At first glance, the new Yaesu VX-8R Ham radio looks like it's perfect for motorcycle use. Waterproof, receives DC to light (530khz to 999mhz) APRS built in, etc. But one problem - in order to use the APRS, you have to either plug the GPS puck into the microphone jack, or use an external speaker mic with a slot for the GPS puck. In order to use the HT with external mic and speakers (like hooked to an Autocom) you have to hook an adapter dongle to the microphone jack.
The adapter dongle doesn't have a provision for the GPS puck - so no dice running APRS and using it with your Autocom.
Now it does have a Bluetooth option coming out, so it may be possible to use Bluetooth for audio and transmit, while having the GPS puck attached to the radio. We'll see . . .
1 comment:
The new VX-8GR has a built in GPS chip for dedicated APRS use without tearing up the mic input.
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