[aprssig] 6M APRS

[Michael Chisena]

Bob and company,

Thanks for the plug on the 6m APRS project.
Here are some updates.

The local node is NV4FM-6. 
It's up on the same building in down town Fairfax Virginia that the club 146.79/r is on. 
It covers well. 
That unit talks to a station at Bruce K7BC's home. 
>From there the data joins the Internet.

Give these tracks a look at for some 6m and 2m activity

Dual band set ups.
Truck

6m APRS                  2m APRS
 
KA2ZEV-5       (XTR)  KA2ZEV-9

Car
KA2ZEV-6       (SY1)  KA2ZEV-8 

Car
K7BC-5                      K7BC-4

K4MDD-5                   K4MDD-9

It's cool to have a clear channel to play on. 

For example the 6m unit in the truck is set to transmit every 30 seconds and is not interfering with anybody.

Most of these are 'dual band' set ups.

In the case of my car, the two radios are diplexed to a common antenna. 
The inexpensive MJF 6 and 2m dual band antenna, works great.

My truck is set up with separate antennas.

The units share the data take from a single GPS puck.

What I have been doing is using surplus (aka cheap) radios and converting them to data service. 

I saw no good reason to take a special built Ham Only radio and tie it up for such a job.

On the other hand if you can get a cheap surplus two way radio and learn how they are made, 

You can make highly effective and reliable gear.

One of the problems I have found is the way hams as a community build gear. 
Some guys clearly make equipment for the ages. 
They are wonderful craftsman. 
Some guys stuff is held together with duct tape and clip leads. Not good.

I wrote some how to articles to make this process more reliable. Photos and text.

Some of the radios I have converted for clients have over 25k recorded hits into the system.

I get Midland LMR units because they are cheap. 
Manuals, programing tools and software are available.

I also use the Tiny Track 3. 
Been learning how to use the Open Tracker as well.

Since I got laid off, I no longer have access to the physical printer that I made some very useful custom plastic parts, but that can be worked around with a steady hand and a rotary tool.

Here are some article links on how to do it.

This is to convert the Midland XTR series radio. 
In this case a trunk mount radio unit lacking it's control head. 
I call these Orphans for that reason. 

The host radio can be had in ebay for less money. 
Usually between ten and twenty bucks
For a premium radio, people that is cheap!

When you work with this series of radios, it hardly matters if it's 2m or 6m.
All the interface systems are identical right down to the wire lengths and colors.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90108848@N00/sets/72157623358841596/

If you look close, I don't use the audio section for much. 

If Bob's 'Voice Alert' system becomes more common it can be used for that.

The Carrier Detect is done by making use of the 'busy light' circuit in the radio. 
This works very well.

The mods do not work alone, you need an APRS module. 
This is my conversion for the TT3. I am not ready to do the same thing yet for the Open Tracker. Not enough experience with that control unit yet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90108848@N00/sets/72157618636275285/

This is the article on how to make up an inexpensive GPS sensor.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90108848@N00/sets/72157621651452727/

The down side to this item is a fairly short cable of about 6 feet.

This is how to do it if you have an older SY 1 series Midland radio.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90108848@N00/sets/72157614029132742/

This is the most recent project and the article is not finished yet.
A client wanted a voice and data radio. So with the switch he can have it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/90108848@N00/sets/72157624468656025/
Still need to scan in the 'sketch' and some photos of the data load out.

Hope this helps.
Mike Chisena
Herndon VA
KA2ZEV





I
"You are, what you do, when it counts"  

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