Complete Newbie

[N8IAA]

Larry, I am underestimating the HT's capacity or overestimating it?

Rob, I have actually looked into SPOT and given it some serious consideration and it is part of my backup plan for sure. I was just hoping to get something that could do a bit more and I didn't have to pay for yearly, more of an investment up front but with little continued expense. The SPOT is 150 and the tracking is 150 per year following that. The vx-8dr is 330 on gigaparts so if I could get the vx to do virtually the same thing with a few tests and license, and perhaps an antenna upgrade it made a lot more sense to me to go that route. I may have to rethink my plan though. I like the idea of SPOT, I just feel like they're beating you to death with the service costs of 150/ year on the basic plan and another 50/ year to upgrade the tracking rate and reset necessity.

K4EET, That does actually help quite a bit, I'm starting to understand some of this and that helped to reenforce it. So basically I can do the mod on the vx and listen to whatever I want, but I cannot legally speak. I have an uncle that has cb and I think I could get him on the ham without too much difficulty, and I have a good friend who has a ham but no license yet. He and I have been talking about studying up and getting out licenses together here in a couple weeks.

If I am understanding everyone correctly it sounds like as far as an emergency device is concerned, the vx-8dr is pretty much useless. I can get a SPOT and that would work quite well for that purpose but the vx would be dead in the water if Im more than a couple miles from the nearest repeater? I'm still very interested in obtaining a mobile ham and license, but I may not buy such a nice one if it cannot serve that function. Although Rob you did mention I could set it up to send out an emergency beacon so long as someone was monitoring that signal correct? Would the individual monitoring need to be licensed and how is that signal transmitted? I think its well within the realm of possibility I could arrange that depending on what would be required to receive that signal, would such a signal have gps coordinates?

"The GPS will not help you find out where you are. Its function is to show where you are to someone monitoring APRS. Not at all like a regular GPS. Though I could be wrong." This is actually perfectly fine with me so long as where the signal is being transmitted from get to someone somewhere.

Overestimating.
No need to mod the radio to listen. The receive portion is already enabled in the radio.
If someone is monitoring, generally they are licensed. The signal is transmitted by you the operator. So, again, you would need a ham radio license.
Without a repeater, as mentioned in another post, you will not get out to someone to hear.
Larry

 

[bharvey2]

Cj5wit4wd, First, welcome to RR. You'll find a wealth of information (as well as opinions) on this site. It seems like you may be expecting too much form any one particular radio or service. Keep in mind that HAM radio is primarily a hobby. While it has played a key roll in communicating in a number of disasters over the years, I would not want to rely on it in a true emergency. I'm not saying anything bad about it or its devotees but emergency response isn't its primary purpose. Also, as noted above, don't expect to be welcomed if you should pop up on a public service radio system. While you may have a true emergency, you will be treated with suspicion ( a whack-job) and will likely spend a great deal of time trying to convince others that you are in genuine trouble - time that would be better spent addressing the needs of any injured party.

Your best bet would be a satellite phone. Also do consider getting your HAM license and look at the other services as well. You may find that there isn't a "one size fits all" service..

 

[K5MPH]

A better map for APRS is Google Maps APRS its not an static map.......

 

[robertmac]

Any of the Yaesu that have APRS capabilities should display your lat and long. so you can get your area, Who you want to communicate with must have a ham license. I could be wrong, but APRS messages can only be routed using a ham license. So the proper thing to do would be for everyone to get licensed, then one doesn't have to worry. If I saw an emergency message and did not recognize the call, like Public service people, I would probably ignore it or assume it is spam. Google maps I am not certain how it works. I know the link posted comes up in Europe. On the TRACK CALLSIGN, type in LTROCK and it should bring the maps to Arkansas, I like to look at the last 12 hours so under "show last" I change to 12 hours. I change the "track" to 12 hours as well. Then I hit "SHOW ALL" the maps will display all the hams beaconing in your area. This map will show those igates, digipeaters in your area. This may help you determine how close you would be to them. By putting cursor on the ham call signs it will give you an indication as to what APRS station hears their transmission. Ignore the WX as these are just weather stations and do not hear or transmit APRS data. As has been said, line of sight is everything. But there are some work arounds as I mentioned if you will be within a couple of miles of a mobile that could be set up on a high point and has a Kenwood 710 type of radio.