[aprssig] Airborne APRS

[Ken Brown]

I've been using a D7 in a plastic HT holder with large suction cups on the
left window of the Cessna Cardinal (very slightly larger than a 172, and no
wing strut) I purchased a few months ago.  Use the internal battery, Diamond
antenna and a Garmin III+ on a yoke mount.  Works fine.

There is a spare com antenna on the belly with a BNC plug on a length of
coax in the glove box, intended to use an aviation HT as a backup for the
two com radios should they fail.  One of these days I intend to put in a
D700 (with Velcro to avoid the FAA's requirements for a permanent
installation) and use a matcher to the com antenna.  (I don't want to cut
the antenna shorter so it can be used with my Icom backup aviation HT).

The D7 works fine, and APRS stations can be displayed on the GPS.  Here in
very APRS intensive northern New Jersey, I did have to turn off the DCD or
it would go for several minutes (10 miles or more) without a beacon.

73, ---Ken W2KB   N16019

-----Original Message-----
From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org]
On Behalf Of William McKeehan
Sent: October 28, 2005 11:23
To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org
Subject: [aprssig] Airborne APRS

In participating in some balloon chases where we had difficulty finding the
ballon once it landed, some of the guys thought it would be nice to fly an
airplane over the area with an APRS station on board the airplane, thus
giving
it line-of-site with the low power balloon beacon and getting a position.

The guys have a pilot/airplane, but we are wondering how to setup the APRS
station in the airplane. The plane will generally be a Cessna 172 - a
high-wing monoplane.

Has anyone on this list tried this? How did you position the antenna? What
type of antenna did you use?

Thanks for any ideas/input.
-- 
William McKeehan
KI4HDU
Internet: mckeehan at mckeehan.homeip.net
http://mckeehan.homeip.net

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