[does] anyone set up a digipeater at Dayton, or do we rely on the local digi’s?
Proper operation of an event like Dayton would suggest that putting up a digipeater would be the worst thing to do. With over 300+ mobiles and portables beaconing away all in simplex range of each other, a digipeater would do nothing but drastically reduce the reliability of the channel by half or more.
The proper way to handle a ham radio event with a massive influx of APRS operations is to:
1) Have no digi at the focal point (Hamvention) 2) Have all digis going out 30 miles in all directions be ONE-HOP DIGIS ONLY. That is, they only respond to WIDE1-1 or WIDE2-2 and nothing else. They digipeat once and do callsign substitution so the packet goes no further 3) Strategic IGates are placed right at Hamvention so they hear everything in simplex range 4) Additional IGates are configured so that every surrounding digi going out 30 miles has an IGate to hear the one-hop packets.
5) Doing all the above, then the hundreds of APRS mobiles and portables do not have to change anything. They just drive into town with their normal WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 settings.
Bob, WB4APR