A consumer-friendly, open version of amateur radio's APRS network would be really cool. This seems like the first step, though I don't know if they intend to open the protocol.
Also, 50 mile range sounds great, but that's under "ideal" conditions, which happens roughly never. I'm curious what the range would be in the real world.
> 50 mile range sounds great, but that's under "ideal" conditions, which happens roughly never. I'm curious what the range would be in the real world.
In that graphic, change the elevation to 6ft and you get much more realistic ranges. The default elevation is 500ft (top of a small hill).
I'm a HAM operator, that device's frequency is just a bit above our very popular 2m band. The ranges they indicate at more realistic elevations sound about right for me, for a data connection at 2W.
Weren't police bands (previously) right about there? My license lapsed a few years back, but if memory serves, some people would do some minor surgery on their 2m radios so they could tune in to police bands just above 2m. I assume police all use some fancy digital microwave comms now.
"some people would do some minor surgery on their 2m radios so they could tune in to police bands just above 2m"
Probably, but you could also just buy a police scanner from Radio Shack, or even a $10 TV tuner that can be used as an SDR: http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
In fact I think those cheap Boafeng radios will even transmit on those frequencies. Of course that would be highly illegal.
"fancy digital microwave comms now"
Microwave radios are only really used for point-to-point links, as the shorter wavelengths require line-of-sight.
Also, 50 mile range sounds great, but that's under "ideal" conditions, which happens roughly never. I'm curious what the range would be in the real world.