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- Feb 3, 2009
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Are there any good articles that explain all the myriad of options for trackers and what the pros & cons of the different types are? There are many many threads on here but the bulk are written by people much smarter than I who already know what they're doing. I was hoping to find a "Trackers For Dummies" book/article/webpage to help me climb the first bit of the learning curve. Here's what I know so far:
Transmitter
This is the bit that goes into the rocket. Some of them are GPS-based and output some kind of special stream, some are radio-based. Some of the radio-based ones require a ham radio license to be able to use, I haven't quite figured out how to tell which is which. I'm in Canada so I'm not sure if the licensing rules are different here. GPS is obviously much more precise since it can tell you more accurately where the rocket is, what're the downsides to it? Why would someone still go with a radio-based one? What does a ham-radio-based variant provide over a 'regular'-radio one?
Receiver
This is the bit that you hold in your hand to find the other bit that went into the rocket. Some people are able to use their phone/laptop, some people are able to use their phone/laptop only when it's hooked up to another thing, some people need a whole separate thing. I'm guessing some of these things are only usable if you also have the ham radio license. There also appears to be some discussion about which antenna to use with which receiver which adds another layer to the discussion. What pros & cons exist for the various receiver types?
My descriptions are overly simplistic because I don't quite have a handle on all the terminology yet. Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.
Transmitter
This is the bit that goes into the rocket. Some of them are GPS-based and output some kind of special stream, some are radio-based. Some of the radio-based ones require a ham radio license to be able to use, I haven't quite figured out how to tell which is which. I'm in Canada so I'm not sure if the licensing rules are different here. GPS is obviously much more precise since it can tell you more accurately where the rocket is, what're the downsides to it? Why would someone still go with a radio-based one? What does a ham-radio-based variant provide over a 'regular'-radio one?
Receiver
This is the bit that you hold in your hand to find the other bit that went into the rocket. Some people are able to use their phone/laptop, some people are able to use their phone/laptop only when it's hooked up to another thing, some people need a whole separate thing. I'm guessing some of these things are only usable if you also have the ham radio license. There also appears to be some discussion about which antenna to use with which receiver which adds another layer to the discussion. What pros & cons exist for the various receiver types?
My descriptions are overly simplistic because I don't quite have a handle on all the terminology yet. Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.