Spring 2004 Issue

Our familiar off-the-shelf packet radio gear is nifty but delicate stuff, not the kind of hardware that can take heavy environmental abuse. This isn’t a problem in the shack or for mobile applications, but have you ever wanted to take a tracker into the jungle or paddle it through dumping surf? This article describes a packet rig that is regularly exposed to salt water, along with the robust power system that supports it.

Adventure Tracking: A Bit of Context

APRS is a strange phenomenon. Think about it: If the government required us all to have real-time location-trackers affixed to our vehicles, it probably would (and should) trigger a full-scale revolt. Big-brotherish implications aside, the geek-appeal of this technology is unmistakably seductive, and it has spawned a microculture of folks whose every movement is trackable . . . not only by fellow hams, but also by anyone with a web browser.

Back in the 1980s, I used to fantasize about exactly this. I spent most of that decade pedaling 17,000 miles around the U.S. on a computer-laden recumbent bicycle (CQ VHF cover photo, April 1998), but back then it was challenging enough just to maintain an ongoing textual narrative on the primitive online services of the day (a process that has now been re-invented as blogging). I remember pedaling along, imagining the logical evolution of this: Readers watching a live display of my location on a slowly scrolling zoomable map, multiple telemetry channels presented as a virtual console, a succession of helmet-cam images playing in another window....

All of this is now pretty easy and is part of the Microship project—the technomadic adventure substrate that has replaced my tattered, overloaded recumbent bicycle (now on display in The Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley). These two amphibian, pedal/ solar/sail micro-trimarans are packed with enough technology to exceed that long-ago road fantasy, but what I want to tell you about here is much simpler—a pile of off-the-shelf stuff packaged in Pelican boxes and lashed to an inflatable kayak. In the process, we can look at a few packaging techniques that will let you put APRS into all sorts of nasty places where electronic devices usually don’t stand a chance.

Meet Bubba

There is an old adage that the average completion time of a homebuilt boat is 137 years. With that in mind, and needing a dinghy for shore excursions (landing gear notwithstanding), I added a 19-foot Aire “Sea Tiger” inflatable kayak to the Microship fleet. Given this quickly deployable playboat, I have been unable to resist the allure of local exploration of the endlessly interesting waters here in the Pacific Northwest.
 

Click here to return to this month's highlights

Click here to subscribe to VHF and read more about Extreme
Harsh-Environment Packet/APRS

_________________

© Copyright 2004, CQ Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced or republished, including posting to a website, in part or in whole, by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher, CQ Communications, Inc. Hyperlinks to this page are permitted.