Mobile Aviation Weather

I remember something about X.25 packet switching, but I think you have
to have a ham license to make use of it.

What got me thinking about it are the ultraportables laptops such as
the OLPC or the EEE PC. To me those little machines would
make great little flight computers. Of course any laptop would work.

My thought would be an open source app that would run on the laptop.
Sites that want to be available
for use as in the air hotspots could either register with a central
website that would log the information and gps location
or perhaps broadcast a special wifi identifier. When a hotspot was
found by the laptop, it would automatically query
for any weather reports of interest and update the display.

I would expect the wifi hotspot should probably be locked down to
allow access to aviation/weather related sites only.
This would minimize abuse of a hotspot and bandwidth usage.

At this point I do not even own any wifi devices, so I am not sure how
much of the firewall capability is built
into wifi devices. Once I finish my pilot training this is something I
plan to experiment with though.

On Nov 1, 11:33 am, "Morgans" wrote:
"Robert M. Gary" wrote

What's wrong with aviationweather.gov? That's what I use on my cell
phone and I've never had a problem. Maybe you're using a 1980's cell
phone?

In the air, you are not supposed to use a cell phone, though.

Could someone set up a WiFi type of system, and get fellow Hams to make a
network of internet enabled ham band links?

That would be pretty cool, even it was just in your local area. To do it on
a wide scale would be a pretty large task, and no doubt, someone would want
to get their regulations on it.
--
Jim in NC