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1st Tracker Flight Report

grenwis

Member
Thanks to Pete and Sam for testing the waters on this and making it sound so good. I bought my 300 mW Micro-trak last week and built the antenna yesterday. I flew it today for the first time and was very impressed. I flew a big loop around Denver and the system never missed a single transmission even though my tracker was lying on the seat next to me and the antenna was taped to the inside of the canopy!

I made the antenna out of twin lead as described in Sam's post and couldn't wait to fly, so I didn't want to mount it inside the wingtip. Instead, I taped it at its midpoint to the central canopy bar and taped its ends to the inside of the canopy. In between it hung however it wanted. Despite that, this little 300 mW wonder successfully pinged a digipeater every time. Wow!

See the track at
http://aprs.fi/?call=KA4HRD&mt=m&z=7&timerange=10800

I learned a few things yesterday in testing it for the first time. I thought I would write those things down here in hopes it helps the next "newbie."

* When you turn power on with the GPS connected, the green light blinks for a bit and then stays on. That's good, but I don't know the criterion for making the GPS light stay on. Does that mean you've got position, or simply that you've gotten at least one satellite?

* When you program your unit, change the symbol used from the default to an apostrophe and your symbol on the web will be an airplane.

* My unit was only able to ping a local repeater from my house two times. Even when I turned off smart beaconing, I didn't get any hits driving around. Altitude is everything.

Awesome unit. Thanks Byonics.

Rick Grenwis
 
Rick,

Thanks! The green LED will flash on start up and reset, and light solidly when the GPS is sending valid position data.

Allen
VHS/Byonics
 
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