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EI9IW APRS SetupI plan to install a TinyTrak "mic-encoder" board in the car. This will connect a rather old Garmin GPS-45 GPS to the FT8100R via the rigs microphone socket. Monitoring of APRS packets at home will be achieved using the UI-View software and a Kantronics KAM. The England's APRS Stations - Live page provides an interesting demonstration of APRS. Other APRS information is available from G0TRT's site. Garmin GPS-45This is one of the earlier hand-held GPS units. It was intended for maritime use, and has a fully water-proofed, nitrogen filled, body. Using it hand-held, or on the dashboard, with the supplied antenna is disappointing. I use a small Watson active aerial, which attaches to the car roof via an integral magnet. This totally transforms the GPS into a very useful toy. Mounting the GPS receiver in the vehicle so that it can be used by the driver is a bit of a challenge. Originally I used one of the mounts designed for hand held radios, that clip into the car's air vents. The GPS was taped to it, which looked pretty awful, and the GPS was left in plain view whenever I left the car. I now use a "grip" type mobile phone mount, purchased at a flea-market in Germany, which has a flexible shaft, allowing the receiver to be situated low-down, to the left of the car's centre console. GPS-45 ResourcesI use the Gardown programme to backup and restore waypoint lists from the GPS. This DOS based free application claims to work with any NMEA compliant GPS receiver. A useful list of Garmin software is available on the N7MEA Garmin page. UI-View16 and 32bit Windows versions of the UI-View application can be downloaded from G4IDE's site. The G70CW UI-View web resource also looks interesting.
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