Recommendations for easy-to-use tracking device for total newb with no smartphone.

[ksaves2]

19K WOW! Did you get signal all the way up and down or when did you regain the signal? Also how far out did you land? What type of antennas did you use? I have thinking of adding a linear amplifier to increase the range but now I am thinking I won't need it at all.

Ahhhh, the EggFinder puts out 100mW on the 33cm (~915Mhz) band. First off in the air, the range can be quite far.
The 16mW 70cm Beeline GPS Ham band tracker is quite adequate. If one starts working with higher power, they will have to contend with possible interference with the deployment electronics. The 2 watt dog trackers have been known for that. Can shut down, reset or cause early deployment. Was an article to that effect in the NAR journal about 2 years ago. A 12", 16 foot tall rocket went in ballistic at MWP a couple of years ago from a dog tracker dorking the two deployment altimeters. More power is not necessarily better.

With the 33cm EggFinder a patch antenna on the receive end will give more range from a distance. It depends how far away from the launchsite one expects the rocket to go. A couple of miles should be no problem. Once one gets within where the last packet was heard, a new one will likely be received from the rocket on the ground (if the rocket hasn't been already seen). The amount of power required to get several mile range with a rocket lying on the ground is pretty prohibitive in the amount of battery weight one would need to carry and is not needed unless the rocket gets half cocked and shoots 4 miles downrange at low altitude.

19,000 feet if received from apogee is mighty impressive indeed. During high G, the GPS lock can be lost but it's the ride down and as near to the final resting place is what's important. The Beeline GPS units 70 and 33cm
are impressive and I can vouch for the 70cm rigs. The onboard memory is what makes them acceptable for
record attempts. The EggFinder is going to offer precision tracking to the sport flier without having to get a Ham license.

Plus, the other thing one has to consider, if they can recover their rockets quickly, they can go on and fly other projects rather than waste their time trying to find the danged things. This can be very important to folks who don't live in the most ideal area to fly rockets often. (Either due to geographic area or local weather.) Kurt

 

[cerving]

Ixnay on the linear amp. Because the Eggfinder is an unlicensed FCC Part 15 device, you can't mess with the output power, and the transmitter's antenna cannot have more than 6 dB gain. You CAN put a higher gain antenna on the RECEIVER, however, of course when you do that you sacrifice portability and make it more directional, depending on what kind of antenna you use. Half-wave "rubber duckie" antennas work very well for most flights up to 15K or so, if you need more range than that you might consider using a panel antenna. We do not recommend using a Yagi, they are highly directional and you will probably have a lot more trouble picking up the GPS signal as the rocket comes down. The wire antenna that comes with the kits is good for about 10K.

19K WOW! Did you get signal all the way up and down or when did you regain the signal? Also how far out did you land? What type of antennas did you use? I have thinking of adding a linear amplifier to increase the range but now I am thinking I won't need it at all.

 

[High Desert Rocketry]

19K WOW! Did you get signal all the way up and down or when did you regain the signal? Also how far out did you land? What type of antennas did you use?

As I recall, we had the signal the entire way except for just above ground. We used a panel antenna for the ground receiver.

 

[ksaves2]

Ixnay on the linear amp. Because the Eggfinder is an unlicensed FCC Part 15 device, you can't mess with the output power, and the transmitter's antenna cannot have more than 6 dB gain. You CAN put a higher gain antenna on the RECEIVER, however, of course when you do that you sacrifice portability and make it more directional, depending on what kind of antenna you use. Half-wave "rubber duckie" antennas work very well for most flights up to 15K or so, if you need more range than that you might consider using a panel antenna. We do not recommend using a Yagi, they are highly directional and you will probably have a lot more trouble picking up the GPS signal as the rocket comes down. The wire antenna that comes with the kits is good for about 10K.

There is only one situation where technically a Yagi might assist with a 900Mhz device. That is after it has landed and one is going to
drag their portable station out to the recovery site. 900Mhz Yagis can be small, portable and high gain. Only problem is the narrow beamwidth. With the rocket stationary, that shouldn't be a problem.

If the rocket lands in tall vegetation, a Yagi might give one a greater reception radius from the downed rocket. This might be more helpful if
the recovery area is greater than 2 miles and one really can't visualize the landing area from a distance.

Another technique for launchsite reception is to mount a patch antenna on a 10 foot or greater pole to get it off the ground That could get one
a more accurate "last packet" before going after the rocket with a portable station.

These tricks above are suggested for projects that may drift or fly a long distance away from the monitoring site. Plus if one is flying in the wide open spaces, it's easy to spot a rocket from a distance on the ground. In a cornfield, stubble or tall grass it's a different scenario. Sport flying shouldn't be a problem for a wire antenna. :grin: Kurt

 

[Handeman]

.... Plus, the other thing one has to consider, if they can recover their rockets quickly, they can go on and fly other projects rather than waste their time trying to find the danged things. This can be very important to folks who don't live in the most ideal area to fly rockets often. (Either due to geographic area or local weather.) Kurt

I use the clubs Walston DF setup on most flights, just because. It's not usually needed, but it speeds up the recovery process about half the time. Even when you see the rocket drop behind a hill and have a good line on it, the distance is hard to judge and if it's in tall soybeans or corn, the tracker will help you find it much quicker then walking a pattern along the fight line.