Updated May 2021… see below for comments
So, from time to time, I get to travel to Mississippi for work. I’m lucky enough that my company allows me to drill an antenna hole in the roof and install a radio in my pick-up. Since 2017 I have had a Kenwood TM-D710GA in my my vehicle and it has been a very good companion over MANY miles around the southeast.
The 710 is a dual band 50 watt rig that has a built in GPS and TNC so it is set up for APRS location tracking. Just like my phone, I’m essentially beaconing my position ALL the time. When I’m going on a trip I program the listed repeaters along my route so I’m never out of contact. I began this before cell phone coverage was ubiquitous.
Last summer I had a need to go to Greenville, MS for work. As per usual, I programmed the repeaters along my route. And took off for western MS all the while beaconing my location via APRS. When I left Tuscaloosa, I noticed I couldn’t bring up the repeaters along Hwy 82. I’m not sure I brought up a single repeater until I was on my way home 3 days later. My APRS signal disappeared about that same time and I was at the mercy of the cell phone companies. I feeling I HATE.
So that brings me to this week. I had some meetings in Memphis this week. Well the best route from N. Georgia to Memphis takes me to ATL, the to Birmingham then up I-22 to Memphis. This is a route I’ve taken many times but this time I paid attention to the APRS and the path that made it to the internet. WOW. There’s NOTHING for i-gates in MS. I kind of expected it on last summer’s trip to Greenville. I didn’t expect it along an interstate.
I’ve been all over the southeast since installing a 50 watt APRS beacon in my truck. There are drop outs here and there but nothing like this. Half the repeaters didn’t pull up and there was no APRS until IN Memphis. From my hotel I can monitor APRS and hit a local I-gate with 5 watts. This is fairly typical for an urban environment. I’m just disappointed that so much of MS has been lost to Amateur radio.
I hope this doesn’t continue. I enjoy ham radio when I travel and the V/U repeaters are apparently a dying infrastructure in the southeastern US or at least in MS.
DSF
UPDATE>>>>>>>May 2021
I took a trip from North Alabama to Memphis and I have to say that APRS as well as repeater coverage was much better than in the central and southern part of MS… I will say my thoughts above are only partially founded. I hope I have not offended many.