UHF-FREQ.txt 7.6b A NATIONWIDE UHF 9600 BAUD GPS TRACKING FREQUENCY ?????? 445.925 ?????? With GPS units below $200 and available in K-Mart, eventually, every mobile amateur radio operator will be reporting his position while mobile. Today (1994), 1 watt commercial, single frequency UHF data transceivers capable of up to 9600 baud are available for around $100. This is approximately one-third the cost of a typical mobile HAM transceiver or walkie-talkie. Amateur radio needs to plan for a nation wide GPS reporting and tracking frequency. Since mobiles, wander everywhere, across coordination boundaries, the evolution of different GPS networks on different frequencies in different areas will permanently encumber the growth of this fascinating new aspect of amateur radio. The success of GPS tracking on 2 meters has been phenominal due mostly to the availability of 145.79 as an experimental channel in many areas. But as more and more stations go GPS packet mobile, there is the need to move to 9600 baud ASAP. Several 9600 baud single frequency data transceivers exist for the UHF band. See ad on page 18 Feb 94 QST for the TEKK radios: T-NET MINI $119.90 and T-NET MICRO $99.90 both are 2 watt UHF modules about the size of a credit card that operate to 9600 baud! Call them at 1-800-521-8355. PacComm builds these into some TNC enclosures for complete BLACK-BOX TNC/RADIOS... Of course, a great buy for 2 meters is the MFJ 5 watt 2 meter 9600 baud radio for $119. It comes on 145.01, but can be special ordered on 145.79 for only $14 more. FINDING A UHF FREQUENCY! As anyone that has participated in a frequency coordinating organization can attest, finding an available packet frequency in our already crowded bands is a difficult and painful process. Trying to find a single national frequency is virtually impossible! As a weak-signal operator, and ATV'er, I do not want to see any more encroachment on the 70 CM ATV frequencies and certainly not on the the weak signal bands. Also, as a member of the local Mid-Atlantic Repeater council, I have avidly defended the UHF FM voice frequencies from encroachment by packet operations. GPS tracking does not act like the other packet applications, always needing and wanting more and more dedicated channels. GPS tracking is a SINGLE FUNCTION, SINGLE FREQUENCY application. Conversly, all other packet applications such as BBS's and DX clusters, for example, are HUB or star based networks which operate most effectively when each major NODE or BBS has its own separate frequency. Due to the community nature of these beasts, there is always a crowding effect driving the users to find more and more frequencies. The GPS reporting and tracking network, however, gains its advantage by having ALL mobile stations on one and only one frequency. Just as HAMS have 146.52 as a national calling frequency, and CB'ers have channel 19, the GPS application needs only a single frequency too. Maybe it is time to allocate just a single one of the FM simplex channels near the 446.0 FM simplex calling channel for high speed GPS position reporting and tracking. Just as 446.00 is recognized as the UHF calling frequency, there should be a comparable GPS status and tracking frequency for mobiles nationwide. I anguished long and hard over this proposal, and I suspect that it will meet with a lot of emotional and idealogic controversy. But I think that anyone that is watching the trends in communications technology will certainly conclude that GPS position reporting of mobile radio operations WILL BE FUNDAMENTAL IN EVERY MOBILE NETWORK within 10 years. We either bite-the-bullet now and plan for the orderly development of GPS applications on the 70 cm band, or we will be fighting this same battle for the next ten years. If you have any comments on this idea, or can see a better way, please contact your local frequency coordinating council. Since this is a bold- faced stab at the FM voice simplex channels, HOW ABOUT seeing if the lowest simplex FM channel on 445.925 MHz is available in your area? I just can't get over the excitement, of someday, being able to glance at your dash-board mounted full color map display and seeing the location of every mobile HAM within 30 miles! Setting aside a single GPS status and position reporting frequency NOW, will make this happen!