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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Courier New" color=#000000 size=2>My assumptions, sir, came directly from your website.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>"I am installing a tracker for friends and family to keep up with their progress, using their N number as the tracker callsign."</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>That sounds an awful lot like you installing a tracker for a non-ham so other non-hams can keep up with him. AND, I watched well over fifteen minutes position reports come across my D700 without seeing a callsign. Maybe I didn't get the ones that did have a callsign or maybe the callsign wasn't showing up on the D700. As my original e-mail stated, I was mobile and couldn't look at the packets and wanted someone to take a look at them for me. It is every ham's job to patrol the RF spectrum to protect it from commercial ventures or we might just loose our spectrum.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>And, no, I don't have a problem with tactical callsigns. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Eric KF4OTN</FONT></DIV></DIV>
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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> David Dobbins<BR><B>Sent:</B> Thu 20-Oct-05 00:15<BR><B>To:</B> Christensen, Eric<BR><B>Cc:</B> aprssig@lists.tapr.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> N1547C tracker<BR></FONT><BR></DIV></DIV>
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<P><FONT size=2>I'm watching every inch of the N1547C travels on both findu.com and<BR>APRS. The tracker was not installed for the express use of the pilot's<BR>family/friends. What a ridiculous assumption, as was the oversight of<BR>not watching for a couple of minutes and seeing the status text which<BR>properly included my call when using a non-ham tactical callsign for the<BR>tracker. While I doubt the Delaney's will run out and get their ham<BR>licenses, I've already heard from Tim that his nephew in California has<BR>been watching too, is taking a ham class right now, and is sharing the<BR>excitement of watching his Uncle and Aunt fly around the country. The<BR>flight will be completed in early Nov, when the Delaney's return to<BR>Santa Rosa (not Santa Clara), CA. Then they'll send the tracker back and<BR>I'll get it ready for one of our local marathon's and continue using<BR>tactical callsigns. It seems some people have issue with the tactical<BR>callsign being the same as the N number of their airplane. I don't see<BR>the issue here, and believe me, this tracker is operating well within<BR>FCC part 97. I also have contact with Tim while he's flying, or on the<BR>ground, via cell phone, so if the tracker suddenly locks up or goes<BR>awry, I just give him a call. The cell phone is wired into his headset,<BR>along with aircraft radio and XM satellite. I just talked with Tim<BR>today, and it looks like they may have to detour some because of<BR>Hurricane Wilma. In advance of their trip, I posted a message to both<BR>the nwaprssig and aprssig mailing lists. I included all the data that is<BR>also posted on the <A href="http://nwaprs.info/n1547cexpedition.htm" target=_blank>http://nwaprs.info/n1547cexpedition.htm</A> web page. If<BR>you still have a gripe about the tracker, then send it to me. My email<BR>addresses are posted all over the place, or you can try k7gps@arrl.net<BR>as I've reactivated that one again to see if the spam and porno offers<BR>are finally gone, as ARRL has promised. I guess I'm more surprised at<BR>the bitching going on rather than people watching some cutting edge use<BR>of APRS that keeps things interesting here. When the fellow flew around<BR>the country last year in his plane, the tracker loaned him used a ham<BR>club call that had no connection to the pilot, and the pilot was not a<BR>ham either. He turned the D7A and GPS on and off manually. My tracker in<BR>N1547C is wired to the ignition. So I guess the issue is the use of a<BR>tactical callsign, which is really a non-issue, because tactical<BR>callsigns are used/have been used everywhere APRS can be found. Need I<BR>ramble on further, or can we return this threads to more positive<BR>comments?<BR><BR>Dave K7GPS<BR><BR><BR></FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>