Ok I'm stupid. Whats a tracker (in this context) and why would one want to buy one? Why do HAMs use it?
My 10 years old BigRedBee APRS tracker is faltering and I am thinking of replacing it with something more robust and modern. Any recommendation from seasoned hams? Which tracker is the best? I am not a tinkerer and wouldn't build my own.
Ok I'm stupid. Whats a tracker (in this context) and why would one want to buy one? Why do HAMs use it?
My 10 years old BigRedBee APRS tracker is faltering and I am thinking of replacing it with something more robust and modern. Any recommendation from seasoned hams? Which tracker is the best? I am not a tinkerer and wouldn't build my own.
So the GPS antenna comes separate. Any preferred location for it Sam?
I would put it near the tracker. Some folks put all the components in a wingtip and power it off the strobe circuit. But if you have the tracker in the cabin you could put the GPS puck on the glare shield or pull a GPS data stream off of a GPS you already have installed.
Where is your present tracker located?
is that you'll never hear a quiet interlude on a packet channel on 2 meters. Ever.
Better to transmit in the blind, at a reasonable output power and interval, and hope for no collisions. Listen-before-transmit is good etiquette and good engineering for land-mobile stations and of course digi-peaters. It's pretty impractical for airborne trackers with any receiver sensitivity at all.
Sam, my old tracker is behind me sitting on top of left side baggage interior panel. Clear view of the sky under rear window. It has a built-in GPS and I was very happy with it till recently when it became "cloning" itself. I am the very minimalist and would love to keep it tight and compact. I don't any GPS installed so I can't port a signal to the tracker. Would love to keep the glare shield clear as well. Wingtip solution looks attractive but all that wiring... My APRS antenna is on turtle deck.
You may be right, but i wouldn't say "ever". I had a MT-TT4 in my plane and it worked fine except that it has only a 500mW transmitter and wasn't working at low altitudes properly. I'm now using the RTG which has a lot more power, but still love the idea of the version with a receiver especially if we could send/receive messages with it.
If nothing else, having a receiver could help determine what power we should transmit with. Hearing a bunch of stations we probably shouldn't be blasting out our packet at 10 Watts, or 50...
Lenny
Ok thanks Greg. I wiki'ed APRS and after reading a bunch of gobldie-gook I did finally figure out it was kinda SPOT-ish. Just wasn't sure why HAMs were the center of it all.
I get it now.
I've been flying with a Byonics RTG since mid-2011 and its has been "install it and forget it. Mine is self-contained in a wingtip with the little GPS "puck" stuck to the inside-top of the wingtip and a Pete Howell "beer/pizza money" j-pole stuck in the inside-bottom of the wingtip. Power is from the position lights circuit.