I have sucessfully tested in XCSoar, driving a mobile phone via bluetooth to send and receive SMS messages. This works fine.
The catch: CDMA, which is really most useful for longer distance glider flights, is being phased out by Telstra and the 3G technology is NOT nearly as good in remote areas. I did my testing with GSM mobile phones. Anyhoo, it's doable. John Wharington On Thu, 2005-12-08 at 09:43, Robert Hart wrote: > Ken Dawber wrote: > > > I'm sure that changing gliding competitions towards or creating > > technology towards making gliding competitions more of a spectator > > spectacle would be a great help to the sport. > > > > Since the new FLARM units are consistently outputting each FLARM > > equipped gliders height, position and speed vector through out their > > flight, how hard would it be to extend this so that a competition > > could create real time displays of every gliders height and position > > through out the completition. > > > > I expect that the output of the Flarm units is nowhere near strong > > enough for a single contest base station to pick them up but would it > > be realistic to have a number of linked ground based stations > > throughout the completition area to create that display. > > Alternatively, or in conjunction with, would it be possible to have > > specific competition versions that increased the output or also > > broadcast the output on a second radio channel in a manner that > > allowed fewer base stations to pick it up. > > > > Their is no requirement for 100% coverage. If a real time > > completition display kept losing some 10 per cent of the gliders in > > specific parts of the course then it would probably increase the fun > > of the spectacle. > > > > I'm only asking question so I hopefully don't need a flame suit for > > these. > > You certainly don't need a flame suit - a similar idea occurred to me > some time ago. > > Unfortunately, FLARM is a short range technology - about 3km for the in > glider units (Nigel Andrews has suggested that a ground based receiver > with high gain antenna might be able to get 10km). > > However, something like FLARM could be created (Nigel suggested maybe > using CDMA phones as the comms mechanism - although the in glider unit > only needs to Tx and not Rx) to do just what you suggest. _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring