This weekend I re-instated an old project and completed it in one day.  Things don’t often go this good.

    About five years you could track the location of my car though APRS (Amature Position Reporting System). When I

bought a new car in 2002 the tracker never made the transfer.  This last weekend it’s back.  I’m starting a new project to create a wireless (802.11b/b) tracking unit using a LinkSys WRT54g. It will take some time to get it working.  Meanwhile, I have the equiptment to put a tracker in the car now and it’s a shame to not put it to work.

The GPS date transmited by my tracker gets picked up by others and is feed to an Internet Gateway that in turn feeds it to a database. The database can be accessed at http://map.findu.com/kd5amb-9

    [

Automatic Position Reporting System]2 is a system developed by Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, which uses amateur radio to transmit position reports, weather reports, and messages between users. It uses a 2 meter amature radio on 144.390mhz, a Radio Modem, a comptuer and a GPS. As the tracker is moved around, the computer reads the GPS data stream and then creates a “Packet” with the latatude and longatude, altitude, and speed and messages if you are sending one.  This “Packet” is then sent to the computer and it keys the radio and send the data (using the modem) for all to hear.

    People then use APRS maping software (like Xastir), a modem and a radio, to receive this signal and plot all the users on a map.

    The computer can be very small. The smallist device I have is the PIC-Encoder (PIC-E) from TAPR. There are lots of bigger devices.  For this project I’m using a PicoPacket by PacComm. My radio is a Radio Shack HT-202.

   The part of this project I’m realy proud of is a new way of mount my project.  Last time I just put everything in a plastic box.  This time I mounted it all on a board like a phone closet system. 

    The wood back is a thin sheet of plywood.  The type used in hobby project. I then layed out the components and

used a Drimle Tool to cut slots in the wood to run the Velcro straps through.  It didn’t take 30min to layout, cutout and mount the

componets.

    My GPS needed a 5 volt supply. I uses a 7805 regulator mounted to the Power connector to supply this.  All the power leads could be shorter.  I didn’t want to cut and trim time because this is a temp project untill the WRT54g project gets done.

    The GPS is mounted inside a GladWare contaner, sealed with clear silicon sealer. Time will tell if this is good enuff

to keep out all the rain driving down the road at 75mph.

    The hard part of this project was the software part.  Trying to figure out how the PicoPacket should be

configured (without a manual) took some time. I found these settings work.

MYCALL KD5AMB-9
    Beacon Every 30
    BRAnge 2
    LOCation Every 12
    LRAnge 2
    GPSText $GPRMC
    LG1text $GPGGA
    FIXT 1
    CONRPT on
    LPATH APRS V WIDE2-2
    LGET $05
    AUTOLF OFF
    FLOW OFF
    ECHO OFF

    I hope to complete the new WRT54G project my January. So this project will only be in service for three or four months. But that’s long enuff to get a few side projects done.  A few of these will be;

• Setup xastir / a APRS Inet gateway server at the house.
• Teach the server to anounce when the dar is within 600 feed of the house. ( “KD5AMB is ariving”).  And maybe leaving ( “KD5AMB has left the Building”).
• Mabe if it is after sunset the server could turn on the pourch light automaticly.