Could someone tell me the advantages of having a mobile ham radio such as the Yaesu FTM-100DR with GPS ?
In my vehicle I presently have a Garmin GPS and a vhf/uhf ham radio that work very well.
I am considering buying the Yaesu FTM-100DR which is a vhf/uhf digital radio with GPS.
All responses will be appreciated,
Thanks in advance,
Ray KC1EDJ
Most amateur radios with GPS also have APRS capabilities. With this you can track your location on a website such as aprs.fi. However, to make full use of this capability, the radio must be able to be continuously “beaconing” on the national APRS frequency of 144.390 MHz. The FTM-100DR cannot do this. It is a single VFO radio and will not beacon APRS at the same time you are using it to talk to someone.
I have an FTM-100DR and I didn’t find this out until after I had purchased it and installed it in my vehicle. As soon as I could afford it, I upgraded to an FTM-400XDR (which is a dual VFO radio) and moved the FTM-100 into the house where a GPS and APRS are kind of superfluous.
I taught a bunch of Jeep enthusiasts and got them their Technician licenses so they could communicate in areas they go where cell service isn’t available. If there was an emergency and they needed to tell emergency services their coordinates, the APRS was handy. The Kenwood TM-D710A (at the time) was what they all bought. (currently Kenwood TM-D710GA.). Once my son asked to borrow the family car and I left the D710 with an external battery on in the trunk of the car. I was able to track his movements on www.APRS.fi… HIHI. One time my son was traveling from NH to SC and he let us track him using APRS. We were able to route him safely when there were bad storms in his path. I have sent emails from my radio using APRS. Lots of fun with APRS.