[aprssig] WiFi APRS traveler

[Gregg Wonderly]

On 12/13/2010 11:46 AM, Keith VE7GDH wrote:
> Gregg W5GGW wrote...
>
>> My cell modem comes out onto the internet in Dallas Texas. When I
>> am on the road with it, largely NOT in Texas, it is very confusing to
>> push the "where am I" button on my wifi iPad and have it tell me
>> "Texas" and not anywhere close to where I actually am.
>
> The iPhone 4 has an actual GPS chip. My understanding is that the
> iPad with Wi-Fi finds your location using known Wi-Fi hotspots, but
> the Wi-Fi + 3G models use Wi-Fi, GPS, and cellular towers. You
> still get all the nice maps in the Wi-Fi model. You just don't know
> exactly where you are.

Yes, this is exactly the case.  I was pointing out, that the use of the non-gps 
positioning is not always useful.  There are very practical ways that you might 
use wi-fi to connect your device (iPad, laptop or otherwise) to the internet and 
not get any reasonable results.

The hotspot at the coffee shop, or other fixed location with well known location 
data gathered from Google street mapping activities is usually pretty dependable.

But, crossing networks from private (cellular data in this example) to public IP 
address results in less useful information.

I really like my other iPad with the cellular radio and the GPS.  It's a great, 
on the road navigation tool, and my APRSNow application allows me to do APRS on 
the road with an APRS-IS connection.  With another IP addressable packet stream, 
I can also go straight to a hardware TNC as well.  Best of both worlds.

Gregg Wonderly
W5GGW