Just a quick update for the holidays. After nearly two years of putting it off, I finally took the test for a Technician ham radio license on December 9th. I passed with one question wrong and my call sign is KK6QZZ. I initially wanted to get a license for high-altitude balloon tracking and now I can begin to move forward with this project. I'm not sure if I want to build my own APRS transmitter or just buy one. I'll see how this pans out.