[aprssig] Re: aprssig Digest, Vol 33, Issue 27

Tue Mar 27 21:58:07 UTC 2007

Hello All,
 I have a question and to see if I can get some help. I am fairly new to APRS I found this PalmPocket APRS software and I got it to work on
my Palm Treo 650 and it works great now i need Colorado Maps for the PalmAPRS software by Mike Musick  can anybody get a hold of him so I can Pay for the software???   This is Great software for this Treo 650 and my Kenwood TH-D7AG !
  Any help would be Greatly appreciated 
  Thanks!!
Philip K0BAN  

----- Original Message ----
From: "aprssig-request at lists.tapr.org" <aprssig-request at lists.tapr.org>
To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org 
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 12:00:57 PM
Subject: aprssig Digest, Vol 33, Issue 27

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Today's Topics:

   1. StreetPilot question ('Scott Miller')
   2. APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race (Bill Borgstrom)
   3. Re: StreetPilot question (Ben Lindner)
   4. Re: APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race
      (Chuck Gooden)
   5. RE: RE: >>>TNC digi settings<<< (Richard Sharp, KQ4KX)
   6. RE: I cannot resist (Dave Baxter)
   7. Re: APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race (Chris Rose)
   8. Re: APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race (Steve Dimse)
   9. SCS Tracker (AA3JY at Winlink.org)
  10. Correction to SCS Tracker (AA3JY at Winlink.org)
  11. SCS Tracker (AA3JY at Winlink.org)
  12. Re: SCS Tracker (Jack Chomley)
  13. Re: SCS Tracker (Jack Chomley)
  14. Re: SCS Tracker (Michael Huslig)
  15. Re: APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race
      (WB4GQK at aol.com)
  16. RE: APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race
      (Robert Bruninga)
  17. RE: APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race
      (Robert Bruninga)
  18. RE: APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race
      ('Scott Miller')

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:45:02 -0700
From: "'Scott Miller'" <scott at opentrac.org>
Subject: [aprssig] StreetPilot question
To: "'TAPR APRS Mailing List'" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <000101c76ff0$119b8ef0$0a01a8c0 at jupiter>
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"

Man, it's quiet in here...

Got a quick question about Garmin's automotive navigation receivers, like
the StreetPilot and nuvi.  These all seem to have USB interfaces, and I know
they'll act as a mass storage device for POI/map transfer, but will they
work like a regular Garmin USB GPS receiver, and provide
position/velocity/time data to a mapping program?  I've never used any of
this generation of products.

Thanks,

Scott
N1VG

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:10:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bill Borgstrom <bill_borgstrom at yahoo.com>
Subject: [aprssig] APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race
To: APRS sig <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <59039.28317.qm at web50005.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

This July about 300 sail boats will be participating in the Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race.  This race (333 statue miles) is the longest annual freshwater sailboat race in the world.  Over half the fleet will carry satellite tracking units.  The trackers use the Orbcomm LEO satellite system to email boat position reports to a web server.  Family members (or anyone) on shore can go to a web site and see the boats plotted on a chart.

  A few of the sailors are also hams (myself included).  Us sailing hams would like to plot our boat position reports on APRS.  I can do this manually by using WinAPRS; going to station settings and manually inputing boat position; then going to TCP/IP settings and connecting to APRServe Network.  This works fine but I'll be racing on our boat.  I need to automate this process.

  My plan is to receive the Orbcomm emails with our boat position reports.  Parse out lat. lon. speed. heading. date and time and form a raw packet.  This I'm capable of doing this.  I need help in how to send the raw packet to  APRServe Network.  I would appreciate any help you can give me.

  Bill N9TN

---------------------------------
Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate
in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A.
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Message: 3
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:47:57 +0930
From: Ben Lindner <vk5jfk at activ8.net.au>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] StreetPilot question
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <46084695.5070206 at activ8.net.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Hi Scott,

Try this site below it has some interesting stuff

Ben Lindner
VK5JFK

http://home.socal.rr.com/diverhank/SP26X0UndocumentedFeatures.htm

'Scott Miller' wrote:
> Man, it's quiet in here...
>
> Got a quick question about Garmin's automotive navigation receivers, like
> the StreetPilot and nuvi.  These all seem to have USB interfaces, and I know
> they'll act as a mass storage device for POI/map transfer, but will they
> work like a regular Garmin USB GPS receiver, and provide
> position/velocity/time data to a mapping program?  I've never used any of
> this generation of products.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Scott
> N1VG
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> aprssig mailing list
> aprssig at lists.tapr.org
> https://lists.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig
>
>
>
>   

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:41:12 -0500
From: Chuck Gooden <cgooden at insightbb.com>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat
    race
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <46087638.2050102 at insightbb.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Bill,

I live in Rockford and just wanted to offer my services if you need 
someone to man the radio on the boat.  Never been on a sail boat 
before.  :-).  I did occasionally get sea sick though when stationed on 
the USS Sterett (CG-31).

Hope you have a nice time!

Bill Borgstrom wrote:
> This July about 300 sail boats will be participating in the Chicago to 
> Mackinac Island sailboat race.  This race (333 statue miles) is the 
> longest annual freshwater sailboat race in the world.  Over half the 
> fleet will carry satellite tracking units.  The trackers use the 
> Orbcomm LEO satellite system to email boat position reports to a web 
> server.  Family members (or anyone) on shore can go to a web site and 
> see the boats plotted on a chart.
>  
> A few of the sailors are also hams (myself included).  Us sailing hams 
> would like to plot our boat position reports on APRS.  I can do this 
> manually by using WinAPRS; going to station settings and manually 
> inputing boat position; then going to TCP/IP settings and connecting 
> to APRServe Network.  This works fine but I'll be racing on our boat.  
> I need to automate this process.
>  
> My plan is to receive the Orbcomm emails with our boat position 
> reports.  Parse out lat. lon. speed. heading. date and time and form a 
> raw packet.  This I'm capable of doing this.  I need help in how to 
> send the raw packet to  APRServe Network.  I would appreciate any help 
> you can give me.
>  
> Bill N9TN
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Food fight? 
> <http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index;_ylc=X3oDMTFvbGNhMGE3BF9TAzM5NjU0NTEwOARfcwMzOTY1NDUxMDMEc2VjA21haWxfdGFnbGluZQRzbGsDbWFpbF90YWcx?link=ask&sid=396545367> 
> Enjoy some healthy debate
> in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A. 
> <http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index;_ylc=X3oDMTFvbGNhMGE3BF9TAzM5NjU0NTEwOARfcwMzOTY1NDUxMDMEc2VjA21haWxfdGFnbGluZQRzbGsDbWFpbF90YWcx?link=ask&sid=396545367> 
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> aprssig mailing list
> aprssig at lists.tapr.org
> https://lists.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig
>   

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:43:26 -0400
From: "Richard Sharp, KQ4KX" <kq4kx at arrl.net>
Subject: RE: [aprssig] RE: >>>TNC digi settings<<<
To: "'TAPR APRS Mailing List'" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <005501c77019$b1fb05a0$6601a8c0 at pavilionxl844>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Actually, it was Dave (KG4YZY) who did the testing.  He was using a Kenwood
TM-271A and KPC3+ into dummy load with sample port and two D700s.  The
reason for the slower decoding is the D700 uses squelch CD instead of
software CD.

Richard

  _____  

From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org]
On Behalf Of Wes Johnston, AI4PX

What's the vintage of the transmitter?

Wes

On 3/26/07, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote: 

Richard Sharp, KQ4KX has done some testing and concludes that
the better setting of TXD for his digipeaters is with a TXD of 
180ms.  His testing with a TXD of 150ms at his digipeater
measured about 9% of packets were not decoded.  At 170ms just
over 2% weren't decoded.  180ms and above was 100%.
He was using a D700 for his test receiver. 

For what it's worth.
Bob, WB4aPR

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Message: 6
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:27:46 +0100
From: "Dave Baxter" <dave at emv.co.uk>
Subject: RE: [aprssig] I cannot resist
To: "TAPR APRS Mailing List" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <DEBD8C80076A674BAD506D37CDFA4FAB5D861E at server.emv.local>
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"

I know someone who recently drove into one, damaging his 4x4 and the
pole.  Laugh, I'll say....

Dave G0WBX.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: kb2scs at optonline.net [mailto:kb2scs at optonline.net] 
> Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2007 11:16 PM
> To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org
> Subject: [aprssig] I cannot resist
> 
> Hi All
>            Since there is so little activity on the APRSsig 
> of late, I cannot resist.
> 
>                               Powerpoles!
> 
> Let us hope we never witness the "Silence Of The Hams"
> 73 DE John  KB2SCS
>        E-Mail:            kb2scs at arrl.net
>        APRS-SCS     http://www.tapr.org/~kb2scs
>        Web Page:     http://www.qsl.net/kb2scs
> 
> 
> 
This mail has been scanned by Palmer Cook Computer Services Limited.  www.palmercook.co.uk

------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 03:38:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Chris Rose <kb8uih at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat
    race
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <696201.60726.qm at web81611.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ascii

Bill,
I hope this doesn't sound stupid but why not use APRS itself to parse packets to I Gates while you sail?  Just beacon your position @ 10 minutes and let the established net of digis and gates to send your data to the net.

Chris 
KB8UIH

Bill Borgstrom wrote:
> This July about 300 sail boats will be participating in the Chicago to 
> Mackinac Island sailboat race.  This race (333 statue miles) is the 
> longest annual freshwater sailboat race in the world.  Over half the 
> fleet will carry satellite tracking units.  The trackers use the 
> Orbcomm LEO satellite system to email boat position reports to a web 
> server.  Family members (or anyone) on shore can go to a web site and 
> see the boats plotted on a chart.
>  
> A few of the sailors are also hams (myself included).  Us sailing hams 
> would like to plot our boat position reports on APRS.  I can do this 
> manually by using WinAPRS; going to station settings and manually 
> inputing boat position; then going to TCP/IP settings and connecting 
> to APRServe Network.  This works fine but I'll be racing on our boat.  
> I need to automate this process.
>  
> My plan is to receive the Orbcomm emails with our boat position 
> reports.  Parse out lat. lon. speed. heading. date and time and form a 
> raw packet.  This I'm capable of doing this.  I need help in how to 
> send the raw packet to  APRServe Network.  I would appreciate any help 
> you can give me.
>  
> Bill N9TN
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Food fight? 
> <http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index;_ylc=X3oDMTFvbGNhMGE3BF9TAzM5NjU0NTEwOARfcwMzOTY1NDUxMDMEc2VjA21haWxfdGFnbGluZQRzbGsDbWFpbF90YWcx?link=ask&sid=396545367> 
> Enjoy some healthy debate
> in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A. 
> <http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index;_ylc=X3oDMTFvbGNhMGE3BF9TAzM5NjU0NTEwOARfcwMzOTY1NDUxMDMEc2VjA21haWxfdGFnbGluZQRzbGsDbWFpbF90YWcx?link=ask&sid=396545367> 
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> aprssig mailing list
> aprssig at lists.tapr.org
> https://lists.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig
>   

_______________________________________________
aprssig mailing list
aprssig at lists.tapr.org
https://lists.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig

------------------------------

Message: 8
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:59:44 -0400
From: Steve Dimse <steve at dimse.com>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat
    race
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <2CFEF494-4CA3-47F8-9679-19C283AE7427 at dimse.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

On Mar 26, 2007, at 6:10 PM, Bill Borgstrom wrote:
>
> My plan is to receive the Orbcomm emails with our boat position  
> reports.  Parse out lat. lon. speed. heading. date and time and  
> form a raw packet.  This I'm capable of doing this.  I need help in  
> how to send the raw packet to  APRServe Network.  I would  
> appreciate any help you can give me.

Google is your friend.

The first part is the hard part, the rest is just connecting to the  
APRS Internet System, here is info on the login string

http://www.aprs.net/valid.html

If you don't have the validation number for your call, here is the code

http://www.cnunix.com/ftp/hamradio/tapr/aprssig/aprsspec/aprstcp/ 
validation.c

Then just form an APRS packet and send it. The APRS protocol  
specification is at

http://www.tapr.org/aprs_working_group.html

Steve K4HG

------------------------------

Message: 9
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:24:02 -0000
From: AA3JY at Winlink.org
Subject: [aprssig] SCS Tracker
To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org
Message-ID: <0L9LHJZVG84E at Perth.winlink.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset = "iso-8859-1"

Any comments from users of this tracker would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Clay AA3JY
(via WL2K)

------------------------------

Message: 10
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:22:01 -0000
From: AA3JY at Winlink.org
Subject: [aprssig] Correction to SCS Tracker
To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org
Message-ID: <7X9O530S3QF5 at SanDiego.winlink.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset = "iso-8859-1"

------------------------------

Message: 11
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:23:37 -0000
From: AA3JY at Winlink.org
Subject: [aprssig] SCS Tracker
To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org
Message-ID: <XEGW87X1Q3LS at Detroit.winlink.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset = "iso-8859-1"

Forgot the URL..

http://www.scs-ptc.com/tracker/

Regards,

Clay AA3JY
(via WL2K)

------------------------------

Message: 12
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:40:11 +1000
From: Jack Chomley <radio at dodo.com.au>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] SCS Tracker
To: AA3JY at Winlink.org,TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.0.20070327222551.00b3b3e0 at pop.dodo.com.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed;
    x-avg-checked=avg-ok-7F3862A1

Yes, I have one........works quite well. The TRConfig software for setup is 
also quite good. The only Packet program I know works with it, is 
Paxon......which leaves a lot to be desired :-( Why they used a USB 
interface, I do not know........many other Packet programs could be used IF 
it had RS232. Its Packet operation has no mailbox etc.
As a tracker, it has an output to power up your radio, shortly before 
sending an APRS posit, after its done, it goes back to sleep switching the 
radio off. Repeats the process for each APRS Posit.
I asked the makers IF a mailbox would be installed in future firmware 
revisions.....was told no.
Cost is high, compared to Tinytrack and others, A$500 or so.  It does 
generate quite a bit of radiated "noise" on the 10MHz APRS freq, however 
careful routing of cable and physical placement can eliminate the problem.
It has NO digipeat function either.
One feature that is excellent, is it can receive off-frequency APRS packets 
and is able to "lock on" to them very well......I would suggest the 
hardware design is very good, however it is let down badly by firmware, USB 
interface, and possible lack of future good firmware features etc.
Just my 02 cents worth :-)
73s
Jack VK4JRC

At 12:24 PM 3/27/2007 +0000, you wrote:

>Any comments from users of this tracker would be appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Clay AA3JY
>(via WL2K)
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>aprssig mailing list
>aprssig at lists.tapr.org
>https://lists.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig

------------------------------

Message: 13
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:03:30 +1000
From: Jack Chomley <radio at dodo.com.au>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] SCS Tracker
To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org
Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.0.20070327230318.0288be80 at pop.dodo.com.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed;
    x-avg-checked=avg-ok-7F3862A1

Yes, I have one........works quite well. The TRConfig software for setup is 
also quite good. The only Packet program I know works with it, is 
Paxon......which leaves a lot to be desired :-( Why they used a USB 
interface, I do not know........many other Packet programs could be used IF 
it had RS232. Its Packet operation has no mailbox etc.
As a tracker, it has an output to power up your radio, shortly before 
sending an APRS posit, after its done, it goes back to sleep switching the 
radio off. Repeats the process for each APRS Posit.
I asked the makers IF a mailbox would be installed in future firmware 
revisions.....was told no.
Cost is high, compared to Tinytrack and others, A$500 or so.  It does 
generate quite a bit of radiated "noise" on the 10MHz APRS freq, however 
careful routing of cable and physical placement can eliminate the problem.
It has NO digipeat function either.
One feature that is excellent, is it can receive off-frequency APRS packets 
and is able to "lock on" to them very well......I would suggest the 
hardware design is very good, however it is let down badly by firmware, USB 
interface, and possible lack of future good firmware features etc.
Just my 02 cents worth :-)
73s
Jack VK4JRC

At 12:24 PM 3/27/2007 +0000, you wrote:

>Any comments from users of this tracker would be appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Clay AA3JY
>(via WL2K)
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>aprssig mailing list
>aprssig at lists.tapr.org
>https://lists.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig

------------------------------

Message: 14
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:02:44 -0500
From: "Michael Huslig" <mhuslig at kantronics.com>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] SCS Tracker
To: "TAPR APRS Mailing List" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <000201c77078$97a55610$260110ac at MikesA420N>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
    reply-type=response

Jack,

How does the GPS connect?

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jack Chomley" <radio at dodo.com.au>
To: <AA3JY at Winlink.org>; "TAPR APRS Mailing List" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 7:40 AM
Subject: Re: [aprssig] SCS Tracker

> Yes, I have one........works quite well. The TRConfig software for setup 
> is also quite good. The only Packet program I know works with it, is 
> Paxon......which leaves a lot to be desired :-( Why they used a USB 
> interface, I do not know........many other Packet programs could be used 
> IF it had RS232. Its Packet operation has no mailbox etc.
> As a tracker, it has an output to power up your radio, shortly before 
> sending an APRS posit, after its done, it goes back to sleep switching the 
> radio off. Repeats the process for each APRS Posit.
> I asked the makers IF a mailbox would be installed in future firmware 
> revisions.....was told no.
> Cost is high, compared to Tinytrack and others, A$500 or so.  It does 
> generate quite a bit of radiated "noise" on the 10MHz APRS freq, however 
> careful routing of cable and physical placement can eliminate the problem.
> It has NO digipeat function either.
> One feature that is excellent, is it can receive off-frequency APRS 
> packets and is able to "lock on" to them very well......I would suggest 
> the hardware design is very good, however it is let down badly by 
> firmware, USB interface, and possible lack of future good firmware 
> features etc.
> Just my 02 cents worth :-)
> 73s
> Jack VK4JRC
>
>
>
> At 12:24 PM 3/27/2007 +0000, you wrote:
>
>>Any comments from users of this tracker would be appreciated.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Clay AA3JY
>>(via WL2K)
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>aprssig mailing list
>>aprssig at lists.tapr.org
>>https://lists.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> aprssig mailing list
> aprssig at lists.tapr.org
> https://lists.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig
> 

------------------------------

Message: 15
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:53:43 EDT
From: WB4GQK at aol.com
Subject: Re: [aprssig] APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat
    race
To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org
Message-ID: <ccf.ae2a482.333a89f7 at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

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Message: 16
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:16:44 -0400
From: "Robert Bruninga" <bruninga at usna.edu>
Subject: RE: [aprssig] APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat
    race
To: "'TAPR APRS Mailing List'" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <04c201c77082$ee5c8a50$42577a83 at ewlab.usna.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"

> ...I have raced our sailboat in five open ocean...races. 
> I set up WinAPRS to transmit our position once an hour....

You are welcome to transmit a moving position report more often
when underway, so that a lost packet does not have as much of an
impact.  At the Naval Academy, we used 10 minutes per boat, but
we had our own frequency.  I woiuld think the APRS 10 MHz freq
could handle 30 minutes per boat while underway easily.
entire race. At any time my wife wants to check on how we are 

> Now a couple of times a plot was not received due to poor 
> propagation... So my XYL simply selected NEW Message...
> And queried "How are things going?" ..[when] I was not 
> available to answer BUT she got a reply that gave her our 
> position at that instant. 

I think that would be the APRS "directed Query" that would
trigger the position update.  Or does WinAPRS have the ability
to trigger a posit in response to a message too?  Just trying to
clarify how that worked.

Thanks
Bob
WB4APR

------------------------------

Message: 17
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:54:08 -0400
From: "Robert Bruninga" <bruninga at usna.edu>
Subject: RE: [aprssig] APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat
    race
To: <bruninga at usna.edu>, "'TAPR APRS Mailing List'"
    <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <04c601c77088$29341210$42577a83 at ewlab.usna.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"

> You are welcome to transmit a moving position report more
often
> when underway, so that a lost packet does not have as much of
an
> impact.  At the Naval Academy, we used 10 minutes per boat,
but
> we had our own frequency. 

Oh, and TX power from  the battery is completely insignificant
even at the 10 minute rate.  The SEA2222 SSB transcievers we
were using drew about 1 amp just on receive.  The TX power was
insignificant in comparison even though it was 20 amps for 2
seconds every 10 minutes.  That is only 33 mA AVERAGE TX power
compared to 1000 mA continuous for the receiver.  So TX power
was only 3% of the radio system power.

Bottom line, APRS TX power is usually completely insignificant
to RX power.

Unfortunately, when I convinced the skippers how insignificant
the TX power was, it also convinced them how significant the RX
power was, so they often ended up turning off the Transceiver
completely, so they could justify keeping their boom-boxes
blaring all day instead...  They said they would turn it on
now-and-then..  But having a human in the loop almost guarantees
unreliabilty.

Oh well.  Human nature must be included in all designs.  Plan on
it... But don't save power on TX.  It is insignificant... And
MAX TX power is always better!

Bob, WB4APR

------------------------------

Message: 18
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:31:05 -0700
From: "'Scott Miller'" <scott at opentrac.org>
Subject: RE: [aprssig] APRS -- Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat
    race
To: "'TAPR APRS Mailing List'" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Message-ID: <006701c7708d$60657530$0a01a8c0 at jupiter>
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"

> Unfortunately, when I convinced the skippers how insignificant
> the TX power was, it also convinced them how significant the RX
> power was, so they often ended up turning off the Transceiver
> completely, so they could justify keeping their boom-boxes

If you don't need RX for anything, use a tracker with a power control
output.  The OpenTracker 1m (the one in the metal case) will switch more
than 20 amps with the optional on-board high-side switch.  And any
OpenTracker or TT3 could be used with an external relay.

Scott
N1VG

------------------------------

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End of aprssig Digest, Vol 33, Issue 27
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