AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

Reading through your Maze trip report that I hadn't caught. Just another place I need to check out now!

 

you'll be in the area, its worth checking out. I went twice in 6 months a year ago or two. Super cool place.

 

Yup. Will be driving through Poison Springs Canyon Road right by the Maze District turnoff. That would add an extra day that will unfortunately need to happen another time

 

ah. Well poison springs is a good road. River might be high in May though.

 

Yeah, I'll be calling the BLM office in Hanksville ahead of time when we get to Hite to check on the water level and then call it from there if we have to bypass it.

 

Wouldn't count on that. They dont go there much. When Mike and I ran it the first time, they hadn't been out there all year and we gave them the road report. Then when I went back and checked in at the office, the date it was last signed off on was when Mike and I had last given them the road report lol

 

There's a USGS measuring station near where the road crosses.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=09333500

Look at the historical data. It's either a piss trickle, or raging. As long as it hasn't been raining you should be good. I drove Poison Springs in May no problem several years ago.

 

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Thanks!

 

Quick change of topic. Ham.

How do you like your Kenwood. Still working well for you? I was dead set on getting the Yaesu FTM-400XDR until I just realized how much of a pain it would be to get it to digipeat APRS to an Android phone due to the odd format that it outputs. From what I'm reading it seems like it's much easier to set up the radio you have.

 

Yeah, definitely in over his head. Was a slippery road though - if we'd been coming down when that Chevy was and got going too fast, we could have easily ended up in the same situation (though, with means to get out).

Hahahaha, our days are broken up all the time so they are never boring. Mike even chides us to hurry up sometimes since we're always out of the trucks taking photos.

Speak for yourself. This trip was much worse than the De-Tour.

...for me.

Not even the worst of it really. That wouldn't come until days 13 and 14!

Thanks! Happy to do a post on my processing. Really I just move sliders in Lightroom, but I guess there are some trends that I've started to see in where things end up for the type of results I like. I'll add it to the list of posts...though I've got a bit of a backlog already. Bug me if you don't see something in a month.

The Maze is so awesome. Still one of my favorite trips ever, and Poison Springs is a great road - glad to hear you'll be on that. Like pretty much everywhere else, I can't wait to go back. I wish I could be in like 5 places at once.

Awesome, we were wondering what that was when we were there. Cool that we can check it out online!

I really like my Kenwood TM-D710G - it's a great radio. Like a lot of the gear that I've ended up using for a while, I'm due a "now that I've gotten to use it" review...but who knows if that'll ever come. Here's my synopsis:

Pros:

• Easy to use the basic features - switch bands, talk, speed/position, built-in APRS, external APRS (additional components required)
• Seems to tune up and send/receive really well (likely also a function of the antenna you choose - I'm using the Diamond NR770HBNMO mobile antenna)
• Comes with great mounting hardware to put the bulk of the radio under a seat, and just have the head unit visible
• Screen is "good" for a Kenwood (higher pixel density than the V71A for instance)

Cons:

• Screen isn't as nice as the ICOM 5100A (which I had for a bit before the Kenwood)
• UI isn't as intuitive as the ICOM 5100A
• Can't use the internal APRS with external devices (like a tablet); you need to use external APRS if you want tablet integration
• Speaker wasn't as loud as the ICOM, required external speaker (which honestly, you want anyway)

All-in-all, I'd choose the Kenwood over the Icom for my use (primarily APRS it turns out, with some communication and some weather station use). However, if I was in the market for a radio solely for communication with others (no APRS), the Icom would win hands down - it's really a radio like no other as far as I'm concerned.

The problem with the Icom is that it has no I/O port through which to plug in an external APRS device - so it's a communications-only radio.

OK - so here are some posts you may want to read if you haven't already:

• Icom 5100A Install (OMG, did I just drill a hole in the roof of my truck?) - initial install of Ham gear.
• Adding a Ram Mount to the #%@#$@! A-pillar - a great mod that gets the radio in a good place to control, and yet out of the way.
• Where are you? Adding APRS to the Ham Radio Comms - transition from Icom to Kenwood radios, and the Mobilinkd+Android tablet for APRS...and my first impressions.
• Mod Wars - USB charger blocking Ham Radio Communication - RFI is something you have to be more aware of with Ham radio (compared to other devices), so worth reading just in case you run into issues.
• APRS Explained - talks about what ARPS is and how it works. Worth reading just to understand the system.

 

Actually you can get the icom to run aprs. But it's a pita

 

Yeah, I even had the Bluetooth module for it (normally $100 extra, but the guy selling it on eBay threw it in) and in everything I read, it was such a huge PITA and very flaky (comparatively) that it's essentially a no-go.

You can also apparently get your DSTAR iGate (or whatever they are called) to convert your transmissions to APRS since your position and callsign info is transmitted on every DSTAR broadcast. So then, you show up on APRS.fi as though you were actually beaconing... except that none of your buddies on the trail can see you b/c you aren't actually broadcasting APRS on simplex.

 

Can't wait for those days to be posted

 

Dprs is handy but yes no tablet stuff. Though I wonder if that's changed recently.

There is a guy that did something to make it work with aprs Droid. Looked annoying though. I'm not about the change my setup really other than changing my aprs radio

 

Thanks for the wealth of information. I’ve read through many of those posts more than a couple times haha

What exactly do you mean when you say that you can’t use the internal APRS with external devices? Are you saying that it won’t send the packets it receives via its own TCN to another device? I was totally planning to mirror your setup by using that Bluetooth TCN to link up with my old android phone for seeing others on APRSdroid.

 

Yeah, you can't use the TNC inside the Kenwood to communicate with external devices.* So, you really just end up using the Kenwood as a dual-band radio (with one band on 144.390 - the APRS frequency), and you plug it's data port into the Mobilinkd TNC, which does all the TNC stuff for APRS, and also connects via Bluetooth to your tablet.

The nice thing about the internal TNC is that if your Mobilinkd stops working for some reason, you can use the internal one and it works really well. I sometimes switch between them on trips, depending on what all is going on around me.


* (well, you can but it's just as much of a pain as getting the Icom to work with APRS - hahahaha)

 

Okay, awesome. Was worried for a second that it was going to be a bit more complicated. Seems like the simplest option for dual band and APRS on maps.

Will do!

 

@PcBuilder14

Yeah, the V71A is an interesting radio when compared to the D710G. The two radios share the exact same base, and only the head/display is different. A lot of the functionality is in the head however (for instance, the GPS, TNC, etc.). What that means is that you can put a D710G head on a V71A and get all the functionality (though a D710G head is $$$) so it's not like you buy the V71A and then just add a head.

I went with the D710G mostly for the display - I was spoiled by the Icom and I wanted something that didn't look like an old-school digital watch readout. But functionality wise, if you're using a Mobilinkd as the TNC, they will both be equivalent.

 

5100a has the best display. I love it.

 

I orderd a 90º cable and ran it up through the dash: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...nkensteins-helper.390488/page-8#post-13361430

Works great and more importantly is out of the freaking way.