Cheers,
As a corollary to Amateur Packet Reporting System, radio VE3IUO
is a personal buddy and his vehicle reports thius way. Select the following
address to determine his position and details:
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=VE3IUO
On the first map, I am located an inch above the 'n' in
Burlington. If you select '+' to expand, I am on the corner of Guelph Line
and South Drive - east of his usual position.
APRS as this is known, has been in operation (begun by one man)
for eight years or so. It originally made use of VHF relay stations working
at 300 baud to relay the position back to home plate - all courtesy of
volunteer relay stations, known as Sysops (Sysytems operators), now called
'servers'. At 300 baud, the relay was understandably slow, but with time
regu;ar relay routes were formalised and it sped up. Obviously, by hooking
into the web, the speeds increased exponentially, and the website shown will
bear some delving for all its qualities.
The advantage is:
(1) your present position, every 15 minutes, can be sent to your computor -
and thus becomes a written log, with times, temps, alts or whatever - all
automatic;
(2) if your were to go missing, where the trail stops is your position
within 15 minutes - or 30 miles or so - as long as you have VHF range to a
Sysyop;
(3) The requirement is to become a licensed Amateur in order to pursue this
feature - so you can design and build your own antenna and units. NOT
available in UK because AR is not permitted airborne.
Obviously, WW II had a great affect on Uk regulations, and
Amateur Radio suffered many unnecessary restrictions as a result. However,
it has been shown that AR promotes a greater awareness of matters electronic
and nightmares of clandestine radio messages are readily eased by
all-pervasive frequency samplers which coiver almost every facet. Yes,
your cell is monitorred, probably in more than one capital city..........
Of course if you don't want people to know where you are, turn
off the radio.... Just a thought.
Ferg
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