My first av-bay was my 2" ID L1 cert rocket. The next was my 4" L2 cert rocket. I built that to be able to use the same sled and swap altimeters. My next DD was a 3" and also built for the same sled. That was about as far as swap-able altimeters went. The L1 is history and the other two rockets now have dedicated altimeters. Everything I've built since has also had it's own altimeter.
As I've moved up, the rockets get larger, the kits more expensive and altimeter have been getting cheaper for the features available. If I'm going to spend $600 on a kit, harnesses, recovery, etc. I can kick in another $60 for an altimeter.
As I write this, I realize I'm now going down the same path with GPS trackers. Building/modding to be able to swap the transmitters. I wonder how long or how many rockets it will be before I'm putting a dedicated transmitters in each rocket?
Weeeeeelllllll..................... It's a lot easier now for a dedicated tracker than 12 years ago when Ham Radio APRS trackers a' la Beeline GPS and Byonics stuff were the only game in town and the license free rocket stuff on the 900Mhz band was > $1000.00.
The ARTS system I think was $750.00 and could be integrated into the ARTS2 and possibly the ARTS one. I picked one up second hand as I have an ARTS 2 and it can be flown by itself. Sort of ahead of it's time EggFinder on a larger footprint.
Never did read on TRF where anyone used a Microtrak:
https://www.byonics.com/mt-300 although one would have to have wired in their own 5V GPS chipset which isn't that hard.
Two meter ham band would have better propagation than any other tracker flying but with most of our stuff it's overkill. The Multitronix system has certainly bore this out with the receiver antenna design and more horsepower with the usable 1 watt output on the tracker. The online videos bear this out.
At $75.00 a pop for an EggFinder it sure is easier to have a dedicated tracker per rocket than it was in the old days.
If one gets a Ham Tech license, the AP510:
https://www.radioddity.com/sainsonic-ap510-aprs-tracker.html with it's high learning curve but cheap at $99.00 is a very viable APRS tracker on 2 meters and can even store the track on a MicroSD card.
Alas, it's a Sirf IV chipset and wouldn't be viable for record attempts. Has the potential for longer range tracking on a shoestring though.
Alternatively, the PicoAPRS:
https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015928 which is quite small for a 2 meter tracker is viable with a better aftermarket antenna not the one shown. Alas it too wouldn't be decent for record attempts as it's hobbled to
60,000 feet and the German designer has stated it can accommodate higher altitudes but he's failed to write back. Also, no on device memory storage as far as I can discern. Still if one needed something to find an extreme project that was size limited
it certainly might be a candidate.
So yeah, it's a lot better to be flying out of sight projects now than 10 years ago. Kurt