[aprssig] Another APRS venture

[Robert Kirk]

At 07:50 PM 4/3/06 -0400, WB4GQK at aol.com wrote:
>Well it seems another commercial venture is adapting APRS capability to bring
>real time tracking directly to your home computer! If you happen to be out
>sailing or fishing your ‘stay at home family' can track you! What I am 
>finding
>hard to believe is the range Sea Smart is claiming. In one release they 
>claimed
>upwards of 100 miles offshore!

On the other hand, here's an application you may not like...

'Spy in the sky' keeps watch on speeding drivers
[From London Telegraph]

Technology which could be the basis of a British pay-as-you-drive 
road-pricing scheme is about to be used to issue instant speeding tickets 
in parts of the Middle East.
Work on setting up the world's biggest "spy in the sky" network for 
tracking cars will begin within weeks, with around 10,000 black boxes to be 
fitted in vehicles in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
It is anticipated that 700,000 cars will be equipped with black boxes 
within three years.
Whitehall is understood to be monitoring the experiment in the United Arab 
Emirates.
"Technology is developing all the time. What makes this particularly 
interesting is the scale on which they are prepared to work," said a 
Whitehall source.
"The fact that they are ready to put this into several hundred thousand 
cars will help us make a judgment on whether satellite-based road pricing 
is really viable."
However the use of the technology to crack down on speeding would prove 
more controversial, even though experts such as the RAC Foundation doubt 
the Government would risk the unpopularity of introducing it here.
The boxes will make speed cameras redundant. With 21.6 road accident deaths 
per 100,000 population, the emirates' authorities are desperate to slow 
traffic down. Even speed cameras have proved ineffective with drivers often 
driving at more than 100mph. The technology can not only tell where cars 
are, but how fast they are travelling.
Motorists flouting the country's speed limit will first get a warning, 
perhaps through
the car radio or on the satellite navigation screen. If this is ignored, 
they can expect an automatic speeding ticket.
The authorities, which will receive a constant flow of data at a control 
centre, will be able to govern exactly when the errant motorist receives a 
ticket by setting a "tolerance level" - a margin for error above the speed 
limit.
The boxes - which preliminary estimates suggest could cost between £100 and 
£400 - could be installed when a car applies to have its annual licence 
renewed. Fitting the boxes - which will be about six by five inches - 
should take no longer than half an hour.
The medium term goal is road-pricing, but the ability to track the movement 
of cars [...]