Competitor to SPOT?

On Jul 2, 3:02*pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:
On 7/2/2011 8:28 AM, Bill D wrote:

On Jul 2, 7:56 am, Grider *wrote:
Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) does this and more.

.....When in range of a repeater.

It's hard to find a place in the US where your NOT in range of a
repeater. *And, even if you do, repeaters are only ~$200 to set up.
APRS is a good, solid and cheap solution with *1min fixes and all the
additional data we'd like to see. *APRS would really let the folks on
the ground see the real-time "play-by-play" progress of the fleet out
on a task.

Is there a coverage map I can look at? Is there an "APRS in a Box" that
one can buy and plunk into his sailplane in the morning then go flying
with it in the afternoon, or how much more involved than that is it?

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

- "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation Mar/2004" Much of what
you need to know tinyurl.com/yfs7tnz

Eric

Many folks will probably use the TinyTrak see http://www.byonics.com/tinytrak/

Its interesting that coverage out west say around the lower Sierras/
Inyokern valley may be much better with APRS than ADS-B ground
stations. We'll have to see. And APRS actually works today.

Darryl