Hi Meadow Lesson 2

I was one of precious few who had a dual-band rig; when it became known that I had access to 70cm, I ran access to the resource net, which was on the 447.150 Conifer Mountain repeater Monday night. Apparently, it was useful, because I was pretty busy.

One thing which could have been real useful throughout the incident is APRS. Not only to be able to get a visual indication of all the locations of all the units, but also for its ability to show weather data. A map of the fire zone with weather reports overlaid probably would have been real appreciated.

Now, if one has a normal HT, like me (an Icom W32A), then if you're going to use APRS, then you've got to have not only an external TNC, but hopefully one which is light on the power consumption. Moreover, if you do this, then your HT is either for voice or data, but not both; a major disadvantage in the field.

There are, to my knowledge, three solutions: