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ZL3AI > APRDIG 06.03.04 13:58l 241 Lines 9363 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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From: ZL3AI@ZL3VML.#80.NZL.OC
To : APRDIG@WW
Subject: Re: OEM GPS modules
From: "Stephen H. Smith" <WA8LMF2@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 14:58:19 -0800
X-Message-Number: 66
Scott Miller wrote on 3/4/2004, 2:35 PM:
>I was just looking at the
>MFJ 8621 (http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/tnc/2026.html).
>Looks kind
>of cool.
Beware! This is a TERRIBLE radio. It has virtually no front-end RF
filtering and is completely unusable in high RF environments like the
typical building-top or mountain-top shared site. The receiver will be
brutally overloaded and cross-modulated by any other nearby VHF
transmitter anywhere in the 138 to 174 spectrum, without extensive external
bandpass filtering.
The receiver has no squelch system -- just raw audio off a discriminator.
The attached TNC device has to be able to operate open squelch and develop
it's own DCD.
By the time you buy the optional 144.39 RX and TX crystals (it comes
crystalled for traditional packet on 145.010), you could have bought a
normal two-meter monobander such as a Yaesu FT-1500 with far more power and
receiver performance (and the MiniDIN6 packet connector on the rear).
FT-1500s are periodically blown out on specials for $119 or $129 or so by
the usual mail-order ham dealers.
The MFJ 2026 might have made sense when the typical 2M xcvr was $250-$300,
but now that numerous radios are available for $150 or so, it's a total
non-starter....
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
Home Page: http://wa8lmf.com
Ham Radio/Mobile SSTV page: http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/ham
APRS Stuff
http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/aprs
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Subject: Re: OEM GPS modules
From: Reid Crowe <kc0idi@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 15:01:36 -0800 (PST)
X-Message-Number: 67
Any news on the Garmin GPS18?
"Curt, WE7U" <archer@eskimo.com> wrote:On Thu, 4 Mar 2004, Stephen H. Smith
wrote:
>Hardly seems worth them bother to mess with these OEM modules since you
>still have to deal with an external antennas. You can get integrated
>receiver/antenna "mouse-type" units for $90 or so. You mount the entire
>unit on the roof of the vehicle, supply 5 VDC power into the attached
>cable and then take RS-232 NMEA data out of the same cable. No hassle
>with coax and nasty hard-to-wire miniature microwave RF connectors at all.
Fine for vehicles. I want something for SAR though. Fewer
cables/smaller the package, the better.
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Subject: Re: OEM GPS modules
From: James Jefferson <jj@aprsworld.net>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 17:04:51 -0600
X-Message-Number: 68
>at the MFJ 8621 (http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/tnc/2026.html).
>Looks kind of cool. I'd like to see a low-cost solar digi package with
Unfortunately the MFJ-8621 is complete garbage. I've yet to find a less
senstive reciever that drifts more. A bunch of hams in my town bought a
bunch of them and within a year we had decommissioned them all. I have four
or five sitting in a pile at home and I couldn't sell them for $40 each
when I offered them on the SIG a few years ago.
For a solar powered digi your best bet is to use a standard HT. They are
cheap, synthesized, and draw very little power. Or if you really want
something rockbound perhaps Hamtronics still has discrete VHF transmitter
and receiver modules.
It would be majorly cool if somebody came up with a small VHF transciever
module...
-Jim KB0THN
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Subject: RE: stir up the path pot!
From: "Stephen H. Smith" <WA8LMF2@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 15:11:25 -0800
X-Message-Number: 69
Jeff King wrote on 3/4/2004, 12:59 PM:
>On a related subject, I'm wanting to burn some UIDIGI EPROM's, but my old DOS
>based EPROM programmer won't work on the newer machines. Can you recommend a
>cheap EPROM burner? I need to do 27C256's, 512's mostly although some 1meg
>parts might come up.
I just posted on this very issue on the UI-DIGI list. The unit I
mention below will handle up to a one MEGABYTE eprom (27080 1M x 8)
without add-on adapters. Quote:
>I'd try it myself but still looking
>for a EPROM burner that works on a newer machine.
Check out the "Pocket Programmer" at:
http://www.xtronics.com (Home Page)
http://www.xtronics.com/memory/EPROM.htm (Page with pocket
programmer)
This unit works through a PC parallel port and comes with supporting
software for both DOS and Windows.
I use this unit to make UI-Digi eproms, and have offered repeatedly on this
and other lists to burn eproms for any ham group that emails me an edited
UI-Digi overlay file and snail-mails me a blank (or erasable) 27256 or
27512 eprom.
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Subject: RE: stir up the path pot!
From: "Christensen, Eric" <CHRISTENSENE@MAIL.ECU.EDU>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 18:18:08 -0500
X-Message-Number: 70
Then I suggest putting up more Igates in that area! With this mind set if
there aren't any I-Gates in my area, I should increase my path until I do
get into one just so I can be seen on the internet and to heck with anyone
else that it affects.
My weather station isn't in the best location to be gated to the internet
reliably BUT I'm not increasing my path because I know the effects it can
have on my neighbors. I AM looking at making that station an I-Gate so my
data will get on the internet and local users can see it on RF AND so it
will help my neighbors make it into the internet.
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Dimse [mailto:k4hg@tapr.org]
Here is a good example of why arbitrary rules of maximum digi paths just
won't work, this was the second station I looked at with WIDE4 in the
packets (by using the shell command "telnet 3.aprs.net | grep WIDE4", I
doubt stations that need longer paths are that rare:
http://findu.com/cgi-bin/raw.cgi?call=N7NAT
If you look at this data, almost all of it required 3 or 4 hops to reach the
APRS Internet System. If you implement this proposal of trashing everything
longer than 2-2, this person cannot have his data on the internet.
He is a participant in APRSWxNET, so you will also be denying his data to
the National Weather Service and to the others that use the data from this
system.
Please, this is just a bad idea...you cannot enforce an arbitrary path on
all APRS local area networks.
Steve K4HG
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Subject: Re: OEM GPS modules
From: "Scott Miller" <scott@opentrac.org>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 15:18:47 -0800
X-Message-Number: 71
>Hardly seems worth them bother to mess with these OEM modules since you
>still have to deal with an external antennas. You can get integrated
I was thinking about SAR usage where you've got it in a backpack. You might
use a patch antenna mounted on the enclosure, or on a shoulder strap. And
anyway, like I said I'm mostly just looking for something that COULD be put
in the same box if you were so inclined.
Scott
N1VG
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Subject: Re: OEM GPS modules
From: "Scott Miller" <scott@opentrac.org>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 15:21:51 -0800
X-Message-Number: 72
>By the time you buy the optional 144.39 RX and TX crystals (it comes
>crystalled for traditional packet on 145.010), you could have bought a
>normal two-meter monobander such as a Yaesu FT-1500 with far more power
>and receiver performance (and the MiniDIN6 packet connector on the
>rear). FT-1500s are periodically blown out on specials for $119 or $129
> or so by the usual mail-order ham dealers.
True. How about one of these?
http://www.rfwiz.com/Maxon/DataRadios/SD-161V_SD-164U_DataRadio.htm
http://www.topaz3.com/product.asp?StrProd=SD160
Scott
N1VG
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Subject: RE: stir up the path pot!
From: Steve Dimse <k4hg@tapr.org>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 18:26:17 -0500
X-Message-Number: 73
On 3/4/04 at 6:18 PM Christensen, Eric <CHRISTENSENE@MAIL.ECU.EDU> sent:
>Then I suggest putting up more Igates in that area! With this mind set if
>there aren't any I-Gates in my area, I should increase my path until I do
>get into one just so I can be seen on the internet and to heck with anyone
>else that it affects.
>
>My weather station isn't in the best location to be gated to the internet
>reliably BUT I'm not increasing my path because I know the effects it can
>have on my neighbors. I AM looking at making that station an I-Gate so my
>data will get on the internet and local users can see it on RF AND so it
>will help my neighbors make it into the internet.
That works where you are, but it doesn't work everywhere. You are trying to
force your values on others.
There certainly are those who use excessive paths in areas with high loads
that cannot handle them, but there are others without the traffic level
that preclude them. Just because you are having a problem does not mean the
rest of the APRS world should suffer. There are other ways to handle your
problem which do not force your values on the rest of the APRS community!
Steve K4HG
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