Standalone APRS mobile system using a Maxtrac mobile radio
- Thread starter snare
- Start date
camp4x4
Adventurer
So then I think you're good with the main frequencies - 145.825 for sats and 144.390 for everything else. According to the APRS Wiki those other frequencies you list are for low power trackers: http://info.aprs.net/index.php?title=Frequencies
camp4x4
Adventurer
I know guys are doing that with windows tablets running APRSISCE32.
Had considered doing what this guy did with a Windows tablet and his Yeasu FTM-400XDR (what I run)... I have a hard time ditching GaiaGPS on my iPad though, and 2 tablets seems excessive...
camp4x4
Adventurer
So then Xastir or YAAC?
snare
Adventurer
Any issues with desensing your other 2m mobile (assuming you have one, maybe you dont)?
I have had some people bring this concern up. I definitely dont want to damage my 2m/70cm mobile (an Icom 2730A)
prerunner1982
Adventurer
I am running a 2m for voice and have not noticed any desense there but I do have some on my stereo. I am running 30 watts on APRS.
My APRS antenna is on the passenger rear corner, Stereo antenna on passenger front fender and 2m antenna on drivers front fender.
After my project XJ is built both 2m and APRS antennas will be on the roof so I may have more of an issue then, we shall see.
snare
Adventurer
thanks.
my APRS antenna will be on the roof, towards the rear.
2m/70cm voice is on front bumper
I am looking in to whether the Radio Shack HTX 212 could be a viable option for my APRS radio. The advantage would be it is easily programmable. If I can find one for up to $40 more than the Maxtrac, and there is a cable available (contacted hammadeparts) I may consider it.
my APRS antenna will be on the roof, towards the rear.
2m/70cm voice is on front bumper
I am looking in to whether the Radio Shack HTX 212 could be a viable option for my APRS radio. The advantage would be it is easily programmable. If I can find one for up to $40 more than the Maxtrac, and there is a cable available (contacted hammadeparts) I may consider it.
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
We're you thinking of a Raspberry PI for something? You can run Xastir on Linux. I also have compiled Xastir for my Mac, so that's what I use at the home QTH. Is APRSISCE32 still in active development? Anyway, I wonder if it would be possible to get Xastir running on iOS? I don't know either way but my suspicion is no, I'm using Macports and the XQuartz framework for Xastir, it's not a native OS X app as such.
The only thing that still eludes me is combining high quality navigation with APRS without using Backcountry Navigator (which isn't interesting to me because I don't want to be constrained to Android). I've had limited (as in next to zero) success with getting Navit to work but even if I did integrating it with Xastir would still be necessary I guess. Underlying a decent map in Xastir is fine when you're just interested in see where you are and your position relative to other APRS stations, though.
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DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
I had a dual band and an APRS antenna on the roof of my old truck. Even at 5W with them that close it was what I'd call crazy de-sense. I was worried I would ruin the front end of my radio, S9+ even on different bands (e.g. if I was using UHF it would blow out). I ended up buying an FTM-350 to integrate phone and APRS as a hasty solution. In the new truck I'm putting the APRS on a stubby antenna on the bull bar with the regular dual band probably on the roof.
camp4x4
Adventurer
Yeah, I've actually just in the last couple days picked up a Raspberry Pi and installed both Xastir and YAAC. BIGGEST issue with both is that neither one makes installing maps very easy. I wouldn't call either of them really comparable to the major of mapping apps out there. This is exactly what the big-picture issue is: there are APRS apps and mapping apps. There are no APRS apps that do mapping well and no mapping apps that do APRS really well. :-/ And I'm not really sure which side is closer to what we want... is it easier to do better mapping in APRS clients or is it easier to implement APRS features in mapping apps?
For iOS check out APRSPro I haven't played with it myself but may be worth checking out.
My use of the RPi and Xastir or YAAC is for a fill-in digipeater though, not really mapping. The mapping function is kind of a side-use just to see a reference for where stations are, not guidance or anything.
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Easier to integrate APRS into an existing application. Going the other way requires a lot more ground work. The stat of Navit should demonstrate how much work it is to do intelligent navigation. Putting dots on a map based on GPS coordinates is a fraction of the complexity, which is why I suspect it was a quick add to Backcountry Navigator.
I have APRSPro on my iPhone. It's seem to me to be primarily an APRS-IS app, meaning it lets you do stuff while on the cell network but interfacing it to a radio is a distant after thought. I don't have a tablet and if I was to get one and put it in the truck it would likely be Linux (e.g. a RPi with a LCD in a case) rather than Android or iOS. I don't need all the misc junk carried around for that.
FWIW, I don't find it difficult to get maps for Xastir. I've been able to generate configuration files to pull down online data from nationalmap.gov for both topo and aerial data. You can cache them, too, or regular offline is just a matter of downloading tons of large files and sticking them in the shared directory.
I have APRSPro on my iPhone. It's seem to me to be primarily an APRS-IS app, meaning it lets you do stuff while on the cell network but interfacing it to a radio is a distant after thought. I don't have a tablet and if I was to get one and put it in the truck it would likely be Linux (e.g. a RPi with a LCD in a case) rather than Android or iOS. I don't need all the misc junk carried around for that.
FWIW, I don't find it difficult to get maps for Xastir. I've been able to generate configuration files to pull down online data from nationalmap.gov for both topo and aerial data. You can cache them, too, or regular offline is just a matter of downloading tons of large files and sticking them in the shared directory.
camp4x4
Adventurer
Yeah, so what I ended up doing is writing a little script to pull tiles at various levels from opencyclemap.org - I like these way better than the regular openstreetmap.org ones -
and place them in the OSM cache folder. Works well and the PNG files are only 25kb each so the 35,000 or so I pulled is well less than 1GB.