[aprssig] Road Trip - Lessons Learned

['Scott Miller']

> Portability of the tracker is nice, but not nearly as important as  
> robustness and difficulty for accidental reconfigurations.  I might  

This is a very good point.  I sent a DR-135 (with Tracker2) along with a
friend on a cross-country trip.  I made sure to set the keypad lock and had
no trouble with it.  Though for some reason, my old Alinco DJ-F1T will
occasionally move 5 kHz off frequency when you turn it on, despite the
f-lock being enabled.

> I did 1 minute beacons for the "dumb" vehicle.  I am not sorry about  
> that at all.  Even one minute at 70 MPH is quite some distance.   

This is an application where Bob's proportional pathing scheme would be
good.  You can get rapid updates direct, and occasional WIDE beacons for
longer range.

> We also used FRS between the vehicles.  That didn't work nearly as  
> well - after more than 1/4 mile or so at the most, we lost  
> communication that way.

FRS has always disappointed me for vehicle to vehicle communications.  It
can't compete even with a 5-watt 2-meter HT with a cheap 1/4 wave magmount.

Scott
N1VG