This is at least partially Guzzi content. I'm heading out tomorrow for Dayton, OH for the annual amateur radio event of the year known as Hamvention. Unfortunately, not on the bike as I'm riding in a big truck the three other friends. It's an event not to be missed for those who enjoy the ham radio hobby. Buyer, seller, flea market, new, used, vintage, crazy nut jobs walking about...like a swap meet convention for most any other hobby I guess. I'll be looking for a particular item related to my bike, though. I think it would be neat to install an APRS (automatic position reporting system) beacon on the Norge. Uses a GPS tethered to a low power transmitter to send out data packets across amateur radio frequencies (146.390 MHz here in USA) including heading, speed, altitude, and potentially several other metrics one might include of interest. There are receiving stations all around the country that forward these packets to the internet and populate on Google maps. It's kinda cool. Would be neat for me or my wife and kids to be able to see where all I've ridden or where I might be at in real time. It's a way to blend a couple hobbies I enjoy. For an example you can see a website called
http://aprs.fi. There are stations everywhere. My car beacons as n9iz-9 (my call sign with the "-9" designator meaning an automobile). On the way to Dayton we'll be n9sja-9. There are other designators for fixed stations, high altitude balloon, emergency services shelters, etc. Here in the next day or so there will be tons of them heading for Dayton. Not really important, but just though some people here might be hams or might find this interesting. Regards.
Jeff
