APRS

By Jim Mastrogiovanni KK5RZDecember 14, 2006

APRS was developed in the early 1990's by Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, for digital communications and tracking mobile GPS equipped stations

utilizing Amateur two-way radio.

•Stations

• Locations

• Objects

• Tracks

• Areas

• Weather

• Assets

APRS stands for Automatic Packet Reporting Station

APRS can keep track of:

APRS also provides short text messaging capability

APRS Equipment

$47.00 built and tested with case$38.00 Kit with case

TinyTrak3

TinyTrak3

Transmit only TNC

Fixed Beaconing

Smart Beaconing

Primary and secondary configuration

Transmit hold off on “busy” frequency

$179 to $199 depending on the vendor

Kantronics KPC3+

Full featured TNC tx/rx

remote access digipeat

A 2 meter capable transceiver -hand held or mobile rig

Garmin GPS 18 PC or LVC$70 to $129.99 depending…

GPS

PC

Some examples of APRS stations

Transmit only tracker configuration

GPSNMEA 0189 serial output

Transmit only TNC

2M transceiver on 144.390 MHz

Full featured APRS station

Personal Computer running APRS software

Full TX/RX TNC

Transceiver tuned to 144.390

GPSNMEA 0189 serial output

optional

Igate APRS station

Personal Computer running APRS software

Full TX/RX TNC

Transceiver tuned to 144.390

your.isp.com

Internet APRS Server

Full TX/RX TNC

Transceiver tuned to 144.390

RF APRS Tracking Station

Personal Computer running APRS software

Full TX/RX TNCGPS and Remote Access enabled

Transceiver tuned to 144.390

Re-configurable stand alone APRS tracker

GPSNMEA 0189 serial output

Internet based APRS

your.isp.com

APRS Server

Igate stations RF to Internet gating worldwide

PC running APRS client software

Large Quantities of APRS Data

Some Local APRS Activity Screen Captures

Mobile Stations collected via RF from my QTH near Bergheim

Fixed Stations collected via RF from my QTH

KK5RZ-9 track on a recent trip to San Antonio

SA Marathon all reports all stations

Trip to SARC Meeting December 14, 2006

Trip to SARC Meeting December 14, 2006Slide 2

Demonstrations

Software

Tracker

Portable Station