Anyone flying to the Burn this year?

[craigvince]

I flew in on Monday the 30th in our Duchess. I've never been before, and it's been many years since I landed on the desert floor, but it was quite uneventful. The airplane didn't know it wasn't on asphalt. Other than some dust in the landing gear, which blew out as soon as I took off, there was no evidence that I'd even been there.

[rvmills]

Greg Arehart and I did a formation flyover at Burning Man on the 31st. We were on a mission to compare the performance of our various APRS antennae, and thought a B-Man recce would be a fun adjunct. I don't know a lot about it, except clean RVs and trailers roll N&E through Reno going to it, and really dirty vehicles roll S&W through town on the way out (don't get me wrong, not belittling it, I know there's much more to it!)

We studied the online info, and were glad we did. There is a specified tour pattern and specified comm procedures: clockwise pattern, outside the city fenceline, with postion reports at clock positions from "The Man" (the centerpoint, 12 o'clock to The Man being due north). I was pretty impressed with the air to air and air to ground communications on our tour...they had their stuff together at NV88!

Here's a picture at about 10 o'clock, looking SSE.



So that's what 50,000 people in the desert look like! Reportedly the 3rd largest city in Nevada for the period it exists each year. I think the airport is just to the left of the city in this pic. Since I was wingie and had a photographer aboard to maneuver for, I didn't get a good look around at the airport.

Here's another at about 1 o'clock, looking SSW.



For perspective on where it is, here are our APRS tracks. Tahoe and Reno at the bottom, and Black Rock City (B-Man land) at the top, where we circled. Looks like they put up a repeater there during the event.



Satellite view...some pretty parched parts out there!



Glad you guys had fun out there. Had to work a trip on Labor Day weekend, or would have come out for the show and tell day, and given a few rides. Maybe next year! (I won't have to drink any strange potions or say any chants will I...I'm just joking of course!! )

Cheers,
Bob

[kevinh]

Originally Posted by rvmills

Greg Arehart and I did a formation flyover at Burning Man on the 31st. We were on a mission to compare the performance of our various APRS antennae, and thought a B-Man recce would be a fun adjunct...

Bob,

Great photos! I'm also curious - what did you find on your different APRS antennae?

[Paul Eastham]

I saw you guys go by the area on APRS before I headed out on Wednesday. It was good to know that the Gerlach APRS station was working!

Here are some random photos I took while there:
http://picasaweb.google.com/eastham/Bm2010#

You guys might especially like my packing job: water on the front floor, baggage compartment full up, folding bike in the passenger seat...bike doesn't fit with the seatback in place, so I threw that in as well for people riding along on short joyrides:

[NYTOM]

Outstanding report Paul.
That place is definitely on my bucket list.

[cjensen]

Originally Posted by NYTOM

Outstanding report Paul.
That place is definitely on my bucket list.

Mine too...I GOTTA get there someday...

[Greg Arehart]

Kevin,

The upshot of the APRS is.... we're not entirely sure. Certainly my wingtip j-pole got less hits than Bob's external antenna and maybe less than his gear-leg j-pole. But, he was running both wide 1-1 and wide 2-1 at least some of the time, whereas I was just on wide 2-1.

However, over labor day, I flew to CO with new settings (wide 1-1 and w9de 2-1 and got almost perfect results in places where I was unable to get a signal at all before (I got signals out at 8000 ft whereas before I couldn't get anything out even at 13000 ft). So, in my opinion, the wingtip works fine and the key is having the right radio settings.

That said, we expect to require more extensive testing to validate the hypothesis. Guess I'll just have to go flying again. Tough duty but someone's gotta do it.

And Paul, thanks for the photos - some really good photos and incredible confabulations!

greg

[rvmills]

Originally Posted by kevinh

Bob,

Great photos! I'm also curious - what did you find on your different APRS antennae?

Originally Posted by Greg Arehart

Kevin,

The upshot of the APRS is.... we're not entirely sure. That said, we expect to require more extensive testing to validate the hypothesis. Guess I'll just have to go flying again. Tough duty but someone's gotta do it.
greg

As Greg said, we're still testing. My trimmed down belly whip Loran antenna (CI-122SP) did great, and could get hits down quite low...often on the ground. The jpole in the gear leg stops getting hits at home field at about 700-1000' AGL. Terrain is an issue here...it does better in the flatlands.

I just pulled that belly whip as a speed mod, and installed a second jpole in the right wing, with a zig-zag pattern up and down to get more vertical polarization. Initial test yesterday showed similar performance to the gear leg antenna. Will test again today to see how it does in the pattern. Then Greg and I will do a side by side test of the tip jpoles to see if zig zagging it has much effect.

Originally Posted by NYTOM

Outstanding report Paul.
That place is definitely on my bucket list.

Originally Posted by cjensen

Mine too...I GOTTA get there someday...

Sounds like a future RV fly-in to me!

Oh, and by the way...Paul, that was quite a packing job...you were either in the Navy (AMHIK) or are very good at the game Tetris!

Cheers,
Bob