brainwagon

Now that I have a DC power converter in my car, I am able to run some experiments. Last night I left my radio in my car and hooked up to my mag mount roof antenna, tuned to 145.825Mhz, the frequency which has been designated for use by the APRS system via satellites. NO-44, NO-61 and the ISS (at least on occasion) are supposed to be able to digipeat APRS positioning packets on this frequency. This morning, I had three different stations recorded in my APRS log. I then decided to turn on broadcasting (once every 2 minutes). Sure enough, just an hour ago I managed to get a packet injected into PCSAT-1, showing my position @ Pixar Animation Studios.

Google Maps APRS

This isn’t too bad, considering I’m sending only 5w into an omnidirectional antenna, and only once every two minutes, with unreliable transmission. Very neat.