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Garmin To Marry GPS with FRS/GMRS
zornorph writes "Garmin is set to come out with the Garmin RINO in June, which integrates FRS and GMRS radio with a GPS unit, which will give it up to a 5 mile range of communication. Garmin has a unique twist though, to quote their site: "What really separates the Rino from the rest of the FRS herd is the ability to "beam" your exact location to another Rino user within a two-mile range using the FRS spectrum." However, there are concerns about the implementation of this "beaming", as it causes interference with GMRS users."
And it's called APRS/Packet radio.
Which also can allow for messages and weather data.
And the associated packet TNCs can allow for low speed data, as one poster asked for.
"All those tubes and wires and careful notes!"
The Rhino is a very interesting new product, but it's certainly not unique. Check out this recently introduced product from Audiovox.
Another thing worth considering is that these radios are only available in the United States. They are GMRS radios (not FRS) and owners need to have a GMRS license from the FCC (cost $70).
/Don
-adam
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"I rule. -aron"
GMRS use requires an FCC license (~$75 for 5 years, last time I checked). Manufacturers and retailers of low-end GMRS radios often conveniently neglect to mention that fact. See: http://wireless.fcc.gov/prs/genmbl.html
you could just as soon tell the person where you are
First, I wanted to reply "not if you don't know where you are." The first scenario I envisioned was of inexperienced hikers getting separated.
Hiker1: "Help! I fell and I twisted my ankle real bad!"
Hiker2: "Where are you? I can't hear you!"
Hiker1: "I see.. trees! Not just a few trees, but a LOT of trees! Oh, and there's some water way off through the trees!"
Now Hiker1 can xmit their position to their partner. And if their partner doesn't know NSEW, they can at least start to walk in circles and see how their movement affects their position reading.
But second, I wanted to see if anyone remembered a supergeek who built a pair of high tech boats and jackets that communicated position information over APRS. Each boat would show its passenger the distance and direction to the other boat. And while the boaters were on land, they could use an HT to xmit DTMF tones back to the boat. One command instructed the boat the calculate the distance and direction to the other boater (walking or not) and use voice synthesis to reply with the distance and direction details. I think when last I read about him (years ago) he was building the same functionality into bicycles.
My point being that distance and direction would have been a nice feature instead of or in addition to raw lat/long data.
Intelligent Life on Earth
Actually, Garmin has petitioned the FCC to be allowed to do this. A company ignores the FCC at great peril, since if they try to sell non-FCC approved transmitters, the feds will walk in and seize everything. Besides, it's quite easy to lobby for an amendment to the rules. All it takes is time and money.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
FRS stands for Family Radio Service and GMRS for General Mobile Radio Service. They are intended for casual users who don't want to go throught the trouble of getting a Ham Radio license. You can use FRS radios without any sort of license, and GMRS with a no-test, send-them-$20 license from the FCC.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
As for cable, if the amatueur radio operator is getting into CATV, that means CATV is leaking and possibly interfering with other radio systems like public safety two-way and aircraft radio systems. The cable company should clean up their system or risk running afoul of the FCC. A properly operated CATV system will not suffer ingress from an amateur radio operator.
Telephone interference is in the same vein; if the ham's signal is getting into the phone network (as opposed to the neighbors' $9.95 phones) the telephone company is responsible for cleaning their plant up. However, chances are that the telephones themselves (even wireline) aren't properly shielded ...
Broadcast interference *may* be the responsibility of the ham to clean up, but again without knowing the specifics, it's hard to tell. Part of the problem may be that the ham is using ungodly amount of power when low power would do. Maybe if the ham turned down the power things would get cleaned up. Who knows? Has anyone tried working with the guy instead of just trying to make him go away?
A lot of folks would rather not work with the ham to understand what interference modes are present. Chances are they complain about interference but really have a problem with the huge monstrosity of an antenna in the back yard. It's not uncommon for neighbors of a ham with one of these huge antennas to be suffering all sorts of interference problems even when the ham is not operating. There are two sides to every story.
-z
In Soviet Russia, the Beowulf cluster imagines you!