[olug] aircraft data via amateur bands

[neal rauhauser]

  Charles wrote at length about his aircraft and need for weather data -
sounds like he wants a Stratocheetah without paying for electronics that
cost more than the plane.


  This is an interesting and not too expensive project. There are a
couple of methods for doing this.


  You'll need some sort of laptop or palmtop with an 802.11b card, an
RFLinx 2.4 GHz to 900MHz downconverter, and a way to mount an external
antenna that will be roughly a foot long - so if you're willing to bore
a small hole in your plane and install a bulkhead connector that is one
method.


  The other method would be using something like a Sierra 550 PCMCIA
wireless card and get the antenna outside the aircraft - as long as
you're near (30 miles) to a PCS tower, you should be able to have an
ISDN speed data feed.


  Sounds interesting ... when do we start?  :-)