I was just thinking earlier today that it would be very nice if I could design my own radio and have a company mass produce it. Yeah, I know threads like these often get WAY off track and people want the "kitchen sink" built into the radio, but I basically would take the concept that Garmin already has with the Rino 655t, BUT use the two way radio of the Motorola DTR550. Think how handy that would be. You would have a device for communicating on simplex, PLUS be able to navigate with it and even "poll" the other user(s) position(s)!
Yeah, I realize that the likelihood of something like this every coming to market is slim to none, but it is fun to dream about the possibilities. In fact, it would actually answer a fairly common question heard on a lot of radio chatter. Think about it, how many times have you heard two radio users talking and one asks the other, "Where are you?" With GPS integrated with a radio, you could simply look on the display and it would show you where other users are. I also realize that one of the other inherent problems with GPS navigation is that it does NOT work particularly well indoors. Generally, it requires a clear view of the sky. On the other hand, there are some plans to improve indoor navigation. Even a device that could somehow use cellular mobile telephone tower locations for aiding indoor navigation would help a great deal. That is, if it would be possible to use that data without having to subscribe to a cell phone plan. I don't know currently if it is possible to get navigation data from cell phone towers without a subscription, but if it is (or were) possible, that would help quite a bit for indoor navigation.
Actually, with the prevalence of wifi in many places, it might be possible to even extend the range of simplex walkie talkies by simply using wifi access. The wifi could be used as a "repeater" of sorts. Has anybody here experimented with this? Are there currently any FRS/GMRS radios that come with wifi access out of the box? It might sound like quite a stretch , but really is it so unreasonable?
Maybe having Android built into a reasonably priced FRS/GMRS radio might be worthwhile. Much like smartphones, it might allow MP3, GPS, and other functionality. If it can be added without the price getting too high, I think it would be worthwhile.
Yeah, I realize that the likelihood of something like this every coming to market is slim to none, but it is fun to dream about the possibilities. In fact, it would actually answer a fairly common question heard on a lot of radio chatter. Think about it, how many times have you heard two radio users talking and one asks the other, "Where are you?" With GPS integrated with a radio, you could simply look on the display and it would show you where other users are. I also realize that one of the other inherent problems with GPS navigation is that it does NOT work particularly well indoors. Generally, it requires a clear view of the sky. On the other hand, there are some plans to improve indoor navigation. Even a device that could somehow use cellular mobile telephone tower locations for aiding indoor navigation would help a great deal. That is, if it would be possible to use that data without having to subscribe to a cell phone plan. I don't know currently if it is possible to get navigation data from cell phone towers without a subscription, but if it is (or were) possible, that would help quite a bit for indoor navigation.
Actually, with the prevalence of wifi in many places, it might be possible to even extend the range of simplex walkie talkies by simply using wifi access. The wifi could be used as a "repeater" of sorts. Has anybody here experimented with this? Are there currently any FRS/GMRS radios that come with wifi access out of the box? It might sound like quite a stretch , but really is it so unreasonable?
Maybe having Android built into a reasonably priced FRS/GMRS radio might be worthwhile. Much like smartphones, it might allow MP3, GPS, and other functionality. If it can be added without the price getting too high, I think it would be worthwhile.
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