APRS - digital gps and heading packets over VHF; SMSGTE texting across VHF

[asutherland]

An advantage of using some radios with builtin APRS is that they can include your primary voice frequency in the APRS status updates... allowing others to find want frequency you are on. My Yaesu FTM400 also lets me move to an advertised frequency easily... handy while on the road now that some digipeters are advertising local watering hole repeaters in the area.

Yeah, that's called voice alert, right? Pretty neat feature for sure.

 

[CV Kurt]

Yeah, that's called voice alert, right? Pretty neat feature for sure.

Voice alert is different. For Voice alert, the basic idea is for APRS stations (not digipeters) to transmit APRS messages with a 100hz tone... then folks can listen to the APRS frequency and tone. When you hear something it means another station is nearby AND listening for voice on the APRS frequency. You can then make a call to them by voice over the APRS frequency with the 100hz tone. (They should move elsewhere quickly.)

What I am referring is providing local information into the beacon messages that tells others which frequency, tone, and shift you are using (on the other transceiver of a dual-transciever APRS station). For instance, when I'm driving around here, my beacons will include "147.330Mhz t123 +060 @ 5w". Simple APRS receivers would show this in the comments field. A local information aware transciever may let you switch your primary voice transceiver to that is advertised in the beacon.

 

[asutherland]

Ah. Cool. Mine can transmit that info. It also shows me the other nearby objects and their voice freq, etc. Pretty darn handy when you're in an area where you know there's a repeater but don't know it's details... And don't have cell reception to look it up!

 

[opg4759a]

Bringing this thread back from the abyss. There was a update to APRSdroid that now allows you to long select a station and then select an external map. Right now the 2 external map applications that are working are Google Maps and Backcountry Navigator Pro( (BCN pro), Gaia isn't supported at this time from my testing.

BCN Pro will allow you to center on the station , create a way point to a GOTO coordinates. I've been wanting this for awhile and I'm happy to see that it is working. It won't do live tracking of the stations in BCN pro, but being able to see a station on a CalTOPO map, ARCGIS or US forset MVUM maps easily is a step in the right direction.

The build I'm using is APRSdroid-gl-2017-03-02.apk which you need to download and sideload from the APRSdroid project page APRSdroid - Downloads - builds

 

[gahi]

Nice, I saw the update happened, but have not looked into what the changes were.

 

[asutherland]

That's cool, I hadn't even tried the long-press on a station before. Androzic (which I use for backroad mapbook navigation offline) did come up. What I'd like to see is it plot all the stations on the map in Androzic as I'm using it! That'd be stellar.

 

[PabloCruise]

Update... the equipment came in! Now I get to play. Spent some time figuring out where I wanted it mounted, how to mount it, created a bracket, and did some wiring. Both the secondary Kenwood radio and the APRS equipment are independently fused, and power sourced together off a relay I can control with my APRS labelled dash switch. It's power source is my 14 gauge "Acessories" wire which is relayed and fused again in the engine bay and comes on with ACC.

The Kenwood mounting bracket, riveted to my bracket, keeps the unit off the carpet and allows air circulation. It's also positioned far enough back under the seat that it has breathing room up top too, but close enough I can reach the buttons from the side of the seat while standing at the passenger door. The TT4 BlueTooth module Byonics shipped doesn't seem to have a project box around it, so a co worker is going to 3d print me a custom one this weekend

Pics...

I realize this thread is old, I wish these pictures were still live...

 

[asutherland]

Dropbox s*** the bed on me. I'll update the links... pics are still there, just links are bad.

 

[asutherland]

There...updated most of them! FYI I don't have this truck anymore, but I did install my APRS system in the new cruiser.

Builds - The Dentist - Turbo Diesel LX450

Hey everyone, I know I haven't been on here much lately. I wanted to give an update as well as a build thread of sorts. End-game spoiler pic... The Story: A few of you may know my HDJ81 "The Fat Lady" that I imported from Japan-land almost 10 years ago. Well, the Fat Lady has sang. Much to...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[surfpig]

This is cool. I played a while back with a rudimentary APRS system using a Baofeng handheld radio and my iPhone. I was able to easily contact my family while I was well out of cell range. I need to pick it back up again and get a little better acquainted with the system.