" paul.delaney@affinity-
one.com.au wrote in news:1192504101.344339.124940
@t8g2000prg.googlegroups.com:

Hi I am interested to hear any comments about the GPS Tracking
(track
your boat via PC) for boat owners small and large alike.

Would this technolgy benefit owners?

Does anyone already have experience of GPS Tracking?

All comments welcome.

I own a tracking company based in Perth WA and want to get
honest
views.



We ham radio operators have been using vehicle tracking for
years. We have tracking equipment on runners at local footraces,
bike races, high altitude balloons, boats, cars, etc.

Ours was invented by Bob Bruninga at the US Naval Academy, WB4APR
is his ham call, hence the APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting
System) name. You can monitor packet radio activity across the
planet on our little APRS system at:
http://www.findu.com/
The APRS system has been expanded to also include weather station
data at hams' homes, Citizen Weather Observer Program, messaging,
and other data collection and distribution uses you'll read about
on the pointers from the page.

Boats could easily be tracked by having an HF-licensed ham aboard
and broadcasting the HF packets using LSB on the upper limit of
the 10.5 Mhz ham band. APRS uses 10.151 LSB so its two FSK
sidebands are barely inside the band allotted. This band has
very wide coverage 24/7. There is also and extensive relay
network findu is connected with on the 2 meter VHF FM ham band.

Google APRS to find more sights. K4HG-8 (the -8 is so we can
have up to 15 unique calls on APRS from 15 unique stations per
ham) is his mobile in the Florida Keys. He's one of the guys who
run findu.com. The map on that page shows you his vehicle's
current position.

Boaters don't have to pay-pay-pay for this service anyone can
track their boats with. All they need do is buy the HF/VHF ham
equipment which is really cheap, a packet modem and download the
free APRS software. Some ham radios are made specifically to
support APRS. All you do is feed them GPS data (RMC will do)
from any NMEA network and the radio will broadcast APRS, itself.
Findu is free for anyone. You can even filter it to show only
boats broadcasting. A huge network of findu ham-to-internet
relay stations feeds it. We have one in Charleston run by the
Charleston Amateur Radio Society (CARS), who also run a VHF
packet relay station to expand its range.

73 DE W4CSC/MM

Larry
--
You can tell there's extremely
intelligent life in the universe
because they have never called Earth.