GPS tracking

[Graham Kerr]

Australian pilots....
Some time ago I received a brochure in the mail for a tracking device that sent a position of the balloon back to the laptop in the chase vehicle. I threw the brochure away but has anyone tried this and can you give me a lead as to where I can get one??

[Angus Peart]

There is a couple of people who have toyed with this, but as far as I know, no one has got it to work 100% and be nice and compact.

At the nationals last year we had all the hardware which I had made to do this, along with a few other things, but the software wasn't finished so we didn't use it. The units were only about 3"x2" in size so they were nice and compact.

As far as a commercial product I am not aware of anything made specifically for ballooning. Although I am sure one of those "pet trackers" could be used with a bit of ingenuity.

[Andrew Robertson]

We played around with this at the 2003 nationals. One of the guys on my team built a little black box that hooked into my GPS in the balloon. It would send packets of data to the retrieve vehicle (via CB), and he could track the balloons position on a laptop using Ozi Explorer. It was just a prototype, but worked pretty well, especially with the amount of fog that was around that year.

[jared miller]

I don't know much about it but check out this web site it might help you. http://www.winaprs.com. The guy whowrites this software did a workshop on gps at the BFA national convention here in the US. It might not work down under? Good luck, Jared Miller

[Barb Smith]

This product doesn't exactly track but it's a uhf/gps combined unit and from what I understand if you have two units you can send your location to your retrieve's radio and they can pinpoint your position - anyhoo - here's the link http://www.gme.net.au/garmin/rino520.php

[Adam]

Try these guys mate:

http://www.trakworks.com.au/
http://www.radio-active.net.au/web/tracking/

[Graham Kerr]

Thanks Adam trakworks is the way I'm heading
Graham

[Barb Smith]

Looks good for teenage girls!

[Kim Larsen]

Hi Graham

I'm using a software called WindMaster that is the only Software that I know of that is actually developed for Balloon competition. I'm also an agent for the software so if you want to know more about this you are most welcome to get back to me - I have posted a comment in the competition discussion - Laptops in competition with an attached sreenshot.

One of the features in the software is that it sends the balloon position, speed, direction altitude and windinformation by radio to the retrieve car using APRS.

What you need to do this is a GPS, a TNC and a radio. The TNC is like a modem that translates the digital information from the GPS or PC into an audio signal that can be transmitted by radio.

We are using a Kenwood TH-D7 radio that is a handheld radio with a built-in TNC. We are using this connected to our laptop, but you can actually connect a GPS directly to the radio if you don't want to have a laptop in your balloon.

Unfortunately the Kenwood TH-D7 is no longer produced, and there is no other handheld radio with a builtin TNC in the market.

But elcom.gr is producing a TNC that we have been testing, so by using this and a radio you will get the same.