Pretty much the reason I got into APRS and my ham license is because of what happened last year at this event. Just in-case you missed it, you can re-live Black Canyon SS7. So there we were in the middle of nowhere trying to get a hold of service. Now I’ve been to the middle of nowhere NH and the northern (welcome to Canada) middle of nowhere Maine, but this rally is 100 miles from nowhere, no cell towers, no coverage, middle of NOWHERE, I hope you brought spares.

On top of that, the organizers use a mix of amateur radio and GMRS service to communicate. That means your high power 2 meter rig can’t transmit on the frequencies of the repeater and your hand held TalkAbout is about 49.75 watts short of ‘making it.’ As for APRS, take a look at the APRS map for the area from our pals at aprs.fi. We’re well over 50 miles from a digipeater in rough terrain, I doubt that this rally will be able to be followed via the net. Even if our service crew picks up our packets there is little chance that any number of them will be relayed to the internet.

What I expect you’ll see is our tow out to Peach Springs, a few misc packets throughout the day, and our tow back. Far from the clarity of Prescott where you could tell where we were on stage by the minute. Although I’m disappointed in this, it will be a weekend of testing. So, if you have the time to take a look at our rally car tracking page over the weekend – we’d be interested in feedback.

Itinerary for the Laughlin International Rally 2007 Times are all PST
Tuesday – November 6th: Drive out from California to Laughlin, NV (12:00PM – 6:00PM)
Wednesday – November 7th: Reconnaissance (7:00AM – 6:00PM)
Thursday – November 8th : Reconnaissance (7:00AM – 6:00PM)
Friday – November 9th: Rally day one (9:00AM – 8:00PM)
Saturday – November 10th: Rally day two (8:00AM – 7:00PM)
Sunday – November 11th: Rally day three (superstage & rallycross) (10:00AM – 3:00PM)
Monday – November 12th: Drive home from Laughlin, NV to California (10:00AM – 5:00PM)