[aprssig] Ham Radio MOBILE Traveler PL-FIND device?

[KF4LVZ]

On 2017-11-29 12:26, spam8mybrain wrote:
> Again, will this app tune your radio for you with a single button click?
> 
> That is the advantage of the APRS repeater objects, at least with radios that 
> support APRS intrinsically like the Kenwood D710. Having to look it up in an app 
> and hand-tune the radio is no easier or safer than looking it up in the ARRL's 
> printed repeater directory. For repeaters that I don't know about in advance and 
> that don't report themselves with APRS, they might as well not exist while I'm 
> actually behind the wheel.
> 
> Andrew, KA2DDO
> 
> 

If the directory were built into a device that could control the radio
(e.g. a RPi with the database, a GPS, and some glue logic) then it
certainly could be a one button or even a zero button function.  I
understand the difficulty with obtaining the complete database from the
currently available offerings though perhaps having a method for
downloading data for a region and putting that into the in-car database
would work.[1]  Most people already do something similar for trip
planning so I don't think this would be too much of a stretch.

Barring that then using a cellular modem on the RPi would enable live
access to the online database instead of a locally maintained copy.
Slightly different glue logic but the same result applies.



[1] I also see that Rfinder will soon have databases installable on GPS
receivers like those from TomTom and Garmin.  A different kind of glue
logic could allow the GPS to flag when it finds itself within range of
one of the repeater waypoints and tune the radio accordingly if the data
is present within the waypoint metadata on the GPS receiver.