Santa Claus appeared in Centre Region neighborhoods Christmas Eve courtesy of the Alpha Fire Company.  For more that two decades AFC used their fire truck sleighs decked with Christmas lights bringing Santa to the neighborhoods to the delight of children of all ages.  So everyone had a chance to see Santa and his elves Woody, K3YV, and Carmine, K3CWP, equipped Santa’s sleigh with APRS beacons.

In 2020 the Santa Express was canceled because of the COVID Pandemic.  This year with appropriate cautions Alpha was able to resume this popular event.

Two battery powered VHF stations in tool boxes are placed in the sleighs with magnetic mount antennas, TinyTrak TNCs, and GPS antennas.  The stations are set to beacon Santa’s location every 15 or 17 seconds and the public is instructed to look for SANTAE or SANTAW on the aprs.fi website.

Not only the public benefitted from this service.  Carmine followed the tracks and recorded the times that Santa entered each neighborhood and preserved the tracks for mapping in the future.  All of this will help Alpha plan the 2022 Santa Express.

Carmine Prestia, K3CWP