[OZAPRS] APRS drive surveys

[Merv Joyce]

Hi Andrew,

Thought that might be what you intended.  I probably have tended to
refer to them a "snail trail" plots.  

I have never done this with a PIC.  I wrote some software (my GPSTRAK
program that I also use for APRS) that does this on a PC using a third
party ADC (I support a commercial serial 12-bit ADC as well as the
Bremen multimeter).  Its not "real" APRS stuff as it does not use any of
the APRS specification stuff, just uses the local GPS and ADC data to
create a log file and plot a "coloured snail trail" that represents the
RSSI as a coloured line segment on an overlay map.  The program also
provides a user interface to "calibrate" the ADC in dbm using the
selected ADC source (and radio) and also define the colours/levels to
map for "strong", "weak" and "unusable" snail trail plots.

We have used it for plotting coverage of both 400 and 900 MHz point to
multipoint services.  It goes well on a "terrain" type map to
understand/explain low signal areas.  We also used it as a spot "field"
check against prediction plot data to confirm "credibility" of the
coverage plots, particularly in relation to selecting suitable "terrain"
factors.

Its not very difficult.  

Merv Joyce (VK4ZE)

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