BTECH Gmrs Pro APRS demo

[ajmatson]

A video showing the APRS messaging over the air and decoded on a Raspberry Pi using a Realtek SDR  

https://youtu.be/2UTwQJkEPxk

[axorlov]

Good afternoon my little football fans. One of the questions I get is do we use a pry-bars or do we not. Pry-bar is a tool to break into all kind of storage facilities, sheds and into people bedrooms! <... bla bla bla ...> You got to know your Linux! And you need your iPhone!

P.S.
I'm a regular APRS user, but not on GMRS band, no, hell no. And not via smartphone.

[gortex2]

So the message he showed is not an APRS message but looks more like a modified version which would make sense being it would need licensed to baojunk. APRS works well in the ham band and works for what it is. Again someone is trying to bring more ham radio into GMRS. I just dont get that fascination. In reality APRS uses a huge network of digipeaters so having a simplex UHF channel sending APRS is about useless.

 

[Blaise]

Well, I think it's pretty cool.  I got my wife and I a pair of Motorola T801s for a cruise we took in southern Europe, and being able to text with each other in five different countries without having to buy phone service was actually phenomenal.  We've used them camping when out of cell/wifi contact for significant time, too.  

The best part?  I did all the pairing and programming, and then I just had to show her how to turn it on and hang it on the back of her bag.  All the rest was on the phone that's already glued to her hand anyway!

(It *was* challenging to deal with her frustration with not having perfect, 100% connection, but it still got the job done)

 

[SteveShannon]

7 hours ago, gortex2 said:

So the message he showed is not an APRS message but looks more like a modified version which would make sense being it would need licensed to baojunk. APRS works well in the ham band and works for what it is. Again someone is trying to bring more ham radio into GMRS. I just dont get that fascination. In reality APRS uses a huge network of digipeaters so having a simplex UHF channel sending APRS is about useless.

 

We use the Garmin radios when we’re out searching for rockets. We can see each other’s locations (simplex) in real time on a topo map. In the event of a medical emergency (this is hilly terrain) we can find each other quickly. Having a uhf channel sending APRS (or any kind of location data) is definitely not useless. 

[gortex2]

True but on UHF your line of sight. In the SAR stuff we do we have trouble with a mile between some teams on VHF and UHF unless we have a repeater. APRS has the benefit of many Digi's so it can help move that traffic. I agree having it available is a benefit but in SAR we have tried pretty much everything and it rarely works on our own systems. We do use the APX to send location data but normally only command will get it.

[blastco2]

Ever ride a snowmobile in the Backcountry?  Off trail?  It's very common for a rider to leave the group and head up a side hill through the trees and get stuck out of sight. Or into a draw then end up not making a creek crossing, again out of sight.  Keeping snowmobilers herded up together is worse than herding cats.  We all ride with avipacks, radio in the pack speaker Mic on left shoulder.  Usually have phone handy for the photograph oportunities.  Might as well combine the 2 taking advantage of the technology.  The new btech radio will help with locating efforts.  Might even prevent needing to call sar. (More likely for sar to call us to get them out)   BCA sells an frs radio for snowmobiles as does Oxbow and a couple of others.

Here is a video of what I'll be doing while carrying/using the btech gmrs pro this winter.  I have no connection to this video and gain nothing by posting this link....

https://youtu.be/eOTO7-3ih8U

 

 

I am presently trying to get "backcountry navigator" to support the btech app in the same way that they support Aprsdroid.