Outdoor Adventure USA

APRS

APRS is one of those Ham Radio things that is considered by most of us, at one time or another. Personally, in the beginning, I discovered that it had an extremely high aggravation factor. Once I got past all that, and had a well functioning set-up, it has turned out to be a very useful tool. Unless you have an electrical engineering degree and a huge reservoir of patience, it is best, if you want to get started in APRS, to get the help of someone who has gone through the process and knows how to do it.

When we started, we found it very helpful to meet and work with those who had the "know-how." If we have sufficient interest, we can plan for a get-together to help those who want to get started as well as exhibit the many different systems that we use. One of the fascinating things about APRS is the huge variety of different configurations, hardware and software programs that are available.

Our guest this week will be Jim Sanders, AG6IF, who may be known to many of you. Jim has been active with APRS for many years and several of his projects can be viewed online. We will also have a number of long time users on hand to lend their perspective as well. For all those who have already been using APRS as well as those who want to start, this should be a great net. Join us!!

The images below are numbered in order to quickly view them as Jim makes reference to them during the net. Note: the numbers are located just below each picture.

W6RIP
Early Check In
Thank You,
Kevin

Dave,
Please check me in.
Kevin
KK6DGL

KK6CTT for online check-in please. Jim, AG6IF, is definitely the man for this net.

My fascination with APRS got its beginning when I used to go out by myself and for that I carried a Garmin Rino. It was the best technology I knew of pre-amateur radio. So, not much has change, I still go on adventures but I take my APRS HTs along and they do a pretty good job of keeping the loved ones abreast of my whereabouts. For some men that might be a negative but it beats the hell out of having the XYL nag me about doing things in solitude. Here are some example traces for the net:
The San Bernardino Peak trip was done with my Yaesu FT-1DR using the 3x AA battery tray which limits transmission power to only .8 watts. This was a test to figure out how reliable the radio would be with three rounds of AA batteries. I used two rounds of batteries for the trip and carried the normal lithium batteries just in case. I was able to talk to a few folks on the trip to include AG6IF. If worse comes to worst you can also change your status to piggy-back with your APRS signal that can provide information on your condtion.
Also some general rules to follow when putting in your ID naming convention:

SSID RECOMMENDATIONS: It is very convenient to other mobile operators or others looking at callsigns flashing by, to be able to recognize some common applications at a glance. Here are the recommendations for the 16 possible SSID's (the limit of 16 comes from the 4 bits available in the AX.25 protocol. Note, The SSID of zero is dropped by most display applications. So a callsign with no SSID has an SSID of 0.

-0 Your primary station usually fixed and message capable
-1 generic additional station, digi, mobile, wx, etc
-2 generic additional station, digi, mobile, wx, etc
-3 generic additional station, digi, mobile, wx, etc
-4 generic additional station, digi, mobile, wx, etc
-5 Other networks (Dstar, Iphones, Androids, Blackberry's etc)
-6 Special activity, Satellite ops, camping or 6 meters, etc
-7 walkie talkies, HT's or other human portable
-8 boats, sailboats, RV's or second main mobile
-9 Primary Mobile (usually message capable)
-10 internet, Igates, echolink, winlink, AVRS, APRN, etc
-11 balloons, aircraft, spacecraft, etc
-12 APRStt, DTMF, RFID, devices, one-way trackers*, etc
-13 Weather stations
-14 Truckers or generally full time drivers
-15 generic additional station, digi, mobile, wx, etc

An example of APRS.FI screen shots:

Hi Dave!
Online checkin for N7AJJ please...this net sounds great. Hoping to become functional with APRS!
-Dale

Hi all,
Please check me in for tonight's net.
Thank you. Jack M. KK6WXQ

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Please check me in for tonight.

The Mobilinkd device with an old Android phone or tablet and APRSDroid software might be one of the cheaper ways to acquire an APRS capability with an offline (i.e., no Internet connection required) map display.

http://www.mobilinkd.com

https://aprsdroid.org

https://aprsdroid.org/osm/

http://www.openandromaps.org/en/downloads/usa_en

APRS.fi Record of Bradshaw Trail Run

Temecula to Chicago APRS, notice the igates along the way, and the 3 small gaps too shown in pink...that is when my family who are tracking me, call to see if everything is ok..!! . 73 Jim AG6IF

During the APRS forum I came across the BTECH cable which I acquired and have since been using regularly. At $19, it's the very cheapest way to get into APRS**, assuming you already have a radio and a phone or tablet.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LMIBAZW/

I had been looking for an iPhone / iPad app which would do APRS off a radio. Both "PocketPacket" and "APRS pro SE" work well with this cable. On Android, APRSDroid also works well with this cable and of course with the Mobilinkd Bluetooth device.

I prefer the Mobilinkd Device since it handles PTT when transmitting while the BTECH cable requires changing your radio to VOX mode. The Mobilinkd Device does not work with iPhone / iPad.

** Some apps will work by just holding up your phone /tablet mic near your radio (no cable purchase necessary), but that gets tiresome quickly.