While you are between Sat passes, you can use your APRS HT to make APRS contacts all over the country too. They wont count for FD contest points, unless it is direct with no digipeater, but the opportunity to make a bunch of live APRS contacts during a global contest should be fun!

Simply activate your APRS station there by sending a Global CQ FD message to the world.

Just send an APRS message to CQSRVR with the first words being CQ FD XX SSS... (where XX SSS is your category and ARRL section)

This message will go to every other CQ FD site on the planet (if they have sent the same CQ message).

To make a contact, when you see one of these CQ FD messages from the CQSRVR, then you simply send back an APRS message to their callsign direct. When he acknowledges it, then it is a contact.

Of course, I have not even read the FD rules since, for a decade, such. APRS contacts do not count because they go via digipeaters. But HAVE FUN! Enjoy APRS and put your FD site on the map.

Use the PORTABLE symbol which is a tent...

For info on the global CQSRVR see: http://aprs.org/cqsrvr.html

And you can use it for ANY global message group any day of the year too. For example CQ AMSAT or CQ JOTA or CQ IOTA, or CQ SOTA

To keep the global traffic load down, you can only send one of these CQ messages once every 30 minutes, But when you see other callsigns, you can send direct message as many as you want since they go point-to-point.

Bob, WB4APR