[ILHam] Cook County ARES: APRS Tracker Kits Available

[Neil R. Ormos N9NL]

Dear Cook County ARES Members and Friends:

One feature of APRS is the ability to transmit
position reports for public service events,
emergency communications activities, or just
day-to-day driving (or cycling) around.  Normally,
a packet TNC is required to send these position
reports.  If you want to send APRS position
reports, but don't have a TNC, or don't want to
dedicate your TNC to that purpose, you might
consider using one of a class of devices called an
APRS Tracker.  An APRS Tracker has suitable
hardware and software to transmit position
reports, but is not equipped to receive the
reports.  But that's OK, becasue in many
situations, transmitting reports is sufficient.
APRS Trackers are generally smaller and quite a
bit less expensive than a complete TNC.

The Lake County RACES/ARES group is arranging a
group purchase of OpenTracker kits.  OpenTracker
is an APRS tracking device similar to the
commercially-available TinyTrackIII but is based
on an open platform.  I understand this unit will
also send weather data received from a particular
brand of weather instrument.  The kit uses a PC
board, so it should be relatively straightforward
to build.  I believe the cost of the kit through
the group purchase is around $30, including a
case.

The LCRACES group is inviting other organizations
to get in on the fun.  This could make a very
interesting kit for a construction project
activity, at least for those who haven't already
built a TinyTrack.

LCRACES has a web site for this project at:
  http://www.races.org/tracker.htm

I expect ARES and other EmComm and public service
groups throughout the country to make increased
use of APRS, so this item is a good thing to have
among your emergency communications assets.  If
you are interested in one of these, please visit
the Lake County RACES/ARES group's web site and
order directly from them.  For those with
questions, there is contact information on the web
page.

NOTE: I believe the Lake County group's deadline
for ordering is very early November, so if you are
interested, you should act soon.

73

--Neil Ormos N9NL
Emergency Coordinator
Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Suburban Cook County