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Thinking of adding APRS tracking to the 6A.

CraigC121

Member
I have been an ham operator for over 30 years but have not been on the air in many of those years. I ran across the APRS section of this sight and curious is this is just a cool way of tracking and logging your flights or are there are other neat tricks. I can see prior to the ADSB out requirement where this would have been something I most certainly would have done but does it provide something that ADSB does not?
 
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I have both APRS and ADSB. I imaging that there may be times when one works and the other doesn't but I suspect that's when you're low and not hitting a ground station. I believe either one will get you pin-pointed pretty well most of the time.

-Marc
 
I was an APRS early adopter and really enjoyed using it. It was reliable in my area of the country and provided much higher resolution tracking than what was then available in Flightaware. My wife enjoyed watching the track and seeing the RV-6 return safely to the hangar.

However, I no longer use APRS since ADS-B has pretty much replaced the functionality. I have a PiAware feeder and that comes with a free Flightaware Executive account that sends my family members a text whenever the RV departs and lands. The flight tracking seems much better than it was pre-ADS-B.

APRS is still a cool technology and has value as a tracker and hobby. The resources needed are minimal especially if the ham license is already in hand.

Happy tracking!
 
I'm a bit of a luddite in that I have not installed ADSB yet so the APRS gives my wife some comfort in knowing where I am when in the air. Has worked pretty much flawlessly for 12+ years and the price is right for the equipment.
 
I remember reading complaints about planes on some of the APRS sites because they cause interference with the other users. Once I had ADS-b it didn’t feel the need to congest the airwaves. It was a great system. I use to love the ability to track my kids when they took the plane.
I never found a good phone app for APRS like they have for ADS-b.
 
You can have mine too. Between Flightaware, Foreflight and my G3X, I have more info than I can use. You also required to have a ham radio license to use APRS.
 
Thanks

Thank you all for the information. It sounds like my ADSB solution is doing what I would have done with APRS.
73, N5ZBR/N829RW
 
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