Any other Amateur Radio Operaters on TRF?

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Tested to technician about 4 years ago and was assigned KM4AUZ. About a year later I got my general and applied for and got vanity call K4TOS (Catos!)

I haven't been active in a few months but before I drifted away from the microphone, I had set up a FT-450D that I got for cheap and a G5RV that I won in a raffle. Best contact was to Novosibirsk, Russia on 20m phone...6,220 miles or so. I do still take my little HT with me when I go to launches though I'm not real sure why.
 
Been a HAM since 1973, back when mostly the only thing you could do with the license is communicate with other people.

Was active in with CW and phone and enjoyed the CW the most. Best contact for me was Pitcairn Island with a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian.

My call is N2AFU and you can have alot of fun with the phonetics for that one.
 
For licensed amateur radio operators, I'd like to highly recommend the TrackSoar open source APRS tracker. It works on the national APRS frequency (144.390) on 2 Meters, is powerful, and easy to customize. Developer provides great support and timely e-mail responses as well.

https://www.tracksoar.com

It has 300 mw output, and weights less than two ounces. What makes it special? It includes temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity sensors and can report these conditions in real-time using the APRS signal. It's perfect for getting started in telemetry. And given it's power, you're unlikely to ever lose your rocket.

I've flown it about a dozen times, and have used my Kenwood TH-D72A for reception. Neat, compact package that just works. Price is very reasonable as well.
 
For licensed amateur radio operators, I'd like to highly recommend the TrackSoar open source APRS tracker. It works on the national APRS frequency (144.390) on 2 Meters, is powerful, and easy to customize. Developer provides great support and timely e-mail responses as well.

https://www.tracksoar.com

It has 300 mw output, and weights less than two ounces. What makes it special? It includes temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity sensors and can report these conditions in real-time using the APRS signal. It's perfect for getting started in telemetry. And given it's power, you're unlikely to ever lose your rocket.

I've flown it about a dozen times, and have used my Kenwood TH-D72A for reception. Neat, compact package that just works. Price is very reasonable as well.

Well, Ask the man that has one. If you've flown it that much, you likely have had good results. I was leary of that very tiny GPS receiver antenna but if you're getting good service Les the proof is in the pudding.
I picked up one of these but haven't flown it yet: https://www.db1nto.de/index_en.html https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015928# It's a terrestrial GPS but I'll never get above 60k and the developer sent me a firmware so I can have it transmit once every 5 seconds.

I tune my trackers off the 144.390 frequency so not to disrupt the National APRS service. Some of those people get really testy if someone is having a digipeater ping once every 5 seconds. (Which in reality is not good form)

Another alternative on 2M is the AP510 shown on the comparison on the TrackSoar site: https://www.tracksoar.com/tracksoar-comparison-2/

The 2 meter 1 watt trackers might give more robust service over longer range if an adequate antenna is used. As an example as a nose mounted tracker in a 4 inch diameter rocket with a long nosecone with room for a higher gain antenna.
Only problem with the AP510 is the learning curve (but it's actually the cheapest). The GPS does have a high altitude setting in the firmware so it might be possible to fly it high. I've read where some balloon guys have done it. With the Pico, the GPS is terrestrial so if one isn't going super high should be O.K. It is self-contained and pretty small.

With more Rf output be careful with the deployment electronics. The AIM deployment altimeter (not the one with the 900Mhz GPS tracker) specifically states to avoid using it in Rf fields in the instructions and I've seen a catastrophic failure using
a 2 watt dog tracker with the Adept 22's. In fact I saw a rocket with two A-22's go ballistic when the dog tracker dorked them.

The Tracksoar looks nice for a smaller project but again the better the antenna used the better the results. The Byonics devices (of which I have several) are too "do-it-yourselfer" for casual fliers and one would have to pair a GPS to them. One would likely
have to buy a voltage regulator for the small 3.3V GPS chipsets now available as the Byonics stuff just has 5V available off the board.

Of course Beelines where there first in rocketry when the ground equipment really cost 12 years ago and mine still give me great service.

If I was on a very tight budget, AP510 with an RDF backup for a high flying rocket that was going to drift out on the salt flats. I mastered the learning curve on that one.

A Tele-Mini GPS tracker has good potential in a small project as it's sort of like a 70cm LP Beeline GPS in a smaller package. It uses the Altus Metrum tracking protocol that can be fed to their Android app through a Tele-BT receive station OR one
can select it to send out APRS packets so it will work with any standard 70cm receiver with a TNC ie. a Kenwood D72A works fine with it.

Kurt KC9LDH
 
KE8CIA I got my tech license to get a BRB tracker But with so many 900mhz options available now i haven’t seen the need to buy a radio and tracker.

Would still like to get into RF tracking just hard to justify the cost of a good transceiver.
 
Don't want to hijack this thread, but I'm curious to hear from amateur radio operators who have had success using active GPS antennas. Looking at the TrackSoar, I think it would be easy enough to modify it to accept an active antenna.

Some design considerations would have to include:

- Weight
- Mounting options
- Impact on power budget

Many active antennas seem to be designed for cars, so they're streamlined--but they often contain magnetic mounts, which increases weight and won't work for our needs. Any models that I should consider?
 
1.5kw to four 20 element XP yagis on an az-el rotator. Have 122 countries confirmed. Maybe 5 via traditional CW, all the rest JT65 digital.

Nice set up Bill. Great to see another EME operator on here. I run 1KW on 432 MHz EME with an array of four 33 element antennas with auto tracking on both AZ and EL.

New_EME_QSL_Front.JPG
 
I am a qualified communications engineer, but I only got my advanced ticket a few years back so I can use the Altus Metrum telemetry products in particular, and other experimental uses relating to rockets in general. VK3TRK. Only used for tracking so far!
 
KE8CIA I got my tech license to get a BRB tracker But with so many 900mhz options available now i haven’t seen the need to buy a radio and tracker.

Would still like to get into RF tracking just hard to justify the cost of a good transceiver.

As I recall, active antennas require a power source and will suck out the battery on your Tracksoar if one could modify it to do that.
Space requirements go up accordingly. Along with the battery capacity requirements. I'd say it would be a dead end to pursue. Take solace with the fact that others have flown the Tracksoar in rockets and have had satisfactory results. I'm not speaking from experience, but only from what I saw posted here. Kurt
 
A lot of the folks I hang out with at launches have Ham licenses. Our group uses HTs to talk with each other out in the field.

For those in the Huntsville area, if you've ever been to an SLI launch, if you look you'll see most of the NAR crew running the range is carrying HTs. We make pretty heavy use of them and have a small ground station at the LCO table.

-Kevin
 
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