[aprssig] Portable APRS

[Eric Hansen]

I follow your line of thought because i've gone down roughly the same line.
One development interesting to me is the ability for the iPad to operate as
a USB or RS232 host. The USB is already on the market as a digital camera
interface. The same company is making an official DB9 and RJ11 serial output
dongle. I would like my APRS to be something the size of a tablet, or
smaller, and offer the ability to do anything that an old dekstop computer
with TNC and radio could do. The iPad has a GPS chipset inside already, so
there is really nothing stopping someone with enough know-how from making a
two piece solution.

www.byonics.com makes the Tiny Trak series of TNCs. They have several dumb
tracker solutions on various PCBs. The radio from the 10w AIO, a TT3 or 4
TNC, and someone to write an apple store app would make the smallest
solution i've been able to think of.

On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 1:10 PM, John Davis <john.r.davis.jr at gmail.com>wrote:

> Question.
>
> I am a new to the HAM community, so please excuse my ignorance in advance.
> I have been involved in technology for a long time until a friend of mine,
> Mike (KN8J) peaked my interest in APRS. I purchased an RC-D710 with the
> intentions of creating an HT setup similar to what Bob did. With that said,
> I am realizing there is a problem with input, it is a slow and tedious
> process and a limitation to APRS.
>
> What I mean is that using the keypad is fine, but long and kind
> of unnecessary. I am starting to feel the need for a keyboard on an HT or
> something more than a keypad. Pardon my reference, but similar to the need
> for them on smartphones and cellphones. If we are to get a mass adaptation
> there needs to be an easy way to utilize all of its features.
>
> I am contemplating hacking away at my RC-D710 to use the keyboard over
> serial(if possible), but I think that if we can incorporate Bluetooth with a
> VX-8DR/R we should be able to make or allow a keyboard to be connected to an
> HT/mobile unit to allow better data input.
>
> Another idea I have is to create a device with a dedicated transceiver(Micro-Trak
> TinyTrak4) in the same case as a picoITX motherboard(EPIA-P820) using
> either an SSD or CF card as a hdd in a fanless case, and mount some form of
> 7in monitor(touchscreen or not) and keyboard on this device. This device
> should be light and self contained, with a battery life of 5 hours on
> transmit/receive. I think I could make it work.
>
> My question is this: Why are we still so limited to computers for data
> input and monitoring with APRS when we have so many great technologies at
> our fingertips for pretty cheap.
>
> If anyone is interested in my ideas please let me know and I can discuss
> them with you, on or off the thread. Thank you everyone!
>
> --
>
> [image: John R Davis Jr]
>
>
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