Ham radio for GPS?

**stonestatue** · 02-28-2008, 10:22 PM

I am interested in taking up ham radio as a hobby, but I know little about it. There is a local ham radio/computer shop that I went to, and one of the guys showed me the ham radios they have.

I understand that ham radios have different bands to operate on, so I took an interest in the radio which has dual band capability. In particular, I looked at this one:
http://www.icomamerica.com/en/produc...h/default.aspx

This radio boasts GPS technology, including mapping your location if you connect it to a computer. I know one of the principal goals of installing a carputer is GPS. Can this ham radio effectively replace a GPS module (such as USB)? I know software is required.

**fixinstuff** · 03-01-2008, 02:20 PM

I havent seen this radio in use yet, but reading the specs. I would have to say yes. The cool thing about ham radio is many ham operators use APRS or other software to transmit thier locations over the radio. There are even APRS satillites that retransmit your signal world wide. APRS can even be viewed over the internet.

**Zeroaviation** · 03-01-2008, 05:50 PM

Yes it can, works really well too. I hope u decided to join the Amature radio comunity! its fun stuff.... and most of the old people are gone, so its mostly us young guys. I see your from huntsville, ive been to there local radio meets a couple of times alot of good guys. Since code is no longer part of the General test, Go for it! -Matt W4DZD

**stonestatue** · 03-01-2008, 06:38 PM

I will surely take up the hobby. I will be putting a unit in my van, and eventually, setting up a ham shack. Do you live in Birmingham?

**Zeroaviation** · 03-02-2008, 08:00 AM

yea, im a full time pilot, so i stay between Birmingham and overland park kansas....

**gadgetjon** · 03-07-2008, 02:34 PM

I think that new Icom requires expensive options to enable the GPS functions. Kenwood's THD7 portable and TMD700/710 are the most popular radios with built in APRS capability. standalone APRS gadgets like tinytrak and opentrack can be used with most radios, sometimes requiring custom wiring. With a GPS plugged in to my TMD700 it sends and receives location info (APRS) so I can be tracked by a web page. It also shows received stations on the GPS and it's own display. If I connect my carputer to it and run APRS software, the radio can pass through the GPS data so I don't need another GPS on the computer.

**stonestatue** · 03-07-2008, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by gadgetjon

I think that new Icom requires expensive options to enable the GPS functions. Kenwood's THD7 portable and TMD700/710 are the most popular radios with built in APRS capability. standalone APRS gadgets like tinytrak and opentrack can be used with most radios, sometimes requiring custom wiring. With a GPS plugged in to my TMD700 it sends and receives location info (APRS) so I can be tracked by a web page. It also shows received stations on the GPS and it's own display. If I connect my carputer to it and run APRS software, the radio can pass through the GPS data so I don't need another GPS on the computer.

Well I'm not getting it specifically for the GPS. A ham radio salesman showed me this model because I expressed an interest in dual band capability. Honesty, I don't know much about ham radios (yet). I will start studying for the license test soon. I'm not sure which frequency(ies) I would want to operate on just yet. I do like to be as versatile as possible though.

**lostvoid** · 03-11-2008, 03:33 AM

What I wonder is if you could take that Icom radio and somehow interface the controls for it into the front end application on the car PC. I know a lot of the radios have computer control but I am wondering as to the difficulty of integration.

Also has anyone had real world experience in regard to the speed of the D-STAR system? I have D-STAR repeaters open and running in my area and that may be more useful to me than installing a wireless modem.

73's to the other hams.
KD0CHR