APRS?

I know what it stands for, and I kinda know what it does. I know it can provide location information, weather information, frequency information, and I know you can send short messages with it.

But let's say that I travel to an area that I've never been to. If I tune to 144.390, will my radio tell me who's in the area and what frequency they are on automatically? Or do the distant stations have to be TX'ing on 144.390 as well?


...and since we're on the subject, how many of you use APRS and what's your favorite feature of it?

Dont know, but are you on HF yet ?

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Originally Posted by K9CCH

I know what it stands for, and I kinda know what it does. I know it can provide location information, weather information, frequency information, and I know you can send short messages with it.

But let's say that I travel to an area that I've never been to. If I tune to 144.390, will my radio tell me who's in the area and what frequency they are on automatically? Or do the distant stations have to be TX'ing on 144.390 as well?


...and since we're on the subject, how many of you use APRS and what's your favorite feature of it?

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All APRS stations need to be on the same frequency (144.390 for 2M), or on a frequency that has an iGate listening (A station that hears packets, and relays them to other iGates, which allows all stations to be viewed on the internet).

So, yes: If you are on 144.390, and drive into a new area, you will see new stations pop up as you hear them. You can only tell they are on 144.390 (Because you heard them), unless they provide more information in the info field. Example: I put mode of operation (Bicycle mobile, mobile, ped, or base) and Simplex Frequency/Repeater Name that I may be monitoring.

I have been using APRS since it was first conceived back in the 80s or 90s. The Town Car has a Tracker in it and many have followed me to Dayton and back the past 4 years.

This year I had a HARD failure, and I stopped beaconing at Tulsa. I use a Byonics Tiny Trak 3 module which works great, but for some reason, the uP locked the transmitter ON for 8 hours and just about blew it. Imagine transmitting in a sealed box for that long at full power! The radio was just WHITE HOT!!! But, God Bless Kenwood! The TM-261A somehow survived!!! I didn't get it all fixed until I got back to San Diego. The TinyTrak3 IC had failed, and cost me $18 to replace!!!

I use APRS as a Ham Radio lojack! In fact, I even built a Wakeup timer that wakes up every 2 or so hours and gets a fix. Then it beacons out the location a few times and goes back to sleep. Works great, and the car stays on the map 24/7.

The nice thing about it is that I can look with my Smartphone and see where the car is at all times.
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=WA6MHZ-9

The car CAN'T be stolen, unless they cram it into a metalized Shipping container and even then, it would show WHERE that is (or was). So if the car ever does get stolen, I just show the police where the car is within 10 feet or so.

I don't use the Receive function very often. I had a APRS computer in the Radio shack, but it flaked out. I used WINAPRS, and everytime there is a power failure, U have to reload Zillions of parameter! And, I can't get the APRSDOS to work right on it.

SO I just use the Cellphone for APRS RX. Works wonderfullly.

I've used APRS off and on. It is a great tool and usually I put in my call followed by a "-15" (as per guidelines). APRS-fi is a great tool on the Internet for worldwide APRS watching. It's a Google map based APRS mapper on the web. Of course like anything on the 2 Meter band, APRS transmissions are line-of-sight.

This is a link to the APRS-fi site (centered on zipcode 10001, New York City.)

APRSdroid is your friend ...thats what I use. Yeah its on my cell phone, but while I was OTR, cell towers had MUCH more coverage than APRS gateways.

Forget what these cats are saying, UI-View for your computer is the way to go!

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Originally Posted by wa6mhz

I use APRS as a Ham Radio lojack! In fact, I even built a Wakeup timer that wakes up every 2 or so hours and gets a fix. Then it beacons out the location a few times and goes back to sleep. Works great, and the car stays on the map 24/7.

The nice thing about it is that I can look with my Smartphone and see where the car is at all times.
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=WA6MHZ-9

The car CAN'T be stolen, unless they cram it into a metalized Shipping container and even then, it would show WHERE that is (or was). So if the car ever does get stolen, I just show the police where the car is within 10 feet or so.
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So you work across the street from the homo depot? That'd be extremely dangerous for me. I nearly go broke every time I walk into that store.

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Originally Posted by K9CCH

[...] the homo depot?

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Wouldn't "Homo Depot" be a great name for a gay bar?

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Originally Posted by KJ6BSO

Wouldn't "Homo Depot" be a great name for a gay bar?

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Yeah, but this one takes the cake every time!

http://www.mablepeabodys.com/

The Town Car can't HIDE!

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Originally Posted by K9CCH

Yeah, but this one takes the cake every time!

http://www.mablepeabodys.com/

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Hey, I used to be a chainsaw repair man for real—in South San Francisco, no less. Didn't get a lot of gay guys in the shop that I recall, although that was thirty years ago, back when it was still a little dicey to be totally out to the general public, even in that area.

Hmmm Looking up that APRSDroid. I might drop that in the phona and see how it works. Not sure if i know how to do that. Dont have any radio gear with me atm.

Well so much for APRSdroid getting setup today. Bought it THEN it tells me i need a passcode and it will take a few days. Shoulda said something about that when i bought it from Play store!!

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Originally Posted by N2NKW

Well so much for APRSdroid getting setup today. Bought it THEN it tells me i need a passcode and it will take a few days. Shoulda said something about that when i bought it from Play store!!

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Your passcode is: 9371

Seriously, try it. It'll work.

And, to prevent anyone else from having to buy the app (Although, it does support development): http://aprsdroid.org/download/

THANKS!!! N2NKW-5 now in service!!...lol Although I wont be moving til well after midnite tonight. Guess I didnt need that $4 anyway...lol

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Originally Posted by N2NKW

THANKS!!! N2NKW-5 now in service!!...lol Although I wont be moving til well after midnite tonight. Guess I didnt need that $4 anyway...lol

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FWIW, anyone who has Xastir installed can generate their pass code, using the command 'callpass <call sign>', on any machine :)

I have no idea what y'all are talking about. LOL

I tried to get the XASTIR but don't know what the deal is on that. Anyone know what the passcode for WA6MHZ would be???

Here is the CALLPASS link U need!
http://www.george-smart.co.uk/wiki/APRS_Callpass

works great!!

callpass seems to be a password u need to use the program APRSDROID working great on my cellphone now

I use APRS when travelling, particularly out in the boonies. My family knows how to track me using findu.com, whether I am on the radio (K0RGR-7) or my cellphone (K0RGR-5). I travel out in the boonies fairly often - at least the more traveled parts of the boonies, and I use a Kenwood TMD710. It's pretty amazing where I can and can't find APRS with my 50 watts and a decent mobile antenna. Most of the southern half of Minnesota, and some areas of the north country are covered. I seem to be connected to APRS everywhere in Iowa, even where there are no voice repeaters or cellphones.

Going from here to Denver, I have APRS until at least North Platte, NE, and then pick it up somewhere on I76 in Colorado. Going west on I-80, it's surprisingly good in much of Wyoming, then, it gets more interesting. Once you are out of the mountains in Utah, APRS is solid well into Nevada on I-80, and I found very few places on either I-80 or U.S. 50 in Nevada with no APRS. It's pretty solid in I-10 until you get to western New Mexico, where you lose it until you're closer to Las Cruces. Then, it's there in El Paso, and disappears east of there to about 100 miles from Austin. East of there, it's solid to Florida.

One time, we were driving on I-80 in a desolate part of Nevada, looking for a place to spend the night. My APRS display lit up - it was my brother in California sending me a message about a great motel in the next town ahead of us.

I don't see as many information beacons as I used to on APRS. For a while there, many radio clubs and individuals would send regular beacons with local repeater information. The Kenwood radio has a QSY function will QSY to the repeater frequency in the beacons at the push of a button. It is nice when you're in an area to see these 'advertisements' for the active local repeaters. There are also various kinds of bulletins, WX alerts, etc., sent out this way. I don't text while driving, and APRS messaging is exactly like texting. So if you send me a message, you'll have to wait until I can stop to answer. Since I don't do it often, I always have to figure out how to do it, too, which takes a while.

The last three episodes of Ham Nation featured a project of building a Raspberry Pi - based packet TNC that you can use to run the Xastir APRS software. For $80, $40 for the RPi and $40 for the TNC kit, that's a pretty good deal, and you end up with a full function Linux computer running Xastir, or another packet radio program. I have one RPi dedicated to DSTAR now, I'm thinking seriously about building one of these for APRS, too, and just let it monitor the local activity and send messages to my friends.

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Originally Posted by KC2UGV

Your passcode is: 9371

Seriously, try it. It'll work.

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LOL Got my verifcation mail this morning. Yep Thats the code they gave me! Too funny!

W7XF-5

I don’t recommend mixing chainsaw repair duties with drinking. I have never seen a chainsaw loose that battle.

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Originally Posted by W7XF

W7XF-5

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What does your street name mean?

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Originally Posted by K9CCH

What does your street name mean?

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Loosely: The Little One

I just found a very big FLAW with the APRSDROID program. Whatever U do, DON'T leave it on!!
I fully charged my Phone yesterday afternoon, and ran the APRSDROID. It ran the pjhone to STONE DEAD just overnight!!!! I know the GPS is on, but the program itself must use a TREMENDOUS amount of battery power. Now, I will only turn it on briefly!!

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Originally Posted by W7XF

Loosely: The Little One

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A loosely little what ??

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Originally Posted by wa6mhz

I just found a very big FLAW with the APRSDROID program. Whatever U do, DON'T leave it on!!
I fully charged my Phone yesterday afternoon, and ran the APRSDROID. It ran the pjhone to STONE DEAD just overnight!!!! I know the GPS is on, but the program itself must use a TREMENDOUS amount of battery power. Now, I will only turn it on briefly!!

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I noticed the same thing. I found a little something that helps a bit.

Go to Preferences -> Location Source.
Select "Periodic GPS/Network Position"
Once that is set then select Locations Settings.
Select Minimum Update Time and set to how often u want to have the software update your posit.
Select Minimum Update Distance and set that to how far u want to travel before updating. Set to 0 if u want to disable it

I have mine set to 15 minutes and Distance turned off. I noticed a moderate improvement over having the "Smart Beaconing" turned on. SB keeps the GPS and your internet constantly active and thats a batt killer as well as a data drain. Can be painful if you're on metered bandwidth.

I havent played with it long enough to see HOW big a difference it makes but i did notice some change. I also pretty much run with my phone plugged in while I'm driving the truck so my experience might be a but different then yours.

Hope that helps. Let us know if it does

OK. I get that APRS can be used by others to track you.

Other than that... what is it good for? I'm not trying to be cute, I honestly just don't see what else it's useful for.

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Originally Posted by W3WN

OK. I get that APRS can be used by others to track you.

Other than that... what is it good for? I'm not trying to be cute, I honestly just don't see what else it's useful for.

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That's basically what it's for... It can also offer information on local "assets" (Ie repeaters). It does come in handy for things like running checkpoint stations for charity runs and the like.

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Originally Posted by W3WN

OK. I get that APRS can be used by others to track you.

Other than that... what is it good for? I'm not trying to be cute, I honestly just don't see what else it's useful for.

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Let's say you go to a new city where you've never been before, you can tune to 144.390 and it will tell you which frequencies are being used.


at least that's what I understand...

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Originally Posted by K9CCH

Let's say you go to a new city where you've never been before, you can tune to 144.390 and it will tell you which frequencies are being used.


at least that's what I understand...

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Only if it's a digipeater, right?

I looked up my local area on aprs.fi and see the local digis, but co-located analog machines are left off the list.

I get the public service/special event aspect (for balloon launches, it's kind of neat), but I've never had a burning desire to continually transmit that it's such-and-such millibars at my house.

OK. Good to know.

Don't get me wrong... it's kinda neat to see what potentially can be done with APRS, but sometimes you wonder if it's a solution in search of a problem.

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Originally Posted by KG4NEL

Only if it's a digipeater, right?

I looked up my local area on aprs.fi and see the local digis, but co-located analog machines are left off the list.

I get the public service/special event aspect (for balloon launches, it's kind of neat), but I've never had a burning desire to continually transmit that it's such-and-such millibars at my house.

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It's up to the repeater owner if they want to mark their equipment on APRS. It's easy enough to do, and generally inexpensive (When you figure the total cost of a repeater setup).

Yes, it depends on the locality. I don't see as many beacons about repeaters as I used to.

And yes, I think it's a technology that's underutilized. Now that I'm playing with Arduinos and Raspberry Pi, I might pursue a project I've had in mind for a long time - building a device that would receive packet bulletins with local repeater info, and use it to reprogram my mobile rig as I go down the highway. If we could get people to send out properly formatted beacons with their local repeaters, it should work well.

"I get the public service/special event aspect (for balloon launches, it's kind of neat)..."

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Originally Posted by K0RGR

I use APRS when travelling, particularly out in the boonies.

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I tend to get all excited about something, before I think it through. I'm about to send off a $460 cashiers check for the FTM-350AR that should be delivered on Monday, and I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to purchase the FGPS-1 unit from HRO 1.)while they still have them, and 2.)while they are on sale.

I read about everything that APRS can do (mostly), but if I really think about it, I don't have a true need for it.

-We don't travel much, and if we do its between Houston and Lafayette, LA, or Houston and Dallas. Other than that, I'm not a big road trip person.
-I don't really have an interest in tracking folks in the local Houston area, which is where my radio will be used 97% of the time.
-I don't really have any desire to put my whereabouts out there publicly for the folks in Houston to come violate me or my Jeep.
-Although being able to send messages sounds like a neat feature, the likely hood of me ever sending anything to anyone other than a test message, is slim to none.

There are only two scenarios that I can ever see APRS being used on my radio... if I want to check weather conditions say on the Island before we leave home, or if we ever really do decide to take the Jeep on a camping road trip. However, the likelihood of that is slim to none as well.

I just can't really come up with any justifiable reason for me to spend the $68 for the GPS unit.

Am I severely limiting the performance of the FTM-350 if I DON'T install the GPS unit?

Looks like you're beginning to understand this ham radio thing pretty well, Chris. You analyzed all the available information and came to a logical conclusion.