[Xastir] More system questions

[Tom Russo]

On Wed, Jun 27, 2007 at 07:08:43PM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <r.polivka at sbcglobal.net> flavor, containing:
> 
>  If you are going to go the radio/tnc route, I would set up the units to also 
>  be digipeaters as well. This would give the low level signals a better 
>  chance to propagate. I do not know if the D7A will digi as well, so I would 
>  look into it.

The D7 doesn't digipeat, as I understand it.  

You'd need something like the TT4 or the Tracker2, neither of which is
available other than as beta test yet, or some other full TNC+radio 
set-up.

Digi-in-a-tracker is still a technique that has, IMHO, yet to be proven.  It's
got promise, but is still an experiment that hasn't been done widely.

A portable digipeater-in-a-box, however, can be deployed at a mission as
needed --- it needn't be man-portable, can be in a rugged waterproof 
container, and with a mast, big battery, and beefy mobile rig could be
very effective.  Our SAR Support team has one and can deploy it as needed 
(which in our case isn't often).

I am still of the opinion that the SARn-N idea could work, but has the
potential to jam up a channel quickly as every field team digipeats every
other team's data.  I am waiting to be proven wrong, at which point I'll
gleefully eat my words.  At this point I have no way of doinng the 
experiment myself, as none of the readily available tracker units can do 
it anyway.  

>  This is not going to be cheap if you go with off-the-shelf solutions. 
>  Cobbling would save much but if the capability is not there, you will have 
>  to bite the bullet.

With you on that one.  Equipping an entire 12-team organization and building
up a usable infrastructure's gonna be a pricey endeavor, and trying to cobble
together on a budget will be difficult.

>  Jim Tolbert wrote:
> > Thanks Tom....  Yes... We live in the undeveloped boonies.  But then, we 
> > like it that way <grin>.
> >
> > The one digipeater that is in out county is AAOKU-WL and 4min.  What does 
> > that tell us?

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
"And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is
 one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh,
 oooh, the sky is the limit!"  --- The Tick