Last year my car was stolen in St Kilda and was found 6 months later parked
about 10 blocks east of where it was stolen. An APRS system would have been
very useful.

I also dream about somebody stealing my car so I use APRS to track where it
is and advise the Police. Then when they give me the signal I kill the
engine by remote control and possibly have a digital camera installed in the
car to photograph the driver.

:)

Could be fun. I'd almost want someone to steal my car!

cheers Peter






wrote in message
...
Would not even need a laptop; just a Palm to do this.

You could even use a PalmPhone, and add to it a "kill switch" on the
ignition, a flow restictor on the gas (won't go over 10kph) or a "park
lock
override" on the transmission (if automatic) which would prevent the
vehicle from getting out of Park.

Would take the fun out of using APRS, but you'd get your car back a lot
faster.

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004 22:42:27 +1100, "peter berrett"
wrote:
snip

Equipment:

1 x old notebook computer with sound card to act as modem
1 x mouse gps - usb connection
1 x 2m ht

The idea is that the ht would sit on 144.900 mhz and listen for aprs
packets. It would however only supply an aprs packet if polled remotely
(ie
you have to send it a special code to start transmitting aprs packets)
however so most of the time there is no transmission. If you fill up at a
pretrol station there is no danger because your setup is not transmitting
at
all.

Say your car gets stolen. You send a particular code through the aprs
system
and tell the notebook computer to start transmitting aprs packets every
minute. You then track the car until the police catch up with it.

Workable but safe?

Very safe. The story about risk at petrol stations form RF has been
disproven as an Urban Legend.

cheers Peter
--
Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct
tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT.

Man, you're in big trouble if the wife knows you're on the Internet spouting
that women give off more static than men!

Heh...can you say "Tesla Generator?"

One thing that was noted....women
are more likely to have this happen...best guess is due to two reasons. One,
material in clothing may be higher in static-generating capability.

Ah, sometimes the truth hurts.......ME! (Ouch, hon, PLEASE quit hitting me
with that frying pan....!)

A

Man, you're in big trouble if the wife knows you're on the Internet spouting
that women give off more static than men!

Heh...can you say "Tesla Generator?"

One thing that was noted....women
are more likely to have this happen...best guess is due to two reasons. One,
material in clothing may be higher in static-generating capability.

Ah, sometimes the truth hurts.......ME! (Ouch, hon, PLEASE quit hitting me
with that frying pan....!)

A

I don't believe you'd REALLY blast someone at another petrol pump -- isn't that an urban (or rural) legend?

R

I don't believe you'd REALLY blast someone at another petrol pump -- isn't that an urban (or rural) legend?

R