[aprssig] Appalachian Trail APRS trip report

[scott at opentrac.org]

> was my mistake.  I just couldnt believe that an FRS
> would not work over such a short range.... on 
> a mountain top (though along the ridge)...

We've got some decent FRS/GMRS radios here, and the park the kids go to, at
just over 1/4 mile away in normal suburban terrain, is out of range at high
power.

That shouldn't be a problem too much longer... my oldest just turned 10 and
is actively working on getting his license.  Even for a compact 1/2 watt
2-meter HT, 1/4 mile shouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, this is why I haven't paid much attention to the Xastir RINO
support, or the RINOhorn idea, or any of that.  I'm just not convinced they
have a particularly useful range.

Would be interesting to see what a 2-meter rig could do, with 600 baud
baseband FM and modern convolutional coding, with a stripped-down on-air
protocol.  Actually, I suppose I could do the math to compare it to 1200 bps
AFSK, but that sounds a lot less fun than actually building it.

Scott
N1VG