[aprssig] APRS vs. SPOT

[Tom Hayward]

On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 09:20,  <AA3JY at winlink.org> wrote:
> Watching some of the subscribers on SPOT put out consistent tracking just about anywhere in the US, Canada, Mexico..so why can't APRS  come even close!?! Also dollar for dollar..it's cheaper to do SPOT...

SPOT can't do many of the things that APRS can do. Consider you and
four buddies 4x4'ing in the wilderness. If all of you have SPOT, you
can beacon home for your wives to check on where you are. If you have
APRS, you and your buddies can beacon to each other and watch each
others' positions move on your in-vehicle GPS systems--no internet
required. APRS works really well for tactical awareness, especially in
extraordinary circumstances such as natural disasters where the
Internet may be damaged and SPOT satellites may be overloaded.

They serve different (but similar) purposes.


Tom KD7LXL