Moto w/APRS

[W4TF]

Please exuse my ignorance as I do not know Motorola very well at all. I will be involved in a community event. One of the local Motorola dealers said they will be able to provide Morotola HTs to us. I asked for one with built in APRS capability. I got a reply today that was VERY confusing but part of the email says Motorola has no APRS radios. Is this true? I know she is the dealer, but if you read the email I received, you would question her knowledge also! :roll::lol:

When I searched this forum for APRS, I came up with only 2 topics which seems to say no there isn't but also speculate that it is possible.

Any help/insight is appreciated.

73,
Singh, AJ4VS

 

[KE7JFF]

Nope, Motorola does not offer a built in APRS TNC in any of its radios.

You can however connect a TNC to a Motorola radio real easy.

 

[mikewazowski]

I know she is the dealer, but if you read the email I received, you would question her knowledge also! :roll::lol:

The problem was you expected her to understand a term and a system that's not used outside of the amateur radio community. Heck, even some amateurs would have a hard time figuring out what APRS stands for.

If you had gone in and asked her if Motorola had a product which allowed short messaging and geolocation, she probably would have steered you to their MotoTRBO line.

The commercial world has no need for a protocol based on ascii location packets. They've developed much better methods of passing location and data faster. To include APRS in one of their radios would be a huge step backwards compared to what they're doing today.

If you need geolocation services at your event, ask her about what can be done using TRBO. They could probably set you up with a system that would allow you to track the various portables.

If you want APRS, you'll have to bring your own amateur gear that includes APRS and setup your own base station.

 

[W4TF]

Okay gotcha! Thank u both for the input.

It thought she understood exactly what I was talking about until I got the reply that said something to the effect of "motorola does not have any aprs enabled radios yet but we might be able to either put you on a trunked system or roll out a mobile repeater for you.."

Thats when I went "hhuuhh?? me thinks there be a communication barrier between her and I..."

Thanks again. It sounds like the MotoTRBO is what I'm looking for

 

[Squad10]

Please exuse my ignorance as I do not know Motorola very well at all. I will be involved in a community event. One of the local Motorola dealers said they will be able to provide Morotola HTs to us. I asked for one with built in APRS capability. I got a reply today that was VERY confusing but part of the email says Motorola has no APRS radios. Is this true? I know she is the dealer, but if you read the email I received, you would question her knowledge also! :roll::lol:

When I searched this forum for APRS, I came up with only 2 topics which seems to say no there isn't but also speculate that it is possible.

Any help/insight is appreciated.

73,
Singh, AJ4VS

If you want to use the APRS network for tracking and want a portable unit, I suggest looking at the Micro-Trak AIO on byonics.com website. At $260 I predict it will end up costing alot less than TRBO.