[aprssig] Portable APRS

[Tom Hayward]

> Another idea I have is to create a device with a dedicated transceiver(Micro-Trak TinyTrak4) in the same case as a picoITX motherboard(EPIA-P820) using either an SSD or CF card as a hdd in a fanless case, and mount some form of 7in monitor(touchscreen or not) and keyboard on this device. This device should be light and self contained, with a battery life of 5 hours on transmit/receive. I think I could make it work.


Why purpose-build a PC? Netbooks are cheap
(http://www.google.com/search?q=netbook#q=netbook&tbs=shop:1&fp=1) and
have the features you ask for (keyboard, screen, battery). Just get a
usb-to-serial adapter and pair it with an APRS rig like your RC-D710,
or for battery operation a TH-D72. Run software like Xastir or
APRSIS32 and you will have a full mapping APRS interface with
keyboard.

Tom KD7LXL