APRS Anyone?

[TNFrank]

I ordered a Baofeng 5RM Pro that not only has GPS(like the BF-F8HP Pro)but also can do APRS. This seems like it might come in handy to learn to use to sent messages to a single radio or to groups and to receive them too. 

I tuned into 144.390MHz and there's a lot of packets being transmitted.  I'm going to figure this out and add it to my toolbox so I'll have one more way to communicate.  If anyone uses APRS and would like to give me any pointers or info feel free, I'd appreciate the help in learning this. 

[SteveShannon]

3 hours ago, TNFrank said:

I ordered a Baofeng 5RM Pro that not only has GPS(like the BF-F8HP Pro)but also can do APRS. This seems like it might come in handy to learn to use to sent messages to a single radio or to groups and to receive them too. 

I tuned into 144.390MHz and there's a lot of packets being transmitted.  I'm going to figure this out and add it to my toolbox so I'll have one more way to communicate.  If anyone uses APRS and would like to give me any pointers or info feel free, I'd appreciate the help in learning this. 

You can also send messages, using APRS, to cell phones. I’ll have to find a YouTube video to show you because it’s not something I remember well enough to tell you how.  Here’s one: 

 

On two of my radios that do APRS, the Alinco MD5XT and the Yaesu FT5DR, the radio has a setting for the APRS frequency. The TYT MD UV380 also probably does, but I haven’t delved into it.  I set my B channel to 144.390 MHz and set the reporting interval to something that isn’t too frequent, such as 10 or 15 minutes, if walking or 3-5 minutes if driving.  You’ll learn quickly that setting it to every few seconds is Moore of an annoyance than beneficial.  One of my radios, the FT5DR, has a “smart” reporting function, so it reports more frequently if I’m traveling faster.  It will also report whenever I change a direction.  If I decelerate or stop the reporting frequency goes down. That saves on batteries.  It can also be set to report on other actions, such as whenever you transmit on the other channel. Also, I have my radios set not to reproduce the audio when sending or receiving APRS. 
It’s difficult for me to remember all the things that need to be turned on to make APRS work. The first time there are several things to do, but later you can turn just a few things on and off. I’ve considered printing and laminating a wallet card.  GPS has to be turned on.  The modem has to be turned on and set to the right baud rate. APRS reporting has to be turned on. The reporting rate has to be set correctly.  Then, when you want to turn off APRS to save battery you may want to turn off GPS and the APRS modem as well as stop reporting. The very first time I ever set up APRS on the FT5DR I screwed up the reporting logic so it was continuously transmitting and the antenna got very warm!

Edited to add: apparently something changed with the sms gateway in APRS at some point that I didn’t realize.  Here’s a video that might explain what has changed.  I have not watched it yet, but this guy usually does a very good job of covering things: 

 

[marcspaz]

I use ARPS with my teams for vehicle tracking during events, as well as getting small messages through when we're too far apart for voice traffic. 

 

I love that there are gateways to the Internet as well as peer-to-peer operation.

 

APRS.fi is my favorite website to use for GPS tracking. 

[WRXB215]

Our ham club provides comms for the gator ride every year. We use aprs to keep track of where all the sag wagons are. Comes in handy when coordinating pickups for fallen riders and other on-the-road needs.

[TNFrank]

I have aprs.fi on my phone, here's the new SMS service.

 

[TNFrank]

Do you need to be a HAM to use it or can someone with a GMRS license use it. What about unlicensed?  From what I've seen they can use the SMS function of APRS without a license. I'm also looking into putting aprsdroid on my phones.

[TNFrank]

Ok, I know the guy at the top with the -7 is an HT and if you see a -9 it's a mobile but what are all the other things?

[SteveShannon]

34 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Do you need to be a HAM to use it or can someone with a GMRS license use it. What about unlicensed?  From what I've seen they can use the SMS function of APRS without a license. I'm also looking into putting aprsdroid on my phones.

The network of digipeaters is all ham as far as I know.  You cannot transmit to them without a ham license. A non-licensed person can certainly receive texts on their devices sent from APRS but cannot use a ham radio to send messages without a license. 

[TNFrank]

Another good reason to get your HAH license. 

[SteveShannon]

30 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Ok, I know the guy at the top with the -7 is an HT and if you see a -9 it's a mobile but what are all the other things?

See this website: https://www.aprs.org/symbols.html

As far as numbers go, I use -7 for one of my handhelds and -8 for the other.  I will look to see what the significance is. Symbols can resemble modes of transportation, such as walking, bike riding, tractors, wheelchairs, even jeeps. 
Here’s what the ssid number means (loosely speaking)

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
 

Also, it is possible for your phone to send your location to the APRS network (but not using a ham radio digipeater).  I have aprs.fi on my iPhone and I can set it to send a location, so there are ways that don’t directly involve a ham radio. I don’t know how you could do that in GMRS.

[SteveShannon]

2 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Another good reason to get your HAH license. 

Aren’t you glad you did!  For me the hardest thing all my life has been to overcome inertia and take that first step.  You did great!

[SteveShannon]

Here’s the home of the most current APRS information published by the APRS Foundation:

https://how.aprs.works

[UncleYoda]

I don't get it.  Why can't radio operators just talk.  Why all the games and gimmicks.  I have something for sending text, but if I need to know where someone is, there's 10-20, QTH, or plain English.

[SteveShannon]

10 minutes ago, UncleYoda said:

I don't get it.  Why can't radio operators just talk.  Why all the games and gimmicks.  I have something for sending text, but if I need to know where someone is, there's 10-20, QTH, or plain English.

I agree with you. You really don’t get it.

Personally, I seldom use APRS to message people, but I use its tracking abilities when our ham radio club shadows bike riders in areas without cell service, not for messaging, but so the leader of our group can track where we all are.  There are also many APRS weather stations.  The International Space Station even has a digipeater on it.But if you don’t get it, that’s no sin. Complaining about not getting it is kind of an Emily Litella thing though.

[WRYZ926]

That's one of the nice things about amateur radio. There are so many different bands and different modes that everyone will find something they like.

[TNFrank]

Ditto on tracking to see where folks in your group is at. Also, from what I understand APRS can sometimes travel further in simplex than voice so you'll still be able to make a contact. You can also limit your contacts to a single person or small group vs voice going out to everyone. 

[AdmiralCochrane]

APRS.fi is the real APRS.   Bob Bruninga lived up the road from me and a handful of my friends knew him personally.  He used .fi because his family was originally from Finland.  Pretty sure his daughter is keeping the website active.

[marcspaz]

7 hours ago, UncleYoda said:

I don't get it.  Why can't radio operators just talk.  Why all the games and gimmicks.  I have something for sending text, but if I need to know where someone is, there's 10-20, QTH, or plain English.

 

Digital radio is very important for situations where voice transmissions don't work. Digital signals work in radio to radio conditions where a Voice transmission cannot be heard at all. If you are listening to the frequency, you would not even hear the digital signal in some cases. It would just be static to the human ear. This is one of the reasons why you may hear some types of digital technology referred to as Weak Signal radio.

 

We can actively use aprs and digital direction finding to locate people that may not be able to talk due to being incapacitated. Sometimes text is simply more convenient because of operating conditions, Etc.

[TNFrank]

The CPS isn't reading the 5RM Pro. It acts like it'll write to it but nothing on the radio changes after the write. I may need to look at a different radio. The Radtel radios seem to work well for me. Maybe an RT-950.

[WRYS709]

20 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

The CPS isn't reading the 5RM Pro.

Maybe DMR isn’t the problem after all…

[TNFrank]

42 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

Maybe DMR isn’t the problem after all…

DMR was never a problem. My system reading radios is. I read the Radtel RT-4D DMR radio just fine and programmed it without issues. The radio just didn't have enough power to hit my local repeaters. 

Could just be a driver issue or the radio doesn't like the cable, could be a number of things.

My Yaesu FT-65r didn't like the K1 cable. I had to go to a single plug for it to read/write. I'll try the same with the Baofeng.

[TNFrank]

Is there an APRS equipped HAM Radio that good that won't break the bank? I tried every cable I have and still can't download from this radio. The FDTI(FTDI??) cable starts to download with the handshake but then fails. I really hate to spend $165 on the BTech Pro but it looks like that might be the only way to go if I want APRS in a radio that'll actually work unless someone has some other options. Thanks. 

[jwilkers]

Do you need to be a HAM to use it or can someone with a GMRS license use it. What about unlicensed?  From what I've seen they can use the SMS function of APRS without a license. I'm also looking into putting aprsdroid on my phones.

You must be a ham.

Sent from my SM-S911U1 using Tapatalk

[gortex2]

So oehter things to note is majority of the time a -3 is a Digipeater. Minea re all -3 or -13 a I have multiuple for SAR stuff. Our SAR team actually maintains a few as well. We have used APRS for sar for almost 20 years. Back then it was an HT with a TNC and a GPS all in our back pack.Over the years we have changd stuff and tried various types of devises. Right now the go to it the FTM mobiles and portables from Yaseu. In the past the Kenwood TMD700/TMD710 mobile was king. We do use some HT's with android cell phones (aprs droid) for trackers. Mostly this stuff is used for "PR events, standbys'" such as foot race operations and other stuff in the woods. Our commandp ost has an FTM so from our mapping system we can track our CP as well as its ability to pick up units when out of cellular areas.

 

[TNFrank]

Well, just ordered a Radtel RT-950(non-Pro model)and I'll be here in a week or so. From reviews I've watched it seems to be a good APRS candidate. Installed the CPS for the radio and it opens ok under WINE. Fingers crossed that this'll work out.