[aprssig] Airborne APRS

[w2pi at optonline.net]

Richard Amirault N1JDU wrote: 

> But why get complicated? Write down the lat/lon and then turn the 
> D7 to a voice freq and *tell* the ground crew where the balloon is at. 

If you're going to use a voice relay for part of the link, have the balloon crew read their position to the pilot, who can then read it to the chase crew. 

> TRUE, they would then have to program that lat/lon as a waypoint in their 
> own GPS but that would only take a minute. 

Copying numbers and reading them on the air or entering them into a GPS is a dull, boring, error-prone job - so let technology do it for you. Also, I like the idea of relieving the pilot (and chase crew for that matter) from having to be distracted from flying or driving as much as possible.

Once you've decided to go through the complexity of putting a tracker in the balloon, I think the simple solution is APRS for the whole link. This reduces workload on both the pilot and the chase driver.

If network traffic is an issue - a) you may not need the plane anyway, or b) move the whole thing to another freq. before you take off.

Just one hams opinion...

Paul