[aprssig] PDA APRS

[Stephen H. Smith]

victorf at windreader.com wrote:
> I would like to have a PDA type device with US street-level maps on 
> board and is APRS enabled. Does such a critter exist? If not, how can 
> it be done?
>
> Any enlightenment will be appreciated.
>
> Vic
>

Not if you are talking about a real PDA running the Palm or WinCE 
operating system.  The development of Pocket APRS for the Palm and 
APRSce for the Pocket PC both died several years ago,  and in any case 
were always limited by the rather crude maps that only showed major 
roads and Interstates in city-wide or regional scales.  

Even if you had them, street level maps would be problematic on a PDA, 
given the very small screen. You'd be scrolling incessantly every time a 
mobile moved more than a mile or two. 


The closest you will get is one of the new breed of "ultraportable" PCs 
that are about three times the size of a PDA but run "real" Windows.  
You will still have to contend with the odd shape or resolution screens, 
but in principle it should be possible to get a standard APRS 
application (UIview, APRSplus, etc) to run on it. 


One approach might be to use a TH-D7 or D700 in combination with a 
mapping GPS.  The Kenwoods have the capability to send posits received 
from their internal TNCs to the GPS as NMEA waypoints tagged with 
callsigns that then get plotted on the GPS's map display.  






--

Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
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