<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body>She should Google for "amateur rocketry" and "tracking". There have been lots of discussion about different ways of getting GPS and telemetry down from a rocket to a chase vehicle. Basically, it should be the same as for a high-altitude balloon launch, just the flight stages will be progressing faster.
<div><br></div><div>The issue is that most handheld radios don't have a good way to display the information, even if the radio alone is capable of decoding and interpreting the data without extra hardware. In that respect, the Kenwood TH-D72 and TH-D74 are probably the best bet, as they can decode APRS and display it on the radio screen, with even a direction-to-station vector based on the receiving radio's own GPS fix versus the APRS position report.</div><div><br></div><div>Of course, this won't work if the rocket is using non-amateur frequencies or not APRS protocol for the data. I actually added support to my APRS client program to support a rocket using an ISM-band radio link to forward the rocket's GPS data as raw NMEA sentences instead of APRS packets.</div><div><br></div><div>Again, she needs to find out more details about the downlink than just "ham radio".</div><div><br></div><div>Andrew, KA2DDO</div><div>author of YAAC ("Yet Another APRS Client")</div><br><br>-------- Original message --------<br>From: wa7skg <wa7skg@wa7skg.com> <br>Date: 1/31/21 16:43 (GMT-05:00) <br>To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig@lists.tapr.org> <br>Subject: [aprssig] Rocket Tracking <br><br>I recently met a new ham who got her ham license because she is into <br>model rockets. She does the large scale ones that go thousands of feet <br>high. They have tracking and telemetry systems on board. However, she <br>doesn't know what it uses, just that it is ham radio. She wants to get a <br>handheld radio that will track her rocket. I'm going to guess this is <br>APRS. Anybody familiar with this? Any recommendations of what she should <br>get for a radio?<br><br>Thanks.<br><br><br>-- <br>73,<br>Michael WA7SKG<br><br>"Any day you do not learn one new thing is a wasted day."<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>aprssig mailing list<br>aprssig@lists.tapr.org<br>http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/aprssig_lists.tapr.org<br></body></html>