Since I've been having a ton of fun with my TinyTrak3plus in my truck, I figured I'd build the new MicroTrak300 that Byon had advertised on his website. I'm currently using the MicroTrak300 as a pedestrian tracker. You can see the position of me and/or my dog through these websites:

• The Findu.com postion report for N6ACA-8
• The Aprsworld.net position report for N6ACA-8
• the db0anf position report for N6ACA-8

The majority of the stuff was bought from the Byonics website, but a few items were purchased elsewhere or borrowed from other equipment.

Here are the components:

• Byonics MicroTrak300 Position Encoder Kit
• Duleo GPS DB9 Adapter
• Duleo GPS
• DB9 Connector, Male
• BNC Female Connector
• Solid Copper wire to attach BNC from center conductor of RG6 TV coax
• 9 Volt Battery connector
• 2M Rubber Duck Antenna (Borrowed from Alinco HT)
• DB9 Female <-> DB9 Female Null Modem cable (le old junqe box)

Here are some pictures of the assembly and operation:

• All the parts were shipped neatly from Byonics and Argent.

  

  
  
• I chose to use a Duleo GPS unit because it is fairly cheap and small.

  

  
  
• A null modem is used to configure this little guy.

  

  
  
• This is the top side of the board when assembled. Excuse my sloppy soldering job. The fully color documentation that is provided is VERY helpful for those who don't remember resistor codes...

  

  
  
• This is the bottom side of the board when assembled. Note the antenna connector in the style that is in the manual.

  

  
  
• This is the configuration software. Don't give me a hard time about my path.

  

• This is the fully assembled unit being powered by a 9 volt battery. It was able to acquire GPS from inside the house as it was near a window, and could hit an iGate right off the bat.

  

  
  
• This is the first position location for the programmed unit from the db0anf APRS webserver.

  

  
  
• This is the raw APRS packets that made it to findu.com through an iGate. It is approximately 20 miles from my house to the W6CX iGate on the top of Mount Diablo. I'd say that the 300mw coming from this unit do quite well!

It took me about and hour and a half to put everything together, test it, program it, then clean the board up. This is an easy kit to put together as long as you have fairly basic soldering skills and a fairly fine tip soldering iron. I'm going to be testing this unit over the next few days to see how much I can get from a 9 volt battery and how many packets actually get through.

Before I'm finished I'd like to do this: