Oh yes, I have been licensed for 15 years and I have made a few field days over the years and I always have fun. Maybe I will work you. I will be working with W6LIE SJV. Hope to hear from you!

Thank you sir. I do agree it should be point to point. I was asking out of pure curiosity.

Do any rules prohibit the use of echolink and other internet based programs for credit?

Do contacts on repeaters count or must it be done simplex?

Which brings me back to the original question of is it equivalent to a mayday which it sounds as if it does. Thank you for your replies.

Actually it is a relevant question. I am debating puting an "Emergency" button in the vehicle so when pressed it will send an emergency beacon should life ever be in danger.  The question was would it be inappropriate to use it in a non-life threatening "emergency". My girlfriend travels in areas where there is no cell phone coverage. She is licensed as well and I was wondering, could the MIC-E emergency beacon be something to the effect of "Please contact KC6WTA at <number>" and upon receiving the beacon I will know she needs help. Would it be innappropriate for her to use it say if she were stranded or something to that effect where her life is not immediately endangered.

I am requesting information on behalf of a non-licensed person who desperately wants to check on his father's wherabouts.  He has become concerned because his elderly father was in Pascagoula, Ms. at the time of Katrina and has not yet heard from him.  He is a diabetic and is concerned for his father's life.

Anyone who may be able to get a hold of Hams in the area of Pascagoula, Ms. please call me any time 24-7 at 661-747-1500.


Thank you and 73s.

Every once in a while I see Emergency Beacons on Findu.com.  I have always taken the Emergency Beacon to be the equivilant of calling mayday on voice or sos on code.  Is this true?  I would assume it would be inappropriate to put out an Emergency Beacon because you got a flat tire out of cell coverage.

He who resorts to physical threats probably has no means to back them up.  I stand 5' 11'' tall at 260 lbs. I can probably curl your body weight so anytime you are in the Bakersfield, Ca. area look me up tough guy.

If anyone has something helpful to say please do so. Trolls need not respond.

Well, for your information I have checked with the local PD and the absolutely love the idea. Its not vigilanty because I have no connection with the "bad guys".  All of that is handled by the police as it should be.

Have you ever had a vehicle stolen?  It has happened to me TWICE. Its a violation in every regard and if no one is willing to step up and provide the police with assistance it will keep happening. The police have neither the time nor the funds to setup things like this.  

Listen, I needed responses asking about the legality of it.  If you do not have any constructive information to HELP then STFU. Go back in your hole and depend on the police to do everything for you.

Theft has risen recently in my area and I am determined to do something about it. I have a Mustang that was totalled a few years back that I have fixed up semi-nice but I rarely drive it. It is of little resale value because of its salvaged title so I am considering using it as a trap for car thieves as I risk very little should it be totaled again or stolen.

Here is what I plan on doing:

A) Place a relay system that powers a 2 meter transceiver and TinyTracker once activated. Use the starter solenoid "exciter wire" as a trigger for the relay so that once voltage is applied to the starter relay the sytem stays powered indefinitely with direct voltage to the battery.

B)Disguise a 2 meter antenna as the Broadcast antenna placed in the stock location.

C) Place a relay system that automatically cuts power to the coil AND the APRS tracking unit when voltage is applied. Build a circuit that applies triggering voltage to the relay system when squelch is broken on a 440 HT configured on a set simplex frequency with DCS enabled to prevent unintended operation.

D) At the house plug a TNC into scanner set for 144.39 with a terminal program monitoring it. Set the filters in the terminal program to sound an alarm when the characters KC6WTA are displayed (ZOC will do it).


With all these systems in place I could:

Park the car at a convenience store near by with the keys in the ignition. As soon as someone started the car, the APRS system would power up and the tinytrack beacon would transmit my callsign. That would instantly sound the alarm at my house alerting me within seconds of the car being started. Within 1 minute the GPS would be reporting the position via APRS. I already have a APRS tracking station in my truck that I can track other APRS stations real time. I also have a hands-free system in the truck. Within the minute it takes the GPS to lock on, I could be in the truck ready to track with 911 on the line. I could alert the police to the movement of the vehicle and stay behind out of site but within 1 mile. When the police get behind the vehicle I can transmit and ID my callsign on the predetermined 440 frequency with the appropriate DCS code instantaneously killing the APRS tracker and more importantly the engine of the mustang allowing the police to make a swift arrest.


I believe this satisfies any and all FCC requirements because I am able to "remote control" the 2 meter transmitter at any time from a different band. I am constantly monitoring the transmission of the APRS unit with the scanner and in the truck. OK FCC rule gurus... if this is to stand up in court it needs to be 100% legal.

Any comments or suggestions are welcomed...

Onstar is a service that costs money.  Some people (like me) do not want the service... so why not?

Even if one does not pay for the service, in a life and death situation the onstar operator will answer the call and help.

What is the prescribed method for doing APRS on a PDA? I have APRSCE installed but the maps for my city are terrible. Is there a better alternative?

Who cares? We have better things to worry about.  I have an APRS tracker I will be placing in my vehicle. I am not going to pull the fuse everytime someone borrows my car! Quite the contrary it would be nice to see where they went. People are jamming our repeaters and swearing in blatent disregard for FCC rules.... spend your efforts worrying about THAT. My Girlfriend has her license. Do you "rule book thumpers" expect us to swap TinyTracks everytime we use each other's vehicle? There was a Ham using APRS on 144.39 to track his commercial vehicles... that is entirely different. No one is going to say anything about someone else driving the car that you usually drive with the APRS on.

I don't know what everyone is so concerned about.  This should be a no brainer....  If one side has decent height to it you wont need dual yagis et cetera. I have talked 30 miles simplex with my girlfriend when all she had was a 5 watt HT with a 1/4 wave mag mount.  Now granted I had decent elevation with a 50 watt mobile unit into a 3.5 db ant.  

Dual yagis is not practicle.  EOS will need to talk to multiple sites and will most definitely need to be an omni directional ant. This kind of site is reffered to as point-to-multipoint because its linked directly to multiple remote sites. Yagis are better used at point-to-point locations such as the remotes because they only need to talk to one other place, EOC.

Assuming there are no large obstacles between you 30 miles is a piece of cake with the following setup:

EOS: (Or other point-to-multipoint locations)

SPEC 1223 23 amp 13.8v supply- $99.00
ADI AR-147+ 60 watt 2 Meter Mobile: $149.99
Hustler G6-144B 6 dbi ant:  $119.00

Total: $367.99


Remotes: (not counting other relay or P2MP locations)

SPEC 1223 23 amp 13.8v supply- $99.00
ADI AR-147+ 60 watt 2 Meter Mobile: $149.99
Y-1363 7.1db 3 element Yagi: $119.00

Total: $367.99

This is very quick thumbing through the AES catalog and picking the first thing that catches my attention. In this scenario with both sides putting out 60 watts into 6 and 7.1 db antennas on 40-50 foot masts and no large objects (mountains, sky scrapers) between them you will have no problems talking 30 miles.... I would venture to say 60+ miles is possible in optimum conditions.

Regardless of any problems of remoting the faceplate I have no alternative.  I drive a Hyundai Tiburon and can barely find enough room for the faceplate, let alone a radio.