Topics to be covered

• What is APRS?

• Why do I want APRS?

• How do I view APRS?

• OK, now how do I go mobile?

• Current software

• The internet piece of the puzzle

What is APRS ?

• Automatic

• Position

• Reporting

• System

• By Bob Bruninga, WB4APR

• Brief history

History of APRS• Initial use as we know it in 1990 to track boats during summer cruises. The

following flavors followed.

• MacAPRS

• WinAPRS

• APRS+

• perlAPRS

• XAPRS released as beta at 1999 Dayton Hamvention

How do I view APRS?

Basic setup f or a fi xed station

TN C P C w ith m ap s R ad io on loca l freq u en cy

H om e S ta tion sTh is can b e :

E O CN E T C on tro l o r H om e

Definitions• A tracker is a mobile station

• Posits are position reports

• UI Frames are frames that do not employ error correction techniques, entirely that is.

• Digipeaters are stations that act as a simplex repeater except in a digital format

• IGATES are stations that feed data to and from the internet

• GATES are stations that take the HF APRS data and retransmits them on VHF and possible the internet.

• APRServers are stations that IGATES send data to and redistribute them to the IGATEs

OK, now how do I go mobile?

• TNC route, KPC3+, Pico Packet, D7A or D700

• Mic-E route

• Pic-E route

• GPS receiver

• So you want to use a laptop, pda or WinCe ?

Mobile Equipment

What else can I do with APRS

• Connect your weather station

• DF abilites

• track vehicles (balloons, trucks, space vehicles, hurricanes)

• Messaging, regular format and NTS format

• Propagation, PropNet

• Send Weather related information

• Earthquake origins

What’s new in APRS?

• ARISS Amateur Radio Space Station– http://www.rac.ca/arisspak.htm has a FAQ on

how to interact with the ARISS. The Kenwood D7A and D700 work great with this ability

What’s new in APRS?

• New format for WX related information on APRS from KG5QG, Dale Hugley.

• This gives WinAPRS the ability to display Watches, Warning and Advisories in a more space efficient fashion and reduces packet size.

• The files can be obtained at http://isl715.nws.noaa.gov.mapdata/newcat or http://www.ohioaprs.net/files/jon/nwsshape.zip

• For APRS+SA ftp://ftp.gcpoolz.com/lables/

What’s new in APRS ?http://www.findu.com

Orange indicates an ADVISORY

Red indicates a WARNING

Yellow indicates a WATCH

New Software

• UI-Digi

• Digi-Ned uses a pc to act as an intelligent digipeater. Responded to queries.

• UI-View for both Win3.x and Win9x Can create custom maps on the fly without restarting the software.

• APRS Spec published

Other station tips

• What is my tnc deviation?• The target is 3 kHz deviation

• Greatly improves channel throughput.

• Go to http://www.febo.com/layer-one/index.html for more data.

• Open squelch?????? MFJ 1270 A and B series TNCs can not handle open squelch properly. TAPR DCD kit fixes this problem.

• Hidden and deaf transmitters

URL and link from today’s presentation

http://www.kc5goi.net

Credits

• Bob Bruninga, WB4APR

• TAPR

• Mark, KB2ICI and Keith, WU2Z, Sproul

• Brent Hilderbrand, KH2Z

• Steve Dimse, K4HG

• Mike Musick, N0QBF

• Rich Perry, W9IF

• John Ackerman, N8UR

• Dale Huguley KG5QD