I can't find any $50.00 mobile terminals on E-bay; How are they listed?

73,

Allen AF6OF

I am a member of the Civil Air Patrol (USAF-AUX) and we frequently see claims of former military service where either none existed, or backgrounds that have been massively embellished. We ask for a DD-214, but you can actually download a pre-filled form from the web with your made-up background. The number one false claim seems to be having been a SEAL ( Rarely do any claim to have served as a cook in Barstow). As a Private Investigator ( largely retired to Build Trackers for Byonics) these types of claims would cross my desk with regularity, and I found that contacting the various Special Forces Associations would generally be productive. Yes, there are trick questions to ask an applicant ( Swim Buddy name, Ranger Class number, etc) but the really good fakers will have created an adequate "legend" to pass casual scrutiny. I heard  a tale of a new CAP member showing up with his MOH worn around his neck......I hope they hung him with it if it was true. Law Enforcement is generally unexcited about pursuing these things unless the BS artist is using it for fund raising. In our Wing, (California)  we had a member claiming to be a "Green Beret Colonel" and when I spoke to the FBI, they told me they considered our Organization's commander to be "just as fake a Colonel as the Green Beret Colonel". Of course, once you are a CAP member, you can walk into a base Uniform store and buy almost anything you need to be a General, if you are so inclined, and the nice ladies working behind the counter will rarely question why you need stars. Self aggrandizing lies are not unique to military background questions, education, fake work histories, are all common, but the "Stolen Valor" issue is much more irritating than a common liar.

Allen AF6OF
VHS/Byonics
Major, USAF-AUX

I would concur that an emergency beacon received locally (direct RF) would be significantly less likely to attract attention. I specifically noted beacons making it onto the APRS-IS, where there is little doubt that they will attract attention. Hessu can sleep well knowing that there are people actually looking at their APRS.FI screen 24/7!

Allen AF6OF
VHS/Byonics

I would recommend the RTG FA or the RTG 30 ( Soon to be re-released with a 60 Watt amplifier) You will get more power out of the RTG, since it has a virtually infinite supply of DC power and current, and its significantly less expensive. Electronically, the RTG and the AIO are  pretty much the same "under the hood". If you are brand new to APRS, there is some learning curve in assembling an encoder ( like the TT3) , cable, and GPS, since the set up requires careful installation to prevent recycling due to RF-induced "swamping" of the TT3 PIC. The RTG is nearly immune to this phenomenon.

As far as noise, some people will notice GPS clock noise ( from any GPS) being present on their HF rigs, or noise bleeding into the AM/FM radio during transmissions. There is always some danger to both devices when antennae are placed into close proximity, especially in the near field, largely presenting as one of the devices blowing out its final amplifier. Usually, the APRS transmitter loses that duel ( notice proper spelling!) since the Voice rig will have a long transmission duty cycle, and the APRS transmitter will typically operate for 300 ms about every two minutes ( depending on how you order/ program the tracker) A mobile radio can induce over 100 Volts into nearby antenna. This is a very rare problem, and with a magnet mount antenna, easily remedied.

The Avmap is awesome! Its supported by Kenwood, and although its more expensive than most GPS display receivers, its the only GPS intended to support APRS. The Byonics TT4 also supports the Avmap, and Avmap has produced custom software features specifically for the TT4. I have a G5 and a G6, and I love them both!

73,

Allen AF6OF
VHS/Byonics

Periodically, our customers will ask us to enter the emergency symbol in either the MT-AIO or the MT-RTG transmitters. Typically, this is requested by pilots ( especially experimental A/C pilots) and back-country hikers. I enter the symbol ("!") and the table ("\") and will generally turn off "Smart Beaconing" and use a fixed 2-3 minute interval.

There is, as I see it, little question of whether you will be noticed .If you make it into the APRS-IS, you are going to light up screens worldwide, and hams from all over the world will start flooding the local agencies with 911 calls. I donj't think anyone should bet their life on crashing in a place where APRS has coverage, but it is a great secondary system, and unlike an ELT, you leave a historical trail of where you were, so SAR agencies have a last-known-location to start looking for you.

73,

Allen AF6OF
VHS/Byonics

APRS allows messaging via RF, so keyboard-to-keyboard messages are one reason. Another major reason is to allow non-internet dependent direct monitoring of the network, which is intended to be locally independent of the Internet, which we know from experience will often be unavailable in emergency situations. Fixed stations are also used as feed points for weather stations and various types of telemetry. There are many other purposes too.

73,

Allen AF6OF
www.Byonics.com

There are 1 Watt digital spread spectrum transmitters that can directly accept GPS info and pass it like a very long serial cable. They are license free, and offer great air to ground range. They are just not particular cheap. I tested a Digi Brand Xtend-900 system and was able to receive a signal on the ground from 7 miles from a metal aircraft with the transmitter and rubber duck sitting on the passenger seat. These would be worthless for trying to DF, since they are digital spread spectrum, but show real promise as a balloon tracker for the license-challenged operator. Hey, if anyone wants to buy the development kit I paid more than 500 bucks for, the first $300.00 takes it! I like the performance of VHF for tracking systems.

Allen
VHS

There are tons of APRS programs out there, but few options to do sound card decoding, which sounds like where you are having your issue. ( no pun intended)  Generally, if you are connecting your radio to a soundcard, you will have to set the radios' volume much lower than you think; You may not even be able to hear it. A straight-through cable is often a problem. I suggest adding a cheap and easily available telephone transformer to your patch, providing isolation and eliminating all kinds of noise , ground loops, and gremlins from getting through your system. If you can see audio on your soundcard, but can't decode it, distortion is a likely culprit. ( You could of course buy a Byonics TT4 or Opentracker to be used as the front-end decoder, and feed your PC serial data instead of audio.) AGWPE is an extremely good packet decoder, and will decode packets that most decoders will ignore. Buy the AGWPE "Pro" version.

If you just need a simple, local decoder, There is a guy on E-bay who sells a $15.00 "Zero Crossing" type decoder that has an audio input and a 9600 Baud output....there is no configuration to do. Its not ideal, but it will suffice to validate your own signals. You can add a cheap serial LCD or connect it to your Terminal Program.

Allen
VHS/Byonics
AF6OF

We have dropped the MT-300 from production. We have a ton of units left on the EU frequency, 144.800, but all the 144.390 (North American) units are sold out. Most of our products are now frequency agile and have significantly higher power. Our best selling product is the Micro-Trak AIO (All-In-One) that incorporates a frequency-agile 10 watt transmitter, batteries, GPS, and a special version of the Byonics TT3 chip, in a water-resistant Pelican case enclosure. We also include your choice of rubber duck or magmount antenna, and the unit can be powered from unregulated automotive or aircraft voltages. Other than for high altitude balloon use, most people found our 300 mW transmitter a little too anemic. At altitude, its amazing what 300 mW's will do. A group in Canada launched a balloon to 117,000 feet, and the little transmitter was picked up line-of-site from 500 Km away! Since the unit is shipped programmed with your information, its the ultimate "non-engineer" personal tracker! Just add 8 AA batteries and you are on the air.

Allen
VHS/Byonics
AF6OF

Craig,

The very high end handhelds from Garmin like the Oregon and Colorado have a Garmin to NMEA serial adapter available for them, although they are a bit pricey, they are also full featured and portable. I use an Avmap G5. Its not really ideal for a hand-held portable, but it is the only GPS display receiver that is actually designed to support APRS, using the Kenwood protocol ( Which the Byonics TT4 supports)Argent data makes a converter that "kinda-sorta" allows you to use a Nuvi 350 (again, not really a good portable solution for hiking) I know that Byon has an Oregon and the Garmin adapter cable and I hope he can give us a full debrief on how it works as an APRS portable.

Allen
AF6OF

The Geko is a good choice, but a smaller, simpler less expensive, and less power-hungry option would be to use a Byonics TT3, rather than the TT4. The Geko wont be of any use to display other stations, so the TT4 offers little more than the opportunity to act as a supplemental digipeater. If a display GPS is not a mission requirement, the Byonics GPS2 is also a good choice for a simple portable station. ( Of course, I think you should buy a Micro-Trak AIO, but I am biased)

Allen
AF6OF
VHS

If you are using MIC-E, you might try switching to the regular APRS sentence, there is less "rounding". I concur that 20-30 feet is well within the circular error probability for a standard GPS receiver, but a lot of the time we just luck out and show in the right place anyway. Is your GPS antenna pointing straight up at the sky or out towards the horizon? You will get somwhat better results with the antenna pointing straight up.

Allen
AF60F

I hear your pain! There are many ways to accomplish what you want to do, and you have not been specific about what you really hope to accomplish. Basically, you need to decide if you want to just make your radio a tracker, so you can see it on the web at sites like Openaprs.net or aprs.fi, or if you want to make a "two way" station" so you can see the positions of other APRS stations. Additionally, you may want to do APRS messaging, which is essentially E-Mail over the APRS network.

The simplest thing is a basic tracker. This can be accomplished by taking a low cost unit like the Byonics TinyTrak 3 a GPS, and an adapter cable for your computer (www.byonics.com) There are a few similar products out there, one is the OT2, from Argent Data, but the basic principals still apply.

Making a two way station increases the cost and complexity of your station, so I would start out with a basic tracker as a learning tool, and your investment will not be as painful, nor the learning process as pain free, as building a bi-directional station. Both Byonics and Argent data make simple encoders and transceiving units that will both encode and decode APRS. ( Note: I manufacture the Micro-Trak products for Byonics, so watch me carefully for bias, but you can just go online and order a pre-programmed tracker with Zero learning curve if you want the the easy and fast route)

If money is not the problem, and you are not locked into your radio ( which seems like a pretty cool radio by the way!) You can get a Kenwood D710 transceiver and an AVMAP GPS 5 display GPS. Setup can be a little intimidating , but the procedure is well documented. If in doubt, find a 13 year old kid, who can knock out the software settings for you in while texting his pals with his free hand.

My best recommendation is to just E-mail Byon at Byonics of Scott at Argent Data and ask them what you need to get your radio going in whatever configuration you choose. Quick and painless.

73,

Allen
VHS
AF60F

Arm chair lawyers......Man!.....You can track dogs, balloons, and wombats, and as long as they are not in "control" of the station, its perfectly legal ( although covertly tracking them is illegal in many States) and assuming that you are properly licensed to do so. The matter is often brought up, but has been thoroughly addressed. The former director of enforcement for the FCC told the "APRS is illegal, immoral, and fattening" crowd to take a chill pill, and use APRS the way we have been: For fun, to support public activities, do science, experiment with radio, and find our lost cars, dogs and wives.

Allen
VHS
AF60F

As a number of people have pointed out, APRS is free to use. If you are reasonably electronically competent, you can put together a tracking system for very low bucks. Typically, a tracker-ony is for someone who wants to remotely track an asset; a car, boat, bicycle, etc. APRS is a pretty wide description though, and I am not sure if you mean you want a transceiving APRS station in your vehicle, so that you can monitor other stations on a map, while at the same time sending your own position. A transceiver based system can also be used for APRS messaging, allowing you to send messages radio-to-radio, or radio to Internet. I manufacture a self-contained tracker that Byonics sells for $260.00. You just add batteries and turn it on, since it comes pre-programmed.(www.byonics.com) and there are a number of other options in dedicated trackers out there. For a full mobile station you have many options. The simplest, is a Kendwood D710 mobile radio and an AVMAP G5 GPS display receiver. This is not the simplest option, but it has zillions of features and minimal cables and does not require a Phd in programming to get running. What is it that you would like to do?

73,

Allen
VHS
AF60F