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ZL3AI > APRDIG 05.07.06 11:39l 250 Lines 10008 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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From: ZL3AI@ZL2BAU.#87.NZL.OC
To : APRDIG@WW
Message: 6
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 12:19:25 +0300 (EEST)
From: Juha.Nurmela_at_quicknet.inet.fi
Subject: RE: [aprssig] Digis everywhere
On Mon, 3 Jul 2006, Dave Baxter wrote:
>traveler, what the local APRS working frequency is. 144.390 is well
>known world wide as used in the USA, and 144.800 for Europe? And there
>seem to be one or two others in use elsewhere arround the globe too.
Not much gained, for very few people, but what rules would an automated
frequency change have ? Longitude over Atlantic ? Left/right from Iceland ?
Juha, OH5NXO
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Message: 7
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 09:23:26 -0400
From: "Robert Bruninga" <bruninga_at_usna.edu>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] WTB:passive gps antenna
Use a 1/4 whip. Much simpler and will still give excellent omni radiation
inside the trailer. Except directly underneath it where the GPS will only
be 4 feet from it and will still get enough signal. Bob
>>>wes_at_kd4rdb.com 07/02/06 4:03 PM >>>
>Does anyone have a passive helix type gps antenna laying around that they
>aren't using? I'd like to make a GPS repeater to get gps signals inside
>our trailer and just need a re-radiating antenna for the inside. I'm going
>to use an amplified antenna on the outside connected to a BNC T, feed 5v
>into the center to run the amp and hook a non-amplified antenna to the
>other side of the T.
>
>Wes
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Message: 8
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 10:06:37 -0400
From: "Robert Bruninga" <bruninga_at_usna.edu>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] Track of road trip
jmaslak, great post!
>... I'm surprised at how well I was tracked for the trip:
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/track.cgi?call=N7XUC-7&geo=usa.geo&start=500
Wow, that is good coverage all over the northern USA, and probably
the Ohio problem is simply OLD digis that are not New-N compliant.
>I'm pretty close to concluding that voice alert is next to useless
>(1) not many people enable it,
>(2) use by unattended fixed (!) stations, that cause users to turn it off
>(3) sometimes things aren't set up exactly right or one person
>can hear the other but not vise-versa.
Yes, it is surprising how when we make a post about Voice Alert, all we get
is flack from the nay sayers. when in fact it is perfectly viable and costs
absolutely nothing to implement except turning the volume up and setting
CTCSS (in the mobile). I just did an 1800 mile round trip, and heard only
one Voice Alert station too.
But that was still more than I heard on "52".
>In summary, I'd encourage people to do "little" things like
>promoting their hobby a little bit in appropriate ways.
>You might be surprised how well received it really is.
Amen!
We need to PLAY radio out where radio is practical (while mobile and in the
field) and where actual humans are at the controls. Not let our hobby
dissolve into just another internet application. But of course, our APRS-IS
is the window to our hobby for those outside looking in...
Bob, Wb4APR
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Message: 9
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 10:24:11 -0400
From: "Robert Bruninga" <bruninga_at_usna.edu>
Subject: RE: [aprssig] Digis everywhere
Regarding putting low power DIGI's in Airports:
On Mon, 3 Jul 2006, Dave Baxter wrote:
>Not much gained, for very few people...
Well, I disagree. Our local airport served 20 million last year. That is
54,000 per day. And since the Ham population is 0.2% of the USA
population, that is about 770 Hams per week pass through that airport.
Lets say half of them are not local, that is a pretty good sized CAPTIVE
audience that has no ham radio means to communicate if he doesnt know the
frequency of the local repeater or the local IRLP or ECHO node, or if he
cannot get his Email or APRS message out.
A guy sitting in his basement shack doesnt much need APRS to give him local
info. But the APRS user passing through an airport does. AND:
*** It is a very high density short range focal point. AN ideal location
for a DIRECT packet giving the traveler all he needs to know. And being
short range, it has a guaranteed chance at updating his HT, and similarly
it has an extremely small impact on the surrouiding APRS infrastructure.
Its a cheap kill.
But only if you believe that Ham radio has any future at all. If one thinks
that "why bother" they all have cell phones, then surely this hobby is on a
dead end course to extinction!
Bob, WB4APR
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Message: 10
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 10:28:20 -0400
From: "Robert Bruninga" <bruninga_at_usna.edu>
Subject: [aprssig] APRS touch Tone
REgarding the APRS Touch Tone system, APRStt, the problem is, that I wrote
it in QBasic for DOS and so one has to add an external chip DTMF decoder...
but read on... You can use it without that if all you want is the APRStt
APRS==>Voice conversion.
I really never expected many people to do that, but what I DID expect was
that some windows progrmmer would write an all-software version since a
sound card can do ALL THREE required APRStt functions:
1) Decode the DTMF from DTMF users
2) Generate the Voice responses to the DTMF users
3) Communicate with PACKET on the APRS channel
APRStt fully defined all the formats using DTMF to send callsigns,
messages, positions, objects bulletins announcements, email etc...
APRStt really is a fantastic concept for APRS. It simply turns EVERY HT
with a DTMF keypad into the full functional capabilities of the TH-D7 APRS
ht by simply doing the keypad decoding (from DTMF) on the air at a central
APRStt decoder instead of inside the radio. This way EVERY ham at an
event can enter APRS positions, data and messages, etc. Not just those
with a D7.
And then instead of a screen display, they get VOICE responses such as:
"LEAD was 3.5 miles north east of FINISH at 0909"
"W3XYZ was 4.5 miles south of the repeater at 0927"
"W3XYZ was 300 feet east of W4XYZ at 0930"
"Email received and forwarded"
This is all on a different LOCAL frequency than the APRS channel, yet all
of the DTMF radios can all talk to all of the APRS users via the central
APRStt engine.
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprstt.html
Again, APRStt is fully funcaional under DOS and even without the DTMF
decoder, it can sit on a local VOICE channel and it can report once a
minute for example the position of any designated things to track. SUch as
the lead and tail of a race event:
"LEAD is 4.5 miles from FINISH at 0909"
"TAIL is 9.2 miles from FINISH at 0908"
In APRStt, without a sound card for runnning on ANY old laptop, I emulated
a sound card with simply 8 resistors on the parallel port. Feed to the MIC
input of a radio and this gives APRStt its voice...
de WB4APR, Bob
etc...
>>>Jim.WILSON_at_stanwell.com 07/02/06 7:21 PM >>>
>Thanks Bob,
>Sounds good. I'll have to look into APRStt more. Should be good for some
>other projects as-well.
>Does anyone have schematics for a dtmf encoder? If I use this setup, I'd
>like to interface with a picaxe so they can hit a button and the picaxe
>will trigger a dtmf sequence. I'd like to be able to plug a dtmf encoder
>directly into the mic input on the cheap uniden cb radios.
>I'm still interested in getting some aprs running. So anyone's thoughts
>or comments on their own set-up would be appreciated.
-----Original Message-----
>>I run scout camp where we break the camp up into four groups and they
>>walk from base to base throughout the weekend. I'd like a setup to
>>monitor their progress.
>>What are my options regarding trackers...?
>
>If this requires only 4 trackers, then this could work well as a high
>tech solution. But once you have APRS, there are usually far more
>things you want to track and display....
>
>SO, do not overlook the low-tech solution as well which is simply making
>a map of the camp and "numbering" every interesting location. THen just
>the simple report of a "number" will update all APRS maps and displays
>throughout camp with the current location of all participants. This can
>be done with voice, DTMF or a D7 HT.
>
>This track-by-points has been in APRSdos since 2002:
>
>http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/D7points.html
>
>Using number-points reporting without GPS avoids these problems:
>1) Keeping GPS units up and operating with all groups
>2) GPS tracking problems in heavy foliage
>3) Having to keep the GPS's running all the time and
>having to supply batteries for all that stuff
>4) Erroneous positions due to erroneous GPS data
>5) It works indoors and just about anywhere
>
>This alternative is Someone with a radio in each group simply reports by
>voice (or DTMF) "we are entering base #13", and the APRS sysop simply
>moves that group's object to location 13.
>This automatically then transmits that object to ALL APRS displays in
>the camp so that everyone sees the movement.
>
>This can be done automatically with APRStt. The Touch-Tone version of
>APRS that *any* HT can enter data with. Just press something like XX*YY
>on the DTMF key pad and the central APRStt will convert that to APRS
>packet and update all APRS displays throughout the camp....
>
>See http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprstt.html
>
>APRStt then also speaks voice information back to the DTMF-only users so
>they also are informed on new reports such as "Team XX arrived at YY"...
>
>And If you are running good APRS software that dead reckons, then it can
>even show moving groups as they walk from base to base. And the radio
>consumes far less power than a GPS and radio together. Plus ANY HT that
>the scouts already have, including cheap FRS can be used.
>
>Without APRStt, you can use the Kenwood D7 HT's either with GPS as
>plug-and-play, OR they can be used without the bother of GPS as above,
>by KEYING in the 2 digit number themselves and the internal TNC can
>transmit it to all APRS monitors throughout camp without any human
>intervention.
>
>So many options... without the encumberance of GPS...
>
>de WB4APR, Bob
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