[aprssig] MGATES for IS-Mobiles

[Eric Hansen]

On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 2:39 PM, Pete Loveall AE5PL Lists
<hamlists at ametx.com> wrote:
If they can afford a smartphone with a data plan, they can afford an
HT and operate on RF just like the rest of us.  There is nothing
special about someone who wants to dictate to another ham that their
posits are "special" and deserve to be on their RF channel regardless
of that other ham's opinions.
> 73,
>
> Pete Loveall AE5PL
> pete at ae5pl dot net
>
>
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> aprssig mailing list
> aprssig at tapr.org
> https://www.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig

Not really. I mean, I suppose I *could* if I stopped paying my cell
phone bill. Putzing about with iAPRS and the Echolink apps on my
iPhone are what got me to dust off my ham radio gear and upgrade from
Tech to General. It renewed an interest a nearly decade dead.

I had a plan to make a dumb tracker so my fiancee could see me on the
way to meet her. Gave her my callsign and told her to look it up on
aprs.fi. I got an OT-USB, a 1/4 wave telescoping antenna for my FT-50
and configured it all. Wired everything up with 12v cigarette lighter
plugs and drove from Cleveland to Lansing. Didn't get digipeated once.
Drove to the base of a digipeater in Lansing and parked for 20 minutes
to get digipeated. Drove back and once again, nothing got through.
Then my laptop died a horrible death, so my plan to interface it with
the OT-USB fell through. Basically, my phone *is* my portable
computing solution, now. Spent $740 on snow tires so I don't end up
backwards into a retaining wall (again). I have a friend in a
similarly low paying job with a Tech license, a Droid phone and a
Woxun HT and that's it. There's a lot more important things that come
up than pursuing a hobby, especially one needing either a $500 radio
or computer + scavenged radio equipment. The chances of me not having
my phone, though, are non-existent.

First World Problems, White Whine, I know. I have a job, food and roof
over my head. I've chosen not to bother further with amateur radio
until I can get a job even at the poverty line, let alone above it.