after showing my aprs setup to sean - he was inspired to get into it. he also motivated me into building the byonics pocket tracker aprs radio. or maybe the other way around... you see he's got the mad soldering skills (sean is certified to work on the space shuttle), and i talked him into helping me.
we set last monday night aside to build the pocket tracker. although the instructions say it's a mere two hour build, we spent the better part of an entire evening on the project. sean did the bulk of soldering the components to the board, drilled out holes, and used the dremel and to flush out the antenna and serial ports. i placed the parts out, double checked wiring diagrams, kept us on track. we worked at a fairly steady pace.
i was able to round up a ~plain~ silver tin can - unlike the stock altoids red, gold, or green tin cans, it looks pretty slick. it was assembled flawlessly, with attention to detail. it's probably the best assembled tracker out there, with perfect solder joints. no doubt the nicest smelling too, since the tin can still emits the pleasant throat lozenge's aroma.
we made two design changes. we installed an sma connector, in place of the bnc connector -- for two reasons... 1) better conductivity, giving lower signal loss. 2) i already have sma connectors wired up, with the antenna mounted in>
we then moved the serial port, from the side, to the top of the tin can (next to the antenna). the concept here was to mount all the external connections on one end, at the top. just barely enough room inside for it, but i think it just makes for a better layout - rather than having a cord stick out the side. looks better too.
we also drilled a number of holes for mounts screws, but realized that was a mistake. should have only drilled two holes for access points. directions were not clear here. the kit included aluminum mounting screw, but solder doesn't bind to aluminum. instructions say to solder the screws in place. things are really tight in the case so we just let the board 'float' inside. the components and mounting screw keep the board from touching the sides. there's no room for the board to slide or move. we whittle down some plastic for a tuning screw (taped to the inside of the case).
with everything installed, we tuned the radio. made a few goofs but got everything sorted out. we calibrated the output frequency twice, with two rounds of fine tuning. i had my kenwood radio to test reception, and decode any aprs packet data broadcast... we were relieved to receive our first packet from the radio. success! i also found that my 'ol palm pilot casing fit really well for an added protective holster.
with everything complete, and we drove around, and hoped to get at least one packet to the internet. no such luck there. i've been driving all over portland for *days* now. there was only *ONE* spot in town that any packets were forwarded to an internet gateway.
*but* this was my original concern, that the low power output ouwld mean poor broadcast performance. while not a 'show stopper' - it's still a set back. we thought we'd build it anyway, to test out, and hoped for the best. it should still work well in the flat desert plains out on the playa, so there's a chance of deploying it at burningman.
we talked about the design and sean has been reviewing ways to boost the power output. i'm not holding my breath. the folks at byonics assert this unit will work fine, and 'sing' those modem tones -- it might sing the tones, just not very loud. caveat emptor.
it's on the dash here for show, if i get it working better, i'd stuff it in the glove box.