APRS and Packet in Benton County

Packet radio is alive and well in Benton County. Local activity is usually on 144.97 MHz, since that is where the local nodes are. Some useful ID's to keep track of are:

CVO - the node on top of Good Samaritan Hospital
K7CVO - the keyboard in the Benton County ECC, operated by Benton County ARES
K7CVO-1 - the KPC3 mailbox for Benton County ARES
LYONS - a node to the northeast of Corvallis that allows easy access into Salem and the rest of the state.
N8GFO-7 - a Corvallis BBS (no mail forwarding)

There are, of course, many other stations in the area, but that's a short list of the full-time online systems I know about.

APRS is a system that uses packet to provide position and/or weather reports, and short messaging services. The nationwide APRS frequency is 144.39MHz.

You can observe APRS activity even if you don't have your own TNC and APRS software, by going to findu.com and looking for stations by call. For example, N8GFO's APRS monitoring station, which apparently sends out a beacon every now and then.