This is the lost model tracker I’ve been working on for RC aircraft and other applications.

Real World Testing:

I’ve retrieved it from a period of testing in a plastic bottle hanging in a tree on the hillside about 3KM away. It was there for almost 4 weeks, running on the same coin cell battery that I used for all the initial development and testing This battery has probably done 4 to 5 months on standby and 5+ weeks of transmission and survived well.

The purpose of having it on the hill was to run it in the wild for an extended period and to to get a feel for how it operates and how “trackable” it is with various antennas at what distances.

With line of site and a reasonable antenna it is detectable from 5+KM; about as far as you can go line-of-sight around here. Buildings, terrain and lots of trees obstruct the signal at ground level but that’s to be expected and just means you have to move around to get a fix.

I have a broad band scanner antenna on the car roof; non directional. This was very effective at locating the general area of the tracker. Driving around it was easily detectable out 2-3 KM depending on surroundings.

Receiver Improvement and housing:

Due to a request to use it for radio fox hunting and the need to package the receiver, I’m modifying the receiver circuit board so that it can be constructed into a alloy extrusion. This will provide shielding and will make it easier to use and track at shorter distances. The transmitter is only 10mW max. but the receiver is very sensitive and at less than 50 meters or so the signal seems to come from everywhere.