Tracking systems comparison on 18k flight recovered 4.2 mile in desert.

Three GPS systems and one RDF product on the same flight.

Eggtimer TRS system was used as backup deploy and tracking. With optional LCD-GPS module about $190 system

Featherweight tracker system about $350

Big Red Bee 2 meter APRS (licensed ham only) tracker: $260 transmitter AND an ARPS capable radio – Kenwood TH-D74 $495= $775

Communication Specialist’s RC-MP TRANSMITTER 5 Milliwatt Output as backup- good for a week just in case! I always add this! System $400


At over four miles the Com Spec was undetectable. Not unexpected.

ALL three of the Gps trackers had great signals and were guiding us to the remote landing location. While driving at times the TRS and Featherweight argued about what direction to turn next. We would drive a bit more and all three would agree pointing the way with arrows. The featherweights interface is fantastic- in seconds I could switch trackers – the second tracker was on my daughters quad as she followed us. Mark seemed to be impressed with the Big Red Bee- with its dual compass guiding us. Packets were being received every few minutes over ARPS. Retransmission was set to off but with this feature on we could have found the location from another citys distance!

I had expected to see major differences – ALL three GPS systems brought us right to the rocket!

Big Red Bee was vastly more powerful. The Featherweight was quick and easy to set up and use and was fast at acquisition of Satellites. Eggtimer- well you must put it together- but what a value for the dollar! It performed equally well!

warnerr said:

At over four miles the Com Spec was undetectable... ALL three of the Gps trackers had great signals and were guiding us to the remote landing location.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that all three GPS systems were being actively received at 4 miles distance? I'd be very surprised that could happen with the Eggtimer and maybe the Featherweight with the transmitter on the ground.

If you drove to the last reported position and got the signal back along the way, I believe that.

No. ALL three gps systems took us to the exact spot of the landing. The Big Red Bee is the only one of the three that I could receive after landing- I opened the squelch and could hear my message. The TRS had good packets being sent the full distance until about 150' agl. That last packet would be about four seconds before touchdown. This is a simple real world test and not scientific! Lol! Here is the landing spot:

I was in the navigator seat holding the Kenwood receiver. I took a few seconds to figure out the interface, but it was pretty intuitive. The key is to move fast enough for the receiver to detect your direction of movement and swing the arrow on the electronic compass to the direction we were moving. The direction of the rocket was marked on the compass and the distance updated as we travelled. About every minute or so I'd hear the warble of another packet coming in. The receiver needed to detect movement to orient the electronic compass movement and warnerr mentioned it didn't seem to work well while walking. I had to make sure I held the receiver so as not to accidentally push one of the many buttons on the front.

Warnerr had the phone linked to the Featherweight on the center console. I checked it occasionally, the arrow pointing to the rocket depended on the orientation of the phone and would occasionally wander a bit, but would eventually settle down to agree with the other systems. It also showed distance in feet to the rocket location.

Eggtimer Cris was in the back seat with his receiver and was calling out distances and directions too.

Occasionally the three would disagree with the direction (it seemed like the featherweight and eggfinder would disagree with the BRB but agree with each other and be a few degrees off) then after some movement all three would agree again.

Aside from some difficult pathfinding in the desert sand and shrubbery, all three trackers got us to the rocket.