Winterfest Hamfest object

[Bob Bruninga]

Some APRS operator in the Vienna Wireless organization needs to be putting
out a HAMFEST object to alert all APRS mobiles of the hamfest.  There are
Several things that all hamfest planners should be doing:

1) Start beaconing the object on the air starting 2 weeks prior
   a) the object name would be HFEST-26a (shows the date)"a" is the first
one this weekend.
   b) The object text contains 146.91 MHz so that mobiles can instantly TUNE
to the talk-in by pressing the auto-QSY button on their APRS radios
  
2) Place the GPS coordinates on ALL hamfest flyers and literature

3) Plan on having a PC (with internet set to APRS.FI) or a stand-alone APRS
laptop at the talk-in operating position.  This way the talk-in operator can
SEE what is going on out there, and where everyone is.  This tremendously
assists him in helping people.

4) Once a day in the week prior, also send out APRS bulletins announcing the
event.

Now that there are a total of 8 fully integrated APRS radios on the market,
everyone can see this info on their radio front panels.    BUT ONLY IF THE
ORGANIZERS TX IT.

I'll put a sample object on the air here from Annapolis, but I'll be gone
Friday and all weekend, so I cannot maintain it nor assist with all the
other APRS details.

Please have your APRS folks review the APRS HAMFEST web page:

www.aprs.org/hamfest.html

Bob, WB4APR