I was off from work on Friday and ended up doing a lot of driving. The main reason is my parents were up visiting my brother (lives outside of Philly) for the weekend and we wanted to get everyone together. With what was already planned for this weekend, Fri night dinner was really the only reasonable option.

The first trip of the day was to meet my sister-in-law halfway between our houses to pick up 1 of my daughters who spent the week with her and her kids. Later in the afternoon one daughter, my wife and I set out to head south to Pt Pleasant Beach to pick up my older daughter that was there with a friend and her family. It should have taken closer to 1 hour but with all the traffic it was 2 hours. After picking her up we headed west for 1 hour to Princeton to meet up with my brothers family and my parents for dinner.

After dinner and a great cupcake it was time to take my older daughter back to Pt Pleasant for the remainder of the weekend. After dropping her off, we set off for home and without any traffic it took the appropriate amount of time.  For the day I put 312 miles on the car.  Below is a track from aprs.fi for the day.   The route was pretty much the same going and coming.  APRS coverage was pretty thorough along the routes. I didn’t hear much on simplex other then 1 or 2 short conversations but I was able to hear many of the repeaters I already had programmed into my Kenwood TH-D7A other then along the route between Pt Pleasant and Princeton.  APRS.fi’s data showed packets being received up to 79 miles from me with a couple over 50 miles away. There could be more, but only the 1st station that logs the transmitted packet is recorded.

The things we do so the grandparents can see their grandkids! It was nice to see my parents too, even if for just a couple of hours.

73,
K2DSL