I have tried many options for tracking my rockets using APRS.
Some don't rate their own page so I decided to make one page with some of these just in the off chance that you find them useful.
Original APRS setup
This was my first setup I used for APRS tracking of my rockets.
More details
PICPAC APRS decoder
I also have a PICPAC for receiving packets. More details here.
Custom receiver #1
I built a custom receiver for receiving packets. More details here.
This project is on the shelf. It worked fine on the bench but if I seperated the TX/RX by more than a 10feet it didn't work.
The RX is picking up noise from the digital circuit.
I isolated the grounds and make shielding for the receiver but my limited knowlege of RF circuitry is slowing the effort.
Garmin binary
I have two Garmin GPS units. Neither of them support plotting NMEA waypoints($GPWPL).
I thought that was the end of it but realized they can plot waypoints sent to them in the Garmin binary format.
So I set out to understand how to format the data so my received packets will plot on the display.
That would be really cool.
Packet Logger
I created a packet logger with 16meg of flash rom to store store packets and a display to show you them.
It used a PIC micro to decode the packets.
It works OK but I was a little disappointed at it's sensitivity.
These were attached to a scanner audio output and used as remote logging stations.
This way I could put them on the other side of mountain ranges where I would not have line of site for packet reception.
And using surplus scanners for the receiver allows me to deploy more of them and I wont be out as much if they get stolen.