[OZAPRS] Australian requirements

[David Hopkins]

Gentlemen,
My earlier posting caused a flurry of activity on the group but 
I  think it got a little of the intended track.

 From some of the comments I gleamed the following.

If you have a four wheel drive and go out in the sticks there is no 
alternative but to use HF. No Argument!

However 99% of the APRS users in this country only travel in the city 
with short trips into the surrounding countryside and very occasional 
travel between capital cities on established highways.

I doubt if anyone would want to use HF in these situations. Imagine 
the traffic on the channel at 300 baud.

So back to the original intention of the posting.

How do we get equipment to use that is small, efficient  and reasonable
cost.

Someone suggested the $99 transceivers available locally and made in 
China. Good idea however it becomes a bit unwieldy hanging wires out 
the back and adding external circuitry to make it all work. While 
this is a quick fix I would like to think we could do better.

As an example consider the family car (not a 4X4). If one had a small 
box that contained a custom designed single channel receiver and 
transmitter with an aerial connection, a GPS input and a DC input. 
This could be mounted in the boot and the only tell tail signs that 
the installation existed would be the whip antenna. If this was 
mounted on the windscreen glass it would be disguised for a mobile 
phone setup. The GPS can be placed on the parcel shelf behind the 
back seat and covered with a hat.

The radio would be powered up only when the ignition is turned on.

I see this having several advantages. You don't have to worry about 
turning it on and off and therefore no flat batteries when you least
expect it.
If the car is stolen you can watch it being driven away and the thief 
won't know its being tracked.

The above would be a argument for an Australian design project to get 
more people involved in the hobby.

What do others think?

What specifications would be required?

Once we got something like this nutted out we could look at 
increasing the repeater coverage. Possibly using a version of the car
design.


David


David G. Hopkins (Vk4ZF)
CAPALABA QLD.
AUSTRALIA
S27 32.191 E153 11.867 


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