Ham radio ways to track your boat

[Bi111ion]

Marine Traffic (etc) are great ways for your friends and family to watch your cruising progress, and if you have an HF radio and PACTOR you usually send position reports when you fetch or send your email. But it uses quite a lot of power and requires a certain motivation to get it working, choosing the right band, waiting for your turn etc.

I was looking for an easier way to send position reports, not all the time but maybe more than once a day while off shore. I notice that my PACTOR works as an APRS beacon automatically but I am not sure there are many relays or where they are, plus it still needs choice of a band that will get to that station.

I am currently working on a kit for a WSPR beacon. It looks like a great idea, cost $29 for a kit, uses less than 200mA, has web linked receivers all over the world.

My ideas and progress so far on my blog http://tuioyster.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/there-must-be-50-ways-to-track-your.html but I would be interest to hear if anyone else has any ingenious ideas I have not thought of.

 

[cryan]

I was looking for an easier way to send position reports,

http://www.force4.co.uk/department/electronics/ais.html

 

[Bi111ion]

http://www.force4.co.uk/department/electronics/ais.html

Yes but AIS will only work for coastal sailing .... although I did get an oil rig report my position to Marine Traffic in the middle of the North Sea. Class A AIS may well be picked up by Marine Traffic's sats off shrore, but then you need a subscription to Marine traffic to track it. By then you may as well pay for spot. I am looking for easy to use, cheap and works offshore.

Edit: The link is to class B AIS which is much less powerful and is not tracked by Marine Traffic's Satellites. If you stuck a high gain directional antenna on it and pointed it skyward that might work..but you would still need a subscription.

 

[Bi111ion]

I just found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3p_-jOUvws of using HF APRS to track a boat in the N Atlantic

 

[Monique]

I bought a Delorme InReach SE. It provides for Satellite tracking (up to 4 hour time between sends) while allowing SAT email traffic. Turn off the subscription when at anchor. Reasonable price. In our view, it offers the alternative to the HF.

The unit was $349 during a recent USA trip.

 

[AHoy2]

Marine Traffic (etc) are great ways for your friends and family to watch your cruising progress, and if you have an HF radio and PACTOR you usually send position reports when you fetch or send your email. But it uses quite a lot of power and requires a certain motivation to get it working, choosing the right band, waiting for your turn etc.

I was looking for an easier way to send position reports, not all the time but maybe more than once a day while off shore. I notice that my PACTOR works as an APRS beacon automatically but I am not sure there are many relays or where they are, plus it still needs choice of a band that will get to that station.

I am currently working on a kit for a WSPR beacon. It looks like a great idea, cost $29 for a kit, uses less than 200mA, has web linked receivers all over the world.

My ideas and progress so far on my blog http://tuioyster.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/there-must-be-50-ways-to-track-your.html but I would be interest to hear if anyone else has any ingenious ideas I have not thought of.

I had an operational setup with HF set (Yaesu 857) and PACTOR modem on a previous boat but only did trials as HF aerial was not a permanent feature. Subsequently obtained a Yaesu VX8 handset which incorporates APRS and used that when coastal sailing. Details are a bit vague in my mind as I haven't used the equipment for some time but planning to get both operational again so will report back once done (will not be anytime soon).

 

[mm42]

I bought a Delorme InReach SE. It provides for Satellite tracking (up to 4 hour time between sends) while allowing SAT email traffic. Turn off the subscription when at anchor. Reasonable price. In our view, it offers the alternative to the HF.

The unit was $349 during a recent USA trip.

Exactly what I do, I use mine for my landscape photography trips into the wilds too, way out of mobile signal, lets everyone know I'm OK.

 

[Bilgediver]

I just found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3p_-jOUvws of using HF APRS to track a boat in the N Atlantic

If you are a radio ham as this would suggest then look at Winlink. This offers e mail and tracking over HF using the APRS sytem , however you can also log in
ashore from a PC on the internet and use Telnet via Winlink to send the details . You family can reply to your emails which will find you.

Winlink also makes it easy to send for Grib Files.

http://www.winlink.org/