camera to take pictures of the completed Golden Packet. When I returned I saw a (3) beside my message on the D700. I mistakenly thought that this meant the message had been ack'ed after 3 retrys while I was away but after reading the manual later I saw that it actually meant it was still working on the 3rd retry. Oh well. We tried to get Kathadin to send us a message back. I spoke with Lynn again by phone a few minutes later and found out that Tim was already on the way down from Kathadin.
Lots of messages and bulletins were sent at about this time too. We received messages from Sugarloaf, Equinox, Camelback, and Lookout Mountain - and bulletins from GD Hill and Hawksbill. We did reply back to Sugarloaf and actually got an ack back from them 14 hops away. Impressive! Sorry we didn't reply to the other messages guys. The D700 interface is not great for messaging and there was a lot going on. Near the end of the day we messaged Lookout Mountain which I think he received direct and got an ack from them too. We shut everything down at about 2pm.
Weather was pretty good the whole time - overcast and foggy with temps in the upper 60's to low 70's. We got a little rain while we were taking everything down but that was it. We talked to a couple of hikers driving down who were very interested in our setup once we explained it to them. Otherwise it was very quiet at the top of Springer Mountain. Our connection to Clingmans Dome was solid S9+ on VHF and UHF. We had marginal cell and 1X data service from Verizon. There was one spot near the front of my car where I could stand and get to my Yahoo mail, ANSRVR via APRSdroid, and make calls.
As of 2014 access to Springer seems best from Nimblewill Gap to the East. It is about a 1 hour drive from Dahlonega. Access requires driving on several miles of unpaved forest service roads. From the East FS#28-1 is very bumpy with lots of rocks and potholes to dodge. From there, FS42 from the East is very smooth and well maintained. To the West FS42 remains smooth but is very muddy. I got my car up there from the East and down to the West with no issues but take your time and go slow.
Special thanks to Tom KG4VUB and Frank K4SJR for scouting out the area for me so I could drive down from NC with no trouble! And thanks to all who have participated in this exercise past and present for a great time playing radio on Sunday morning!
While we were waiting for stations to the North to come in, we spent a lot of time talking about how to make the Springer Mountain site better for next year. The unanimous decision was to have a portable grill and cook hot dogs for lunch during the Golden Packet event!
73,
Glenn N4AZR