I have an FCC assigned "call sign", which is "KD7ZYU". Kind of catchy isn't it? Anyway, what tempted me in that direction is a new technology that combines ham radio with GPS, and in concert with a software program written for both PC and Macs combines into something called "APRS". The acronym is for "automatic position reporting system". By attaching a GPS to a ham radio equipped to transmit digital data ("packets"), the GPS information can be sent by even the smallest of hand held ham transceivers to any nearby stations that can pick up the signal and then "relay" it to a more powerful repeater station (often situated on a nearby peak). The repeater station, called a "digipeater", in turn will broadcast the packet containing the GPS information to a wide area, often touching other digipeaters that have the ability to rebroadcast the signal to even more distant locations. Some stations are capable of not only picking up the radio signal, usually after it's been relayed and picked up by at least one digipeater, but to capture that information and download it to the internet where it can be seen at a website called "findu.com". There you're able to go online and search for any recently published information using the call sign of the station you'd like to track. In some cases the data ("packet") might even be relayed from the International Space Station or other orbiting satellites that are equipped to relay digital ham radio signals.
If you've followed all that, you'll recognize that the link from my call sign (like this: KD7ZYU) takes you to the place at the website called "findu.com" where oue most recently transmitted GPS information will be displayed. In addition to getting just the coordinates, however, the website will automatically link that position to one or more maps, or even aerial photos of the location described by the GPS coordinates. If we were rolling down the road at the time our signal was picked up, you'll see our current speed, direction and elevation as well. If you catch us on a travel day, a whole series of individual coordinates will be displayed on a regional map -- showing a number of points where our location was recorded. This is sort of like leaving "breadcrumbs" to mark the locations where our position was successively recorded. If we've been traveling during the past 48 hours, you can see our "trail" by clicking here.
We're just experimenting with this new technology, and from time to time we'll be putting our call sign on our top menu page, with a link to the website that will graphically show where we were at the last position report. In general, it is likely to be more current than the location indicated we were at the time of the last website update. And who knows, you may "see" us very near where you are!
Tom