[aprssig] GeoSat 4 Price published

[Stephen H. Smith]

bruninga at usna.edu wrote:

>Wow, another neat GPS map for the dashboard.
>Can you tell us what these features mean?
>
>"TMC ready (optional interface required) no additional info"
>"APRS ready with ITT (intercept to Target)"
>"Easy serial interfacing to Kenwood D700 & D7..."
>
>What is TMC and what is ITT?  thanks.
>
>
>  
>
.

It smells of clueless marketers without any real understanding of APRS. 


"TMC" is a typo for "TNC"      

The previous version of this device apparently used a hard disk with a 
map of all of the U.S. and Canada loaded on it.  This one uses a 
flashdrive that requires that regional maps be downloaded from a DVD.

Basically it's a mapping GPS that allows you to extract data from it's 
internal GPS receiver and feed it into a D700's or D7's GPS port.  It 
also apparently accepts and plots the waypoint output of the Kenwoods' 
GPS port.   I doubt that it produces real APRS symbols at all -- just 
generic waypoints tagged with callsigns. 

The "Kenwood Hookup" diagram, for the previous version of this device, 
shown on the website at   http://www.geosat.us  ,  is even more 
simplistic.  It uses a 2.5MM stereo mini-jack "Y" connector (of the type 
used to plug two sets of head phones into a Walkman or iPod)  to 
parallel the D700 GPS input-only across the unit's (external) GPS 
receiver.     I.E the hookup  shares the GPS data with two devices with 
no communications between the map and the Kenwood at all.  

The website doesn't make clear  that this diagram is irrelevent to the 
current model with the GPS built-in.    Thus my comment about clueless 
marketers. 



Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
EchoLink Node:      14400    [Think bottom of the 2M band]
Home Page:          http://wa8lmf.com

"APRS 101"  Explanation of APRS Path Selection & Digipeating
  http://webs.lanset.com/wa8lmf/DigiPaths

Updated APRS Symbol Chart
  http://webs.lanset.com/wa8lmf/miscinfo/APRS_Symbol_Chart.pdf   

New/Updated "Rev G" APRS     http://webs.lanset.com/wa8lmf/aprs
Symbols Set for UI-View,
UIpoint and APRSplus: