[CRAPRS] APRS coverage of the Atkins to Marshalltown MS-150 bike route

[Bob Klaus gmail]

FYI:  
I drove the route of next weekend's MS-15 bike ride (Atkins to marshalltown and back) http://bikenth.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/NTHBikeEvents?fr_id=10600&pg=entry
I had a 45 Watt Icom IC-3220H transceiver connected to an OpenTracker2 TNC.

I thought there was a digipeater in Marshaltown. Evidently not.

You can see from the attached track that coverage is great until I descend into the Salt Creek valley 2 miles east of Hwy 63.  Only two beacons were received west of Hwy 63, both at high spots: 1 mile west of Garwin and at Green Mountain.  These beacons were picked up by N0INX-1 (Grimes) and  N0BKB-1 (Arbor Hill).

A temporary fill-in digipeater located at Green Mountain (elevation 1024 feet) should cover the western half of the bike route.

Bob Klaus
N0YWB
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