Fwd: [Xastir] System cost options

[Greg Eigsti]

The Rino 520/530 boast 5 watts on the GMRS bands; though mine does  
not perform as I would expect - What I cannot tx/rx through that  
mountain? ;)  I have also been very happy with the battery life of  
the stock li/ion batteries.  We use ours on the dirt bikes to keep in  
touch with each other (and to track each other).  IMO a great  
package!  Now if only one of the HAM mfgrs would step up and give us  
all that the Rino offers + HAM bands + TNC...

Great discussion as I am very interested in bridging HAM/Rino -  
though work/wife/kids get in the way of that goal most of the time ;)

Greg
KD7UBJ
>
> On Jun 26, 2007, at 3:59 PM, Jason Winningham wrote:
>
>>
>> On Jun 26, 2007, at 4:47 PM, Jim Tolbert wrote:
>>
>>> Is the general consensus  that I should wait until we can afford  
>>> the Kenwood / GPS unit system or go now with one of the Rino  
>>> options.
>>
>> That sort of depends on your situation: is something better than  
>> nothing?  Sure the Rino FRS doesn't have the range that a 5 watt  
>> D7 has, but if that's all you can afford and you _really_ need  
>> something...
>>
>> Also, you don't have to do either/or.  If your ICP station has an  
>> APRS rig and a Rino, xastir will happily display data from both  
>> networks, and I'm pretty sure it can relay the Rino data to the  
>> APRS network (but not vice-versa).
>>
>>
>> Another con to the D7 is the poor battery that comes from the  
>> factory.  Not a show stopper, but pretty disappointing.
>>
>> I personally would ask for money for the D7 configuration.  If  
>> they give you less, go from there.  With the amount of money  
>> that's hemorrhaging from Homeland Security, surely there's some  
>> dollars for emergency comms somewhere...
>>
>> -Jason
>> kg4wsv
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Xastir mailing list
>> Xastir at xastir.org
>> http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
>>
>