I'll be interested in hearing how it works out. I have the Mobilinkd TNC and have toyed with it but I'm still using my Kenwood THD7 for my rocket tracking.
You're in good shape to track with an Android device or laptop then. Laptops are of course difficult to carry portable. I received the AP610 yesterday, charged it up and configured it to send positions out.
Haven't have a chance to connect to an Android a laptop tracking application. They say it's only good for APRSDroid but we'll see. Advantage to this over the Mobilinkd is simply it has a GPS in the speaker/mic
so it can be run totally independent of an Android application. This would be more of interest to a Ham who wants to transmit location with the self contained GPS. Not necessary if one wants to only track rockets
through an Android device. I didn't have much trouble setting it up as I have an AP510 which has a relatively high learning curve. Had to add an OCX file to Windows/system32 and sysWOW to get the setup program to work.
The AP510 online setup video shows how: [video=youtube;qmtVvKav_LU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmtVvKav_LU[/video]
If a Ham flier simply wants to track an APRS rocket (like a Beeline GPS tracker), a Mobilinkd attached to any H/T with the appropriate cable and an Android device running APRSDroid is all that's needed and is a bit cheaper.
If a person would like to do what the Mobilinkd can do plus have the option of being able to just use their H/T and the AP610 as a position reporting device without an Android application the AP610 will allow it. Of course add APRSDroid via Bluetooth
and one can track on a map using the H/T and AP610. Next step is to pair it with my Nexus 7 2013 and fire up APRSDroid. I am also going to attempt to see if I can get it to pair with a laptop and use an APRS tracking program. It is only guaranteed to
work on Android but we'll see. Some of this Chinese stuff has more options than the maker knows of. I'll report back. There is a flier here on this board that has flown an AP510 before on his rockets and loves it. As long as there is room for the
AP510 and it doesn't interfere with the deployment electronics, it's 1 watt out on the 2 meter band and has the potential to carry very far. (It's tunable so one doesn't have to worry about ticking off the APRS Nazis on the
national 144.390 APRS frequency)
If your D7A(g) or D7A still works, great. I have two of them and the oscillators are off and they are no longer useful for tracking. 1/2 block range. I don't recommend anyone buy one used unless they know the seller or do a range test before buying.
Mine were used but worked for several years and then could no longer track at range. Fortunately I had a D72a for backup and that's how I discovered the D7's were not functional anymore. Would cost too much to fix.
Oh, one important thing on the AP610. It's only compatible with the serial control at the speaker/mic jacks of Kenwood devices. A lot of the Chinese imports Baofeng (or Pofung or whatever they call themselves these days) follow that protocol.
The Mobilink has a selection switch so one can use Kenwood or change the switch so other H/T's like Alinco or Icom are usable with the appropriate cable. The AP610 is KW only.
Also, there are varying reports from people who use cheap imports for APRS. Some of the receivers are not so hot so when conditions become difficult at range, their hardware has trouble decoding packets.
If I had choice of one H/T to potentially track all rocket devices it would be an all-mode Kenwood TH-F6A with a Mobilinkd or AP610. I've not field tested with Com-Spec stuff but the B band can receive CW, USB, LSB modes and there is potential
it could be used there for RDF work. Kurt
