Track in the Box
I’ve been playing with the OpenTracker from Argent Data Systems for a little while now. It has mainly been used with a Yaesu VX-5 handheld, but I recently bought a Puxing PX-777 VHF transceiver especially for it. I think that the PX-777 is one of the best Chinese handhelds out there. It is much more reliable than the Kyd that I have for 70cm, but the manual is still an exercise in frustration. The main thing is that the radio puts out 5W, has a 1200mAh Lithium Ion battery, comes with CTCSS & DCS, and uses Kenwood handheld accessories. I was also using my Garmin Geko 201 GPS for testing, but have bought a Deluo SiRF Star III based GPS from Argent for it too. One advantage of the Garmin is that the OpenTracker sends received APRS info (yep, it receives and decodes packets) to the GPS as waypoints that then show up on its screen.
This project was to mount the tracker in a weather resistant enclosure, and that is what I’ve done today using a Pelican 1120 case. I now have a ‘Track in the Box’ unit. Click on the photo below to go to the photo galley that shows all of the components.
