APRS: Automatic Packet Reporting System

Time 2021-01-04 03:03:06

Web Name: APRS: Automatic Packet Reporting System

WebSite: http://www.aprs.org

ID:155876

Keywords:

Automatic,APRS,Packet,Bruninga,radio,position,w3ado,wb4apr,GPS,APRS,Satellites,U

Description:

AMTRAK Tracking: If you took a trip on AMTRAK with your APRS radio and made a plot, send it in.So far we have the Empire Builder Chicago to WashingtonAPRS is now in its 25st year! APRS is digital communications information channel for Ham radio. As a single national channel (see map at right), it gives the mobile ham a place to monitor for 10 to 30 minutes in any area, atany time to capture what is happening in ham radio in the surrounding area. Announcements, Bulletins, Messages,Alerts, Weather, and of course a map of all this activity including objects, frequencies,satellites, nets, meetings, Hamfests,etc. The APRS network has grown to most countries with strong Amateur Radio populations.Download: . . APRS/Energy Talk at Superfest in Peoria, ILL Sept 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . APRStt Satellite QIKCOM-2, presented in Utah, Aug 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . APRS-by-Bob Powerpoint (8 Mb) (Feb 2015 version). . . . . . . . . . . . . Dayton 2015 TalkThis page evolves over time. New stuff is posted here at the top. Older stuff migrates downward. To seethe full description of APRS you have to drill downward pretty far. But it is there back to the beginning (1992).Is it your radio? Since packet begain in 1978 too many people use it as a plug-N-play mode where you just connect your TNC to the radio and begin operating. Sure, it probably "works" on some strong signals, but could be suffering 10 to 40 dB of performance loss on weaker signals you might never notice (you dont see what you dont see)... Here is the best explanation I have seen by John Ackermann, N8UR. Some estimate that 90% of signals on the air are "bad" in that they were never adjusted for optimum settings of level, deviation, preemphasis, tone skew, deemphasis, balance, and impedance, etc. Fix it (usually at the transmitter) if you want to be seen.APRS Operations Tip: There are several different ways to optimize your APRS mobile operationsdepending on the immediate situation. One way to rapidly select between them without having to go through menu's is to simply program several radio channels withthe different settings. The beauty of these channel suggestions is that you can alwaysleave the speaker volume turned up on the APRS data band and can move between full audiomonitoring, to Voice Alert, or to complete silence simply by changing channels. For theVoice Alert to always be functional and not miss a call, operators should never have their APRS bandvolume turned down. Instead, they can silence the speaker in the presence of lots of voicealert stations by selecting the APRSmute channel.By the way, here is a chart of APRS on 30 meters.RECENT INITIATIVES:SMSGTE is an SMS/APRS gateway that allows two way messaging between APRS users and cellphones.Our recent Balloon launches.Use APRS to support your Hamfest! to advertise, inform and locateAPRS Mobile presentation(.ppt) on how to best use your mobile. Also see Settings for the D700! and (for the D710).Learn how to operate Voice Alert so you can be contacted while mobileCheck your local Digi to make sure it is current with the New-N ParadigmIdeas for the ultimate digi. and enjoy the APRS mobile experience.Building map, Flea market East, Flea market WestLearn about APRStt and involve everyone with a DTMF HT in your club, not just APRS ownersLearn about APRS-RFID and see if you have an application for it in your clubOur Annual Golden Packet Event combines with Scouting's Operation ON-Target Saturday 21 July 2012 1100 to 1400 local time.Prepare a SET Plan for your next Simulated Emergency test See the APRS SET Message web page.APRS is not a vehicle tracking system. It is a two-way tactical real-time digital communicationssystem between all assets in a network sharing information about everything going on in thelocal area. On ham radio, this means if something is happening now, or there is informationthat could be valuable to you, then it should show up on your APRS radio in your mobile. See typical oversights and hear my talk on the 3 Oct 08Rain ReportSee also some original APRSdos views and concepts overlooked in some new programs.APRS also supports global callsign-to-callsign messaging, bulletins, objects email and Voice becauseevery local area is seen by the Internet System (APRS-IS)!APRS should enable local and global amateur radio operator contact at anytime-anywhereand using any device. See the APRS Messaging/Contact Initiative. .APRS Internet System (APRS-IS): Like most other Ham radio systems, APRS has been fully integratedwith the internet beginning with the efforts of Steve Dimse and the Sproul Brothers in 1997. Currently thereare many web pages for live viewing of APRS activity such as APRS.FI,or FINDU.COM.For example, the map below from Hessu, OH7LZB's web site http://aprs.fi/ shows a one month snapshot of activity which reveals some gaps in the APRS coveragein the USA.Click to see 2008's animation!Click to see 2010 holes, Thanksgiving week 2010)(holes as follows:)Georgia/South CarolinaMissouriMississippi/AlabamaMontana/Idaho/WyomingDakotasTexas(Lubock)NebraskaAPRS SPEC! . APRS continuously evolves. There have been several initiatives that have drastically improved APRS network performance and useability for users. The originalAPRS spec was updated in 2004 with the APRS1.1 addendum and since then with theAPRS1.2 updates. Most of these new initiatives are listed here.APRS=>DTMF Paging Gateway Gates local APRS info to DTMF Paging radiosAPRS RFID using RFID Name tags for locating individuals at a venueCQ SERVER for sending global messages or CQ's using National GROUP Callsigns such as SCOUTS, SCR, IOTA, JOTA, etc.Local Info Initiative to put locally useful info on the mobile APRS radio front panelOVERVIEW: The Automatic Packet Reporting System was designed to support rapid, reliable exchange of information for local, tactical real-time information, events or nets. The concept, which dates back to the mid 1980's,is that all relevant information is transmitted immediately to everyone in the net and every station captures that information for consistent and standard display to all participants. Information wasrefreshed redundantly but at a decaying rate so that old information was updated lessfrequently than new info. Since the primaryobjective is consistent exchange of information between everyone, APRS establishedstandard formats not only for the transmission of POSITION, STATUS, MESSAGES, andQUERIES, it also establishes guidelines for display so that users of differentsystems will still see the same consistent information displayed in a consistentmanner (independent of the particular display or maping system in use). See the original APRS.TXT. The two images below should giveyou an idea of the kinds of information available to the mobile operator on his APRSradio. On the left is the Kenwood D710 radio showing the station list, and on the rightis the attached GPS with map display showing the location of other APRS stations.Each station or object in the list has three more pages of information on it. The objects canshow Repeater frequenceis in an area, meetings, nets, events, hamfests, echolink and IRLPnodes and frequencies, traffic speeds, accidents, emergency situations. And the attachedGPS can show the location of each of these items.THE GOAL IS COMMUNICATIONS and LOCAL INFO UPDATE, -NOT- JUST VEHICLE TRACKING!APRS was never intended to be just a vehicle tracking system (GPS was added in the 1992time frame when GPS became affordable). APRS is much more. See the Kenwood mobiledisplay above. This is the STATION LIST which shows the nearest 100 stations heard. . In this case, not only are the two stations of AB9FX nearby, but also hiscurrent VOICE operating frequency is visible. Also, we can see that this radio is inOPERATING range of three voice repeaters that are also identifying themselves as objectson APRS as the locally recommended voice operating channels.APRS provides situational awareness to all operators of everythingthat is going on in his local area, whether it be Weather reporting, traveler info, Direction Finding, objects pointing to ECHOlink and IRLP, or Traffic reporting and emergency response. All of this while providing not only instantaneousoperator-to-operator keyboard messaging capability for special events, but also an always-on Voice Alert backchannel between mobiles in simplex range. There is even an APRS interface to the WinLINK system called APRSlink, so that mobiles can send and receive Email without needing a PC. Think of APRS asa signallingchannel to reveal ALL amateur radio resources and live activities that are in range of the operatorat any instant in time. UBIQUITOUS OPERATIONS: APRS must work everywhere to be a true resource to themobile ham radio operator. In North America, 144.39 MHz is dedicated throughout the continent.In Europe, use 144.80 and in Australia use 145.175 MHz.. National operatingrules were standardized in the 2004 time frame under theNew-N Paradigm to eliminate obsolete andinefficient routing. Now, only a 2 hop WIDE2-2 path is recommended in all areasthough mobiles can use the special WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 two-hop path that takes advantage of nearby WIDE1-1 fill-in digipeaters. See the high density areas in the map to the right.Further, the APRS channel is a resource to inform everyone of nearby ham resources inrange. Please see the Local Info Initiative.See USA map of MobilesSee map of digisAPRS GLOBAL INTERNET SYSTEM: Although APRS is a local, tactical real-time two-waycommunications system, all local information is injected into the APRS-IS Internetsystem so it can be monitored anywhere. Here is the live IGate list of over 1500 IGates that give connectivity throughout the world. Not only does this allow for globalmonitoring of local activity, it also allows the two-way point-to-point messagingbetween any two APRS users anywhere on the planet (that has an APRS infrastructure).Everything goes in so it is available to everyone on the internet, but onlymessages and selected position data goes back out to RF to keep the channel local and lightly loaded.UNIVERSAL TEXT MESSAGING FOR AMATEUR RADIO: . Not only can APRS users text-message each otherlive, but they can also text-message with many other cross-platform media. There is an initiativeto cross connect ALL consumer type hand-held wireless devices to the APRS system so thatany two radio amateurs can text-message callsign-to-callsign completely independent of the type of device. They can use cell phones, blackberrys, pagers, DTMF HT'sor just about any other kind of device. See the web page: Universal Text Messaging InitiativeAPRS was developed by Bob Bruninga,WB4APR, as a real-time local tactical communications system for rapidly exchangingdigital data of immediate value to operations. This really took off when GPSbecame available and MAPS were integrated into the system for tactical situationalawareness of everything in the net. In the 18 years since its introduction, (see history) it has grown to encompass justabout every aspect of Amateur Radio. For the original introduction to APRS, CLICK HERE or check out the first category oflinks below to get the big picture of what APRS is all about... . The above left shot was APRSdos in the early 1990's. Now it is world wide linked initially by K4HG's global FINDU.COM shown on the right.More recently, Hessu's APRS.FI has become popular, as well as OpenAPRS.NET. The map above shows the approximate 20,000 usersnow on the air in the USA at any instant. Space Station, and see live downlinkPCSAT2 July05-Aug06, now de-orbited PCSAT-1 partially operational since 30 Sept 2001. ANDE Dec 06 - Dec 07 and deorbited RAFT Dec 06 - May 07 and deorbited MARScom. for Navy Marinecorps MARS (HF antenna failed to deploy).Previous flights: . MIR , SAREX (STS-78), SPRE (STS-72) and TRAKNET, (1200 baud PACSATS).Other ideas:. . . . NEMISIS(sp) , other CUBEsats ideas, and NATSweb, our 1st short-fuse project (Jan 1999) Errors of GPS satellites as seen in AnnapolisBALLOON-SATS : Balloon payloads as cheapsatellite demonstrationsMETEOR Scatter: APRS the perfect tool Tracking Amateur Satellites (NASA)ACADEMY BOATS Live (summers only) and1993 Replay (picture) VHF RADIO Live APRS activity onlocal 144.39 VHF frequencyHF RADIO Live APRS activity on 10.151MHzLSB HF frequencyDX CLUSTER Live last two hours worthof DX spots plus information on DX.FOOTBALL Replay of the Army-Navy game footballrun (picture) ACARS Live Aircraft Communications andReporting System on 131.55 MhzBERTHA Replay of June 1996 hurricaneMARATHON Replay of the 1993 Marine CorpsMarathonOLYMPIC TORCH Replay of the 1996 torch routeSKYWARN Example APRS remote weather networkEARTHQUAKES Nearly Live plots of USGSEarthquake dataDAYTON-97HAMVENTION : Replay of APRS activity last year!Kansas City APRS quot; : Whatshappening in the central USATAPR Homepage : The Tuscon AmateurPacket Radio HomepageMIC-E : UsingGPS on any radioSearch Google.com for "APRS PACKET RADIO" and get 16,000 hits! APRS in Brazil by Tadeu PY1KCF who is also working on an APRS satellite.Join the TAPR APRS Special Interest Group E-mail Reflector: APRSSIG

TAGS:Automatic APRS Packet Bruninga radio position w3ado wb4apr GPS APRS Satellites U

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