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APRS first flight report

kevinh

kevinh

Well Known Member
So I took my microtrak 300 out to enjoy the crystal clear day - using a rubber ducky antenna from my handheld radio attached to the canopy with masking tape. Two alternative views:

http://www.mail2600.com/cgi-bin/track.cgi?call=KI6GII-1&last=1

http://aprs.fi/?call=KI6GII-1

Pretty cool! I'm trying to figure out why a bunch of my back and forth along the coast doing cuban 8's didn't show up. I suspect I'll either need to play with smart beacon settings or just increasing the interval...

I did notice that even with only 300mw, no problems getting pings from the ground.

http://aprs.fi/info/KI6GII-1 shows that many of my points were picked of 300 miles distant in central ca - I was about 6000' msl & agl along the coast.
 
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kevinh said:
So I took my microtrak 300 out to enjoy the crystal clear day - using a rubber ducky antenna from my handheld radio attached to the canopy with masking tape. Two alternative views:

http://www.mail2600.com/cgi-bin/track.cgi?call=KI6GII-1&last=1

http://aprs.fi/?call=KI6GII-1

Pretty cool! I'm trying to figure out why a bunch of my back and forth along the coast doing cuban 8's didn't show up. I suspect I'll either need to play with smart beacon settings or just increasing the interval...

I did notice that even with only 300mw, no problems getting pings from the ground.

http://aprs.fi/info/KI6GII-1 shows that many of my points were picked of 300 miles distant in central ca - I was about 6000' msl & agl along the coast.
Click to expand...

316.8 miles with a rubber ducky!! I believe you have the record so far. :) The repeater was in Atwater, near Merced. That's on the other side of the mountains, isn't it? That guy must have quite a tower.

Not only that, the little antenna works nicely when you are 13.1' below sea level. You keep your plane in a bunker?

Great data, especially from such a modest antenna, 300mw seems to be working very nicely for you. You lost a few packets, but not surprising considering the locale and antenna. Once again, no serious frequency congestion problems. It's looking like APRS for our pilots in urban areas may be very doable.
 
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Cool, was wondering how the coverage was around here. I'll probably be content with looking at my after-the-fact GPS logs uploaded into Google Earth, though.
 
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