N8YEL's Amateur Radio Pages

Radio Shack-TinyTrak-Hack

What does one do when he want to add an APRS tracker to his car and NOT have that mess of cables going from the radio to the tracker, from the tracker to the GPS receiver, another to the cigarette lighter for power, from the tracker to the mic connector not to mention another to the antenna? You do the Radio Shack Tiny Track Hack.

What this project entailed was installing the Tiny-Tracker, from Byonics, into the radio itself...tapping into one of the radios voltage regulators to supply power to the tracker and the GPS (which gets it's power from the trackers own 5 volt regulator) , tapping into the radios internal microphone pins for transmit and microphone and also tapping in to the audio out for the carrier detect and installing the DB9 connector for the GPS RXCVR. For operational status I installed 3 LED's into the radio cover...Red for TX/data transmit, Green for power/GPS lock and yellow for carrier detect/ RX busy status.

To install the tracker into the old trusty bought it at a pawn-shop $25.00 HTX-212 special I had to carefully cut a portion of the die cast radio chassis away for the DB9. One cut with a hacksaw down each side did it and the piece snapped out neatly with a little pressure and help from my trusty linesman pliers. (Take special care to blow out and remove any aluminum residue from cutting least you short something out) I drilled 2 holes into the chassis also to hold the DB9 in place. All that was left was hookup of the essential wires for Mic, TX, RX, power, audio and of course the leds. Three hookups...Power, Antenna and GPS. No other cables required and I have a tracker that is easy to use, no muss, no fuss, and portable to boot. (Not to mention giving new life to the Radio Shack HTX-212)

Photos of the completed project:

HTX-212 Tracker Cover On showing LED's and DB9

HTX-212 Cover off showing Tiny-Track installed in the chassis