APRS software for GMRS

[WRUJ963]

I just got a BTech GMRS Pro Radio last month.  It can do aprs with other Pro radios but is there any software available that I can use with a tnc on another standard GMRS radio to receive messages.  I am looking at this more for emergency services usage and would like to be able to setup on the fly another radio to send and receive aprs.  I've seen a lot of how to for Ham radios but most of the software I find wants a Ham call sign to use and my GMRS call sign won't work.   Was curious about other folks setups.

[marcspaz]

53 minutes ago, WRUI365 said:

Actually, APRS is more then just throwing out a position report for which the BTech Pro is doing for which only other BTech Pro users can see. Though APRS is used primarily in VHF at 144.390mhz US at 1200 baud, can be used at 9600 baud UHF, and 300 Baud HF. Position reporting, weather, telemetry, messaging, and other uses like IGATE, Digipeaters relaying others beacons and messages over airwaves and thru the internet back to airwaves world wide. So people might be getting confused about the terms and what can be done with it. APRS in Amateur radio is just another form of packet radio that is used in the spectrum area of VHF that can be used for AX.25 packet protocol. Position reporting is one thing, heck my Harris XG100P can give and receive position reports from other Harris users on P25 protocol which is called SA"situation awareness" just by keying up mic button. That is just postion reporting, not APRS. So people have to realize that there are huge differences with certain gear and should not confuse the terms.

 

Im primarily a Yaesu user. They do something very similar, over APRS.  The compass even looks similar. P2P APRS is a great tool. Especially if voice is not working well. You can send text messages, even short (low quality) voice recordings and photos. It's one of my favorite digital modes.

[WRKW566]

Quote (partial snip) WSFE226 said: "Some of us just want to use the features available to us as GMRS license holders without it becoming an expensive hobby and time-suck."

Unrelated comment from me that is kinda related. Skip reading this if you are easily "triggered".

Mestastic has a setting in their devices for telling the system you want to operate the thing as an amateur operator. It turns off the encoding so that the operator can comply with the no encryption thing that ties ham hands. It serves exactly no purpose at all. The radios are not categorized as licensed radios and operate below any power level. The setting does serve two things, one it lets the ham operator feel like they are in full compliance and it is an "I feel good about my choices" button.

There should be a setting in this forum that allows an amateur operator to indicate they are posting with their ham hat on. Like a tag or a whatever. then all of us lazy-ass GMRS users can set our login to myGMRS.com so that we don't have to keep hearing about the other side. Here's the part that will trigger some people. This is a GMRS site. there are plenty of Amateur radio sites on the Internet. I don't care one way or another if you have any kind of radio license but this is a GMRS site. Keep the ham stuff to the Other Radio Services section of the Forum. And yes, this should have been posted in that Forum. I will now sit and watch this turn into a front yard fist fight.

 

[SteveShannon]

22 minutes ago, WRKW566 said:

Quote (partial snip) WSFE226 said: "Some of us just want to use the features available to us as GMRS license holders without it becoming an expensive hobby and time-suck."

Unrelated comment from me that is kinda related. Skip reading this if you are easily "triggered".

Mestastic has a setting in their devices for telling the system you want to operate the thing as an amateur operator. It turns off the encoding so that the operator can comply with the no encryption thing that ties ham hands. It serves exactly no purpose at all. The radios are not categorized as licensed radios and operate below any power level. The setting does serve two things, one it lets the ham operator feel like they are in full compliance and it is an "I feel good about my choices" button.

There should be a setting in this forum that allows an amateur operator to indicate they are posting with their ham hat on. Like a tag or a whatever. then all of us lazy-ass GMRS users can set our login to myGMRS.com so that we don't have to keep hearing about the other side. Here's the part that will trigger some people. This is a GMRS site. there are plenty of Amateur radio sites on the Internet. I don't care one way or another if you have any kind of radio license but this is a GMRS site. Keep the ham stuff to the Other Radio Services section of the Forum. And yes, this should have been posted in that Forum. I will now sit and watch this turn into a front yard fist fight.

 

It’s easy to include partial quotes. Simply select the text you want to quote and then click where it says “Quote Selection”

[WRKW566]

6 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

It’s easy to include partial quotes. Simply select the text you want to quote and then click where it says “Quote Selection”

Thank you. I also see that you can edit the snip to indicate that it is a partial and therefore prevent or lessen the chance that someone will take the quote out of context.

[WRKW566]

I went and looked... in my usual way of asking questions using language no one understands and, APRS seems to require a web based server it is, while not encoded still a digital data stream. This would fall afoul of the linking thing I think. I am trying to think of how to "host" an APRS server for my local handful of radios and fail to keep falling into the "needs a server" part of the system. APRS as near as I can tell does not go radio-to-radio.

How would a GMRS user implement APRS?

[SteveShannon]

44 minutes ago, WRKW566 said:

I went and looked... in my usual way of asking questions using language no one understands and, APRS seems to require a web based server it is, while not encoded still a digital data stream. This would fall afoul of the linking thing I think. I am trying to think of how to "host" an APRS server for my local handful of radios and fail to keep falling into the "needs a server" part of the system. APRS as near as I can tell does not go radio-to-radio.

How would a GMRS user implement APRS?

Okay, first, APRS has no need for the internet.  It’s possible to use the internet to see APRS data that has been connected to the internet, but by no means is the internet necessary.

Second, APRS absolutely works radio to radio. You just make sure both radios are set to the same frequency and turn on APRS.  But, you typically must have a radio with APRS functionality built in or you must connect a TNC to your radio.

Do you really want APRS or are you just looking for position reporting and short text messages?  It’s like asking do you want to be a Boy Scout or do you just want to camp.

[WRKW566]

40 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Second, APRS absolutely works radio to radio.

See, I used the quote thing

I will go and review what I was looking at. I installed the APRS Android app but could find no way to go any further without connecting to the Internet. I will try again and dig deeper. Side note, the app seems to "like" my GMRS call sign. And, oh yes I have this app firewalled and choked to death as far as it reaching or seeing any network connection.

[WRKW566]

2 minutes ago, WRKW566 said:

See, I used the quote thing

I will go and review what I was looking at. I installed the APRS Android app but could find no way to go any further without connecting to the Internet. I will try again and dig deeper. Side note, the app seems to "like" my GMRS call sign. And, oh yes I have this app firewalled and choked to death as far as it reaching or seeing any network connection.

"Your callsign is too long for packet radio. So much for using this over GMRS.

[SteveShannon]

42 minutes ago, WRKW566 said:

See, I used the quote thing

I will go and review what I was looking at. I installed the APRS Android app but could find no way to go any further without connecting to the Internet. I will try again and dig deeper. Side note, the app seems to "like" my GMRS call sign. And, oh yes I have this app firewalled and choked to death as far as it reaching or seeing any network connection.

You’re probably trying to use APRSdroid.  As you have discovered, that is a viewer that allows you to see APRS data that has been placed on the internet.  A similar app for Apple exists, called APRS.fi, after the website where the data is available. It makes it very convenient to see where someone is if they’re carrying an APRS capable device that is sending information to an APRS digipeater on 144.390 MHz. The digipeaters and APRS capable radios are all ham radios.  They can talk to each other directly or through digipeaters, but they use amateur radio.  That should not be surprising; the founder Bob Bruninga, was a ham.

APRS does not exist on GMRS.  It just doesn’t. There are no GMRS digipeaters and there’s no regulatory compliant path to place location data from a GMRS onto APRS. 

But there some certified GMRS radios that pass location or text data between each other.  Garmin was the first and BTech is another more recent one.  This is why I keep asking if you really want APRS or if you just want some of the features of APRS. The features are possible. To actually fully implement APRS while remaining compliant with the regulations is not.

The regulations prohibit sending digital data to a repeater and the FCC currently interprets the regulations as prohibiting connecting GMRS radios to a network of any kind, so I don’t know how you’re going to put the data on a server.

 

[WRKW566]

5 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

You’re probably trying to use APRSdroid.  As you have discovered, that is a viewer that allows you to see APRS data that has been placed on the internet.  A similar app for Apple exists, called APRS.fi, after the website where the data is available. It makes it very convenient to see where someone is if they’re carrying an APRS capable device that is sending information to an APRS digipeater on 144.390 MHz. The digipeaters and APRS capable radios are all ham radios.  They can talk to each other directly or through digipeaters, but they use amateur radio.  That should not be surprising; the founder Bob Brunzinga, was a ham.

APRS does not exist on GMRS.  It just doesn’t. There are no GMRS digipeaters and there’s no regulatory compliant path to place location data from a GMRS onto APRS. 

But there some certified GMRS radios that pass location or text data between each other.  Garmin was the first and BTech is another more recent one.  This is why I keep asking if you really want APRS or if you just want some of the features of APRS. The features are possible. To actually fully implement APRS while remaining compliant with the regulations is not.

The regulations prohibit sending digital data to a repeater and the FCC currently interprets the regulations as prohibiting connecting GMRS radios to a network of any kind, so I don’t know how you’re going to put the data on a server.

 

Thank you! Thank you!

And many thank you in a big basket at your front door!

APRSdroid deleted!

[SteveShannon]

21 hours ago, WSFE226 said:

Some of us just want to use the features available to us as GMRS license holders without it becoming an expensive hobby and time-suck. Thats what having an amateur license is for. Hobbyists. GMRS users are less hobbyists, more practical users. Dont have to shit on us for not wanting a HAM license. Now that APRS is available to us, shame on us for trying to use it? Is that really how you feel?

I’m not sure who you think defecated in your direction, but very few people here act that way. 
But for the reasons I posted above, I think the premise of your statement “Now that APRS is available to us…” is incorrect.  APRS isn’t available to us GMRS users. 
But it is available to us amateur radio users.  That’s not a put down, just a statement of how APRS works. I think some people see that location data is available in some GMRS radios and confuse that with APRS.

[AdmiralCochrane]

15 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

You’re probably trying to use APRSdroid.  As you have discovered, that is a viewer that allows you to see APRS data that has been placed on the internet.  A similar app for Apple exists, called APRS.fi, after the website where the data is available. It makes it very convenient to see where someone is if they’re carrying an APRS capable device that is sending information to an APRS digipeater on 144.390 MHz. The digipeaters and APRS capable radios are all ham radios.  They can talk to each other directly or through digipeaters, but they use amateur radio.  That should not be surprising; the founder Bob Bruninga, was a ham.

APRS does not exist on GMRS.  It just doesn’t. There are no GMRS digipeaters and there’s no regulatory compliant path to place location data from a GMRS onto APRS. 

But there some certified GMRS radios that pass location or text data between each other.  Garmin was the first and BTech is another more recent one.  This is why I keep asking if you really want APRS or if you just want some of the features of APRS. The features are possible. To actually fully implement APRS while remaining compliant with the regulations is not.

The regulations prohibit sending digital data to a repeater and the FCC currently interprets the regulations as prohibiting connecting GMRS radios to a network of any kind, so I don’t know how you’re going to put the data on a server.

 

One of my regrets is not having met Bob since he only lived a few miles from me.   APRS.fi domain suffix is fi because Bob's family is from Finland and he was obviously proud of the fact.  The English equivalent of Bruninga is Burns.

 

Farther on to the APRS location idea, even with regular ham APRS, you would have to be within range of a receiver. If one is outside of cell coverage, you would also likely be outside of APRS receivers.  Paired location data legal GMRS radios would have to be within regular simplex range and would offer no particular advantage other than battery life for the radio sending the data.

[gortex2]

16 hours ago, WRKW566 said:

"Your callsign is too long for packet radio. So much for using this over GMRS.

APRS DRoid will only take valid HAM call signs. And requires a passcode. It can also be used without internet as we do for some of our SAR stuff. Yes internet allows igates so users can see eachother on APRS.fi or other sites to monitro APRS but in 30 years of APRS use by myself nothign I have ever had used the internet to beacon locations, wx or messages. In its day it was a great tool and was used alot more than it is now. Now I can send a text on my phone in 2 seconds vs pulling over on the side of the road and typings on a querty keyboard to reply to a message. 

[WSCV533]

1 minute ago, SteveShannon said:

Here’s the problem: while there are GMRS radios that send location information, best among them being the Garmin Rhino radios in my opinion, regulations prohibit radios which send digital location data from having a replaceable antenna or transmitting location data through a repeater, which will make it more difficult to build the “central system (with a nice, high, antenna).

The Btech GMRS Pro has a removable antenna. Btech puts a little bit of glue to accommodate the regulations, but it is easy to remove.

 

20 hours ago, thenols said:

I have this same question. i have a HAM and GMRS license, but my family members do not have HAM licenses, so I would like to get GMRS radios that transmit position data to a central system (with a nice, high, antenna) so as people are out and about, especially up in the mountains where there is no cell service, I could see where they are at, especially if there are any problems they need help with.

I would get a Btech GMRS Pro handheld and a uhf amplifier. The radio has a "parrot repeater" function so you can have a little simplex repeater that will send/receive data, has 20-40 watts of power, and has the antenna height and range you would need.

[WSFE226]

Some of us just want to use the features available to us as GMRS license holders without it becoming an expensive hobby and time-suck. Thats what having an amateur license is for. Hobbyists. GMRS users are less hobbyists, more practical users. Dont have to shit on us for not wanting a HAM license. Now that APRS is available to us, shame on us for trying to use it? Is that really how you feel?