[aprssig] Economical APRS

[Scott Miller]

At $32, the OT1+ kit is still about as cheap as you're going to get for 
a KISS TNC.  Running an OT2m as a dedicated KISS TNC would be a bit of a 
waste, though - I'd recommend the TNC-X for that.  If all you ever want 
to do with it is KISS, the TNC-X is probably worth a few extra bucks 
over the OT1+, for that matter.  It's got larger buffers and a better 
demodulator.  But the OT1+ is an easy kit to build, and can do a lot of 
stuff for the price.

Scott
N1VG

AC7YY - Kim wrote:
> To run Scott's opentracker in KISS seems to me be a waste of all his
> outstanding developmental work. He does make mention that to switch back
> is an easy task. So it would make sense if you wished to use all the
> features of the OT2 and run in KISS only once in a while.
> 
> I have (3) TNC-X (which are designed to run KISS only) running 24/7. One
> for over 3 years and has never faulted or been turned off. For $58 with
> an enclosure is in my mind the best solution to run 1.2k in KISS.
> 
> I wish there was 9.6k version available, I would buy several without a
> second thought. 
> 
> 73
> kim - ac7yy
>    
> 
> On Mon, 2008-07-28 at 12:53 -0700, Scott Miller wrote:
>> Yes, if you load up the KISS firmware.  There are some out there being 
>> used as IGates.  I wouldn't put it head to head with a KPC-3+ (the 
>> demodulator is in software on an 8-bit MCU at 7.3 MHz!) but if you've 
>> got a good signal from the local digipeater it works quite well.
>> 
>> You can remove all of the init/exit TNC commands from your application. 
>>   Once the KISS firmware is loaded, it's purely a KISS TNC, no need to 
>> configure anything.  Switching back to the tracker (or weather) firmware 
>> takes under 30 seconds with the config program.  All of the firmware 
>> versions are freely available, of  course.
>> 
>> Scott
>> N1VG
>> 
>> Joseph M. Durnal wrote:
>> > can the OpenTracker+ kits be used at a home station with a PC with
>> > software like UIVIEW & XASTIR?  If so, that would be ideal!
>> > 
>> > On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 1:24 PM, Scott Miller <scott at opentrac.org> wrote:
>> >> Most of the traditional TNCs aren't that great as APRS trackers anyway.
>> >>  You're still better off with a dedicated tracker.  I sell the
>> >> OpenTracker+ assembled for $46 or as a kit for $32.  Byonics sells the
>> >> TinyTrak3+ for $47 assembled and $38 as a kit.  The OpenTracker+ is
>> >> closer in functionality to the TinyTrak4, which is $65 as a kit.  My
>> >> Tracker2 does considerably more than that for $95 assembled, but the
>> >> enclosure manufacturer screwed up on one of the metal pieces and I'm out
>> >> of stock for at least a few more days.
>> >>
>> >> Kits are still the cheapest way to get into it if they can tolerate some
>> >> soldering.  For 10 units, the price of the OT1+ kit drops to $25, so
>> >> it's a good deal for club buys.
>> >>
>> >> https://www.argentdata.com/products/otplus.html
>> >>
>> >> Scott
>> >> N1VG
>> >>
>> >> Joseph M. Durnal wrote:
>> >>> I built my first APRS station for less than $100.  But it seems with
>> >>> the popularity of APRS & Winlink that used TNCs are priced much higher
>> >>> than they were 3 years ago.  Any suggestions from the group on ways to
>> >>> get new hams on APRS without spending a lot of money?  Most of the
>> >>> interested parties I've talked to won't be comfortable building
>> >>> interfaces, maybe not even cables, we'll see.  I had a couple of local
>> >>> hams tune into http://aprs.fi this weekend while we were using APRS to
>> >>> manage the SAG vehicles for the cycle across Maryland event, now they
>> >>> want to do more!  I hope to get them participating in the network
>> >>> sooner than later.  I never new that the web site would be a good tool
>> >>> to get folks interested!
>> >>>
>> >>> Thanks & 73 de Joseph Durnal NE3R
>> >>>
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>> >>>
>> >>
>> >>
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