Still expensive tracking solution.
What's wrong with UV-3R ($29 amazon prime), mobilknd (~$65) and existing APRSDroid + Phone ($5) ?
or substitute cable for mobilknd TNC and bring the ground end cost below $40.
That's workable John. Problem is with a low end UV3R, if you are going to want to count on it for Rf tracking too you can't count on the signal strength meter. It's either all on or off. If you have good ears you can get away with the Yagi and an attenuator. Yeah granted, you don't need the meter for APRS/GPS tracking. Problem with APRSDroid (unless it's been fixed) is in order to see your tracking station on the map, you have to transmit a packet. I've been trying to contact
the developer or anyone for that matter to see if the device can be set to show one's position in realtime without having to transmit a packet to get it to move on the map.
The technique is orient your map on the droid device and walk towards the rocket/waypoint. After you've gone a ways, pulldown the menu so you can send "your" position to see your icon move and hopefully see it jump "towards" the rocket waypoint.
Like I say, APRSDroid doesn't monitor your GPS stream until you send a "generate a position packet" command to your device. It's quirky but it'll get the job done. A plus, is there is a free OSM mapset available for APRSDroid so one doesn't need to have
internet access to be able to use a map. You have to use the APRSDroid version for offline maps and you can't have both versions of APRSDroid (the one for online maps) on the same device at the same time.
I have a small box that I cut out a hole for my thumb for one handed holding, painted the inside with flat black paint, left the flap at the top attached and stuff my Nexus 2013 wi-fi only in. Face the sun and the box protects the device from glare. I can hold it at an angle and get a clear view of the screen. There is room for an outboard battery pack and an EggFinder LCD unit so I can run
GPS Rocket Locator. If I ditch the EggFinder LCD, I can drop an H/T in along with a Mobilnkd unit and use APRSDroid. I've tested both. The problem with the Mobilnkd is you can't disturb the volume control once set as it controls the receive gain.
I will say I scratched a mark on my volume control and it's pretty reproducible. Use the H/T for something else? Just reset the volume control to what you've determined, plug in the Mobilnkd and it will likely run fine. It's not like
some of the software decoding for APRS for laptops where you jiggle the cable and the darned thing goes out of calibration and no longer decodes properly.
Problem with GPS Rocket Locator, no internet connection, no maps. The program will run and you will see two dots and a datum line to the last known packet. I wished I had maps at MWP 13 where I had to ford across three deep drainage ditches
I was unaware were there. In spite of the deluge the night before, there wasn't that much water in them though. It works fine "in the blind" and I easily found my little rocket 1.66 miles away. I experimented with a 900Mhz multi-element Yagi for ground recovery. It picked up the EggFinder TRS transmitter on the ground before I could see the rocket from farther out. Only use a duck antenna or a patch antenna for 900mhz for the flight. I think a Yagi might be too narrow on this band for in flight use but on the ground it can help. Plus on the 900Mhz band a Yagi is easy size to carry:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-STOCK-8...739942?hash=item41993c4c26:g:fgsAAOSwHnFVmedQ. Get one with the connector you need.
AltosDroid and Altus Metrum products are very nice and one can store offline maps very nicely. Of course a D72A or VX8GR gives automatic navigation when connected to a Garmin 60Cs or CsX. Lock the rocket in while
it's on the pad and it will keep track of it and constantly compute a tracking solution for you. You can page from the Heading Situation Indicator to the map at any time. Will tell you how long it will take you at your current speed to get to the last known position of the rocket. Does everything except pick up the rocket for you. Kurt Savegnago