I do agree that APRS seems a better fit, especially since you have control over antenna design/placement as well as power levels, meaning you could go farther.

I do agree that APRS seems a better fit, especially since you have control over antenna design/placement as well as power levels, meaning you could go farther. In the pro category, though, this device is pocketable, and I don't think there are very many APRS-enabled radios that easily fit into jeans pocket (I'd love to be proven wrong). You could cobble together something -- a Baofeng UV3R+ or especially a BF-T1 easily fits into a pocket, but that's just the radio. You need an audio cable/TNC and a phone to make it an APRS setup.