[aprssig] Digis everywhere

[VE7GDH]

> Re:-  "Any old TNC and old HT laying around could be used."

Why don't APRS users that travel by air just put a working digi in a
suitcase and take it along for the ride? There would be enough room in a
medium sized suitcase for a ground plane and a quarter wave antenna, a small
battery and a TNC. Keep the power down at a watt or two. Add the guts from
one or two of those "shake it to recharge" LED flashlights and the battery
could be kept topped up indefinitely by the baggage handlers chucking it
around or playing football with it or whatever it is they do the approx. 25%
of lost luggage that doesn't quite make it to the next stop the same time
that you do.

If they don't actually succeed in losing it, you will have the benefit of a 
working digi when you arrive. If they do lose it, some random airport 
somewhere in the world would have a working digi. The only snag I can see is 
how the digi would be able to announce it's real location. I suppose you 
could put the designator for the destination airport in the status text and 
use position ambiguity. OK, one more snag. You might need a circuit to get 
it to flip-flop back and forth between 144.390 and 144.800 just in case it 
ends up on another continent! <G>

Oh yes... insure it for twice it's actual value. Occasionally, the SWAT
teams would come in and blast it to smithereens. You could replace it on
the next trip with two more with the insurance money... if they still let
you fly, that is!

73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"