[Xastir] Newbee question re: Garmin Rino / Cygwin / Xastir and SAR

[Curt, WE7U]

On Tue, 26 Jun 2007, Jason Winningham wrote:

>
> On Jun 25, 2007, at 7:25 PM, Jim Tolbert wrote:
>
> > Garmin Rinos within 5 miles of the search incident command would be
> > a workable alternative.
>
> This seems pretty optimistic.  I don't know about the Rinos, but in
> my very limited experience with FRS radios 5mi seems to be a bit much
> for them, unless one is on a mountain and has a straight shot to the
> other.  I would think that the data range would be even less than the
> voice range.

Depends on whether he's using the FRS Rinos or the GMRS Rinos.
Garmin got permission to do the positioning data using the
higher-power of the GMRS radios for those RINOS that have GMRS.  For
older GMRS-Rinos, one can do a firmware upgrade from Garmin to get
the higher-powered positioning.  Before that, the positioning was
done at FRS power levels whether you had a GMRS Rino or not.

If you want the maximum range using the Rinos, you'll need the
GMRS-capable units plus a GMRS license ($75 or $80) first.

As far as Xastir is concerned, it needs a Rino at it's end in order
to receive from the other Rino's and to poll the other Rino's
periodically for their position.  You attach this Rino with a serial
cable to Xastir.  I'd suggest if you're doing this at search base
that you remote a Rino at the top of a tall pole and run a long
serial cable down into the comm vehicle to Xastir.  In order to poll
the other Rino units and get your maximum range out of it you'd want
a GMRS-Rino at base as well.  Earlier I suggested using the cheapest
possible Rino at base as the receiver/polling unit, but now with the
higher power output you'd want GMRS units all around if the
licensing issue is not a biggie.

FWIW:  I'm in SAR, although not real active on missions at the
moment.  My current goal is to get Tracker2's out into the field,
which will allow digipeating between units, plotting positions on
the local GPS map screen, creating objects in the field that appear
on everyone's screen, and creating objects at base that also appear
on everyone's map screen.  This requires a handheld GPS for each
field team with a serial NMEA output/input, a Tracker2 TNC, a
2-meter handheld radio, and a battery to run the Tracker2.  If this
is all built into one unit (except for a cable coming out to go to
the field unit's GPS), it can be carried in a pack nicely and mostly
forgotten about.  The entire user interface would be in the GPS
device.  This setup allows you to carry the APRS infrastructure with
you into the field in the form of preemptive SARn-N digipeaters.
Just change your outgoing path on each device to
"WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1,SAR7-7", set up the Tracker2's to preemptively
digipeat on SARn-N, and you're in business.  I have a writeup about
this on a web page if you're interested in reading more.

Anyway, that's the direction I wish to head, once I get more money,
time, and the Tracker2's get into production.  Hopefully surface
mount tracker2's for size/weight considerations.

--
Curt, WE7U.   APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
"Lotto:    A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown
"Windows:  Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U
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