APRS and 5 Watts in VA and TN - APRS Forum at eHam.net

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eHam.net Forum : APRS : APRS and 5 Watts in VA and TN

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APRS and 5 Watts in VA and TN	Reply
by N3YZ on September 20, 2006	Mail this to a friend!
We're planning a trip through I-40 in Tennessee this winter, traveling down I-81 from Maryland and Virginia. We're new to APRS, and would like to experiment, ideally using a Garmin eTrex, TinyTrac3, an FT-817 and a mag mount antenna. First, would this low power system work, or would we need 20+ watts mobile? And, are there sufficient APRS-capable digipeaters in VA and in TN to allow us to realistically monitor this trek? Any thoughts and tips would be appreciated. John

RE: APRS and 5 Watts in VA and TN	Reply
by K5LXP on September 20, 2006	Mail this to a friend!
I can't speak for your route specifically, but I have made numerous cross-US trips running APRS. In general, if you can't hit a node or i-gate with a setup as you describe, having 20W isn't going to make any difference. My APRS box has 1.5 watts out and it works very well, where there is APRS coverage. There are many areas in 'flyover country' where there just aren't any nodes to hit. You can tell just by listening on the APRS frequency for any packet traffic. If you can't hear a node, you could have a kilowatt and it wouldn't matter. Yes, having higher power might help you capture in an area where there is a lot of channel congestion, but odds are you'll get through even at low power, most of the time. Mark K5LXP Albuquerque, NM

RE: APRS and 5 Watts in VA and TN	Reply
by KC0VCU on September 20, 2006	Mail this to a friend!
Not really happy about the mag mount, but I presume it is unavoidable. That said, for quite a while my aprs setup in my car was using a vx-150 for it's transmitter (TinyTracker 3+ so rx was only to avoid collisions) with a hershy kiss magmount antenna. First upgraded the antenna to a 2-meter trunk lip mount antenna, which improved coverage significantly. (The trip to the store to pick up the antenna showed about 5 positions tracked, the return trip showed over 20.) The second upgrade swapped out the VX-150 for a HTX-212 set to low power or 20 watts. Still good coverage, but not really a noticiable improvement other than that the rig is now securly mounted and less likely to be bounced around. The times I have set that to high power (45 watts) I have not seen a noticible improvement in coverage. The spots that are not covered just don't have a digipeater or iGate close enough to matter. The setup with the VX-150 has been used with a mag-mount antenna in support of a local Iron Man event, and the people managing the event were more than satisfied with the coverage it provided. (It did prompt me to contemplate setting up a digipeater at one of the rest stops where there was good overview coverage of a few blind spots in the event. Still contemplating that however.) Safe travels and 73, -Rusty - kc0vcu

RE: APRS and 5 Watts in VA and TN	Reply
by N3YZ on September 21, 2006	Mail this to a friend!
Many thanks to Mark & to Rusty for your most informative replies. Looks like its a go! 73! John

RE: APRS and 5 Watts in VA and TN	Reply
by VE7BER on February 14, 2007	Mail this to a friend!
last year I went from British Columbia to Dallas using a 5 watt handheld, rubber duck antenna, TT3 and it was hit and miss on the reports. I VX5 was just hanging from the rear view mirror of the rental truck so it was amazing that we hit any digipeaters. Next time I will use a far better system.

RE: APRS and 5 Watts in VA and TN	Reply
by N3YZ on September 1, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Yes! We recently ran mobile down I-81 from Maryland, thru I-40 to Nashville. Had solid APRS tracking using a VX-8R and a 5/8 mag mount antenna, beaconing every minute. Really like the HT. Compact, powered by 9V cig charger. Thanks for all the previous comments. &3! John, Annapolis, MD.

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