SmartBeaconing in Aircraft

Good path advice...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <ve6srv@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [tracker2] Re: SmartBeaconing in Aircraft

Low data rates are a good thing, but a very important part of being a
courteous airborne user is the outgoing path.

WIDE1-1 should never be used as you have better HAAT than just about
every other station out there. You'll find through observation that
using no path at all will still get you heard over a very large area.
Since the OT2 has the ability to profile change based on altitude, I
would configure the unit to use no path at altitude, and WIDE2-1 down
near the ground.

Your decision altitude will need to be based on the terrain you fly
over, but with our balloon payloads flying over flat terrain can be
heard by stations hundreds of miles away by the time they are 500 ft
AGL. We have been flying balloons with no path on the last few flights
and having no problems hearing, tracking and recovering. The i-gates
pass the data with no problems, and we have little trouble finding the
landing location. There's usually no APRS infrastructure in the
recovery zone to light up with a path even if we did use one.

James
VE6SRV