on the two activations today i tried to spot my actual frequency via my aprs-beacon. it seemed to work well and so i will use APRS for spotting my operating frequency on the next summits. i hope that the chasers will look for my APRS callsign (OE5REO-7) on aprs.fi - live APRS map
here is the data of my APRS beacons today:
normally i am spotting myself with my mobile phone, but the reception often is not very good in the mountain areas. APRS on the other hand works quite well in my area.
btw … i will only send APRS beacons from the summit, not during ascent/descent!
hope to hear you soon again … a short report of the activation of oe/oo-271 and oe/oo-276 is on my webpage.
the reason i’m not running it during ascent/decent is simple: i don’t have a gps connected to my yaesu vx-8 … i store the coordinates of the summit on my handheld in advance.
i know that there is a optional gps-microphone available for the vx-8 but i think it’s too expensive and i’m not planning to buy that piece of equipment.
but maybe i should consider to send some aprs-beacons with the info:
“qrv in 15 minutes”, “reaching the summit in 15 minutes” (or something like that).
i have the handheld inside my backpack during walking, maybe i should try to attach it to the outside of the backpack!?
One of the problems we have is the manufacturers have lowered the price of the basic radio and increased the cost of the accessories. So you can buy the radio for not too much money but things like a softcase, a speaker mike and a programming lead can cost more than 50% of the cost of the radio. The dealers and manufacturers make a big profit on the accessories to help keep the cost of the radio down.
I expect it wont be too long before someone sniffs the comms between the GPS mike and the radio and publishes the data stream. That way it should be possible to use one of the many small tracker GPS units or a normal GPS with the VX-8 (or Icom D-STAR handhelds).
One of these days we should try a summit to summit APRS packet message…drop me an email next time you have an activation planned…
I would really get a kick out of a summit to summit aprs message. Last time someone tried to message me from Europe to my ht it did not go through…although I have made the trip in teh past…
I expect it wont be too long before someone sniffs the comms between
the GPS mike and the radio and publishes the data stream. That way it
should be possible to use one of the many small tracker GPS units or a
normal GPS with the VX-8 (or Icom D-STAR handhelds).
Shocking! In my innocence, I had presumed they would just be using NMEA strings or some other standard-ish protocol. Not relly in the amateur spirit of things (homebrewing etc), is it?
I’d love a VX-8, but Satan will be skating to work before I can afford one!
To be fair some of the price difference comes from the Yen<>Pound vs Yen<>Dollar exchange rate. Then Pound fell some 25% against the Yen over the last year and that has pushed up Japanese goods. Then there’s guarantee periods and supplied accessories and this and that so it’s not a fair apples to apples comparison. More like comparing apples to monkeys! Even when you factor those variations in there is still a difference in price.
Capitalism! Can’t live with it and nobody wants communism instead
