Any thougts on this APRS Tracker?

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Samuling

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LtDoc

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It 'sounds' like a typical APRS 'handheld' device. I've never heard of it before so have to think it's fairly new on the market. Because of that, I would be a little hesitant about buying one for a while.
Any APRS tracking I've done has been more on the 'vehicle level', if that makes sense. I don't have/see any use in a HT type beacon device. If you have a particular use for such a thingy then good.
- 'Doc
 

AK9R

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Only 1 watt output on VHF? That might be OK in a balloon where your antenna is many feet aloft. But, for a ground-based tracker, I think I'd look at other solutions in the 5 watt range at a minimum.
 

kc0kp

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Only 1 watt output on VHF? That might be OK in a balloon where your antenna is many feet aloft. But, for a ground-based tracker, I think I'd look at other solutions in the 5 watt range at a minimum.
Even 5watts into a rubber duck is not really enough. For hiking in the mountains, the car parked at the trailhead with a digipeater running 45 Watts into a 2.8db gain antenna more than overcomes the 5 watt limitation.
For ARES deployments, low power APRS works great in keeping track of your people. It works better off of the 144.39 frequency (usually 144.42) to keep congestion manageable. So a rockbound tracker would be worthless in that application.
Craig
 

vagrant

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I blast 10W on a Kenwood D710A into a Diamond NR770HB on top of the car. That keeps me in touch until I start getting deeper into the Sierra Nevada's here in California. Then it's touch and go.

I have a Kenwood D72A HT with a Diamond SRH77CA antenna. It will have trouble if sitting on the seat in the vehicle when driving in town. A friend has the Yaesu flavored HT with APRS, and it needs to sit on the dash to throw a signal once in awhile. Those HT's were at 5 watts, or 4...whatever they can do.

At one watt, I will agree that an external antenna is a must, but "one watt" and "remote location" do not seem like a good pairing.
 

K8cpa-chuck

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I wouldn't use APRSDroid if you gave it to me. Dude who makes it, has got a bit of an Anti-American attitude. It's a long story. But, when that happened, I ended up removing it from my phone.
 

kayn1n32008

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I blast 10W on a Kenwood D710A into a Diamond NR770HB on top of the car. That keeps me in touch until I start getting deeper into the Sierra Nevada's here in California. Then it's touch and go.



I have a Kenwood D72A HT with a Diamond SRH77CA antenna. It will have trouble if sitting on the seat in the vehicle when driving in town. A friend has the Yaesu flavored HT with APRS, and it needs to sit on the dash to throw a signal once in awhile. Those HT's were at 5 watts, or 4...whatever they can do.



At one watt, I will agree that an external antenna is a must, but "one watt" and "remote location" do not seem like a good pairing.


Simply put, a 5w tracker will do no good in a car with out an external antenna. Cars and truck are virtual faraday cages on VHF. I use a VX-170 as my APRS radio with an OT3m and a Nuvi 350 with nothing more than a 1/4 wave on a mag mount on the roof of my truck. Works very well. The other side of this is the APRS infrastructure where I live was designed for 5w 1/4 wave mobile trackers.

The only down side is it is a pain when out in the sticks where there is mostly VHF repeaters, as the VX 170 @5w wipes out my TM-V71a, in the city not so bad as I usually only use UHF when at home.

No matter what, try and keep the power to a minimum, simply so that you are not getting into multiple digipeater at the same time.


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prcguy

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I just got an AP510 ($115 on Ebay) and it works quite well with a 1/4 mag mount antenna on a vehicle in So Cal. There were a few dead spots on a couple of medium length trips and my Yaesu VX-8R @ 5w had similar trouble in the same places. A small dedicated amp would bring it up to 100% reliable in my opinion.

The YouTube video on setting it up was a must to watch and I had mine programmed and the firmware upgraded within a few minutes. The device has a smart mode that throttles the transmit timing depending on straight line travel vs curvy roads to minimize tx time while maintaining a good breadcrumb trail, but it seems nobody has figured out the best settings to optimize that yet. All in all an interesting and cute little gadget.
prcguy
 

DIY58

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AP510 frequency range

Hello, I work with Italian Civil Protection organization, as many other licensed hams.
I would like to know if anyone knows the range within the operating frequency of AP510 could be programmed.
This because Civil Protection is allowed to operate on several VHF frequencies in high band (156-174 MHz) and I would like tune the AP510 on one of these frequencies in order to track the searching personnel squads, for their own safety, during search and rescue operations often carried out by our organization.
This will allow to Civil Protection operators not granted of an amateur license to work lawfully with organization's radios in order to perform the required squads tracking.
Thank you and 73s

Giovanni IU0BFM
 
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