[App_rpt-users] Pickle linux, Beagleboard, and MicroSD flash longevity

[Phil N6TCT]

I am building a remote, solar-powered, mountaintop repeater based
around the BeagleBoard and app_rpt running the Pickle distribution.
The mountaintop is not vehicle accessible and is a significant hike to
get to -- oh, and it's an eight-hour drive from where I live just to
get to the base of the mountain -- so we'd like to minimize equipment
failures and resulting truck rolls. :-)  Two questions for the group:

1. Does anyone have any experience with the longevity of the MicroSD
flash memory card used on the Beagleboard with Pickle Linux?   Flash
memory has a limited number of write cycles and, although the flash
cards include some wear leveling, I'm wondering what the implications
are for flash card replacement.  Obviously, this will depend on how
much writing is being done, but any real-world data, experience, or
anecdotes would be welcome.

2. Is there an easy way to set up a ram disk, even a small ram disk (a
few megabytes), under Pickle?  The majority of writing we're going to
be doing will be log files, and we have a network connection from the
mountaintop to civilization -- but the network connection is not
guaranteed to be up all the time.  If we could write to ram disk and
then copy to civilization when the network is up, that would avoid
having to write to flash at all.

Thanks!

Phil, N6TCT