[aprssig] Ideal Tracker Spec (Cross country on 6 AA's)

[Scott Miller]

If I can ever find time to finish the design, I'll have a new 
lightweight tracker board for balloon use.  I'm planning to do some test 
flights using latex advertising balloons.

Scott
N1VG

On 12/7/2012 8:06 PM, Robert Bruninga wrote:
> Check out the Microtrackers by Byonics or Argent Data.  But remember,
>   at a balloon altitude, the number of digipeaters that will hear the balloon
> will cover tens of thousands of miles.  Capable of locating the balloooon
> to the nearest 500 miles or so.  Totally useless for a balloon!.
>
> But OK for knowing what city a small beacon is in on the ground.
>
> Bob
>
> On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 2:55 PM, R. Rochte <rochte at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Bob, et al:
>>
>> What would you consider the simplest way to build such a system right now?
>> Are there off the shelf components with which I could make a bunch of these
>> simple APRS "beacons" - and do so inexpensively?
>>
>> I have a series of small superpressure balloons that are ready to fly and
>> just need appropriately sized payloads (mass < 100g).  This would give me
>> far more data than the 10 meter CW beacons that I currently plan to fly!
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> 73,
>> Robert  KC8UCH
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 6:37 PM, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> Don't forget that you can run a micro-kind-of-tracker on 6 AA's for about
>>> a month.  It only has to wake up for 1 second every 5 minutes and send a
>>> single shortest status packet.  No GPS, no GPS power.  Can fit in a
>>> cigarette pack.
>>>
>>> Then use FINDU or APRS.FI to "vicinity track" you across country.  It
>>> should plot a vicinity circle around the digipeaters you are hitting and
>>> at least show the town you are in.
>>>
>>> Lets see. 5W (RF) for one second every 5 minutes at 9 volts is 12 amp
>>> seconds per hour for an average power of under 4 mA.  With AA's holding
>>> about 2700 mAH, then that is about 700  hours or about a month.  Twice as
>>> long if it only powers up in daylight.
>>>
>>> Bob, Wb4APR
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: aprssig-bounces at tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at tapr.org] On Behalf
>>> Of Matti Aarnio
>>> Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2012 6:14 PM
>>> To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
>>> Subject: Re: [aprssig] Ideal Tracker Spec
>>>
>>> On Wed, Dec 05, 2012 at 08:24:33AM -0800, Bryan Hoyer wrote:
>>> >
>>> > We are currently implementing a Tracker Function for our UDR56K
>>> > radio with a USB GPS. (For more info on the radio
>>> www.nwdigitalradio.com)
>>> >
>>> > Most trackers are implemented in small micros with limited
>>> > resources whereas we have an 800MHz Arm (no floating point)
>>> > running Linux 3.x kernel. The project will be open-sourced.
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> That UDR56K is by no means a limited resources thing - it is
>>> both heavy and power hungry if you think about things like
>>> balloons.
>>>
>>> A tracker in my opinnion is something you can put into your
>>> pocket or back-pack, and run for days with a set of batteries.
>>> Having it in a car pretty much removes the size, mass and energy
>>> constraints.
>>>
>>> A tracker at a balloon is extremely mass and energy budged
>>> optimized thing.
>>>
>>> The UDR56K is a much more powerful thing, which is all fine for
>>> running igates, and digis.  It is also really promising platform
>>> to do new kinds of transmission protocols.
>>>
>>> I would love to see about anything to replace that huge heap
>>> of technical mistakes known as AX.25-over-Bell202-over-NBFM.
>>>
>>> Advanced things like:
>>>  * more efficient modulations (GMSK et.al.)
>>>  * every packet/segment equiped with FEC covering all of
>>>    the data (and not only partially like with D-STAR)
>>>  * decoding to use soft-decission in FEC resolution
>>>    (eats DSPs and FPGAs for breakfast, though)
>>>  * CDMA-like multi-carrier operation for igates
>>>  * Self-organized TDMA (alike AIS)
>>>  * Receivers with legacy modulation support in parallel
>>>    to other modes on all channels it receives.
>>>  * Multiple central frequencies (channels) receiver
>>>  * Multi-antenna receiver ( = diversity receiver)
>>>    (Also multi-band if the front-end verter can't fold
>>>     6m, 2m, 70cm and so on to single IF.)
>>>
>>> What I do like is that the thing is split in two cards with
>>> a connector in between.  Doing new radio parts will not need
>>> replacing the host part.
>>>
>>> > Bryan Hoyer K7UDR
>>>
>>> 73 de Matti, OH2MQK
>>>
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>>
>>
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