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Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS

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I'm a radio amateur and have been for about 5 years now.  My radio 
interest started when I was a kid, playing with the shortwave radio 
that my friend's dad owned and later with the cult classic 
long-distance receiver, the GE SupeRadio.  When I was about 13 I got a 
police scanner - this was shortly before the cell phone frequency ban.  
I was also a computer geek at the time and these sorts of interests 
seem to go hand in hand.

When I got my amateur radio license I started looking into the 
different technologies available to the ham.  In addition to typical 
voice and morse code (known to us hams as CW) there are quite a few 
digital communications modes that are in common use, from very low 
bitrate error-corrected communications to fully high speed protocols.  
Today I'd like to share one of these really cool digital protocols / 
modes with you all, in hopes of getting those of you who aren't hams 
interested, and those of you who are interested in it.  The protocol is 
called APRS.  It's a packet communication protocol that is usually 
carried out at 1200 baud.  Messages are forwarded through the network 
until they hit a dead end, and routing information is conveyed by 
beaconing.  If you (A) can see a station (B) that can see another 
station (C), all you do is input the call sign of C and you can send 
them a message with B acting as an intermediary.  Location data, 
temperature, current status, and text messages can be conveyed this 
way.  APRS also has a feature known as the iGate, which is a node 
hooked up to the internet.  With this feature, it is possible to send 
text messages to other hams pretty much anywhere in the world, using 
the internet to bridge any long range gaps.

I often use this technology to send emails to my wife.  She is not a 
radio amateur, so she can not send messages through the APRS network, 
but I can simply send them to her email address and APRS to email 
services (all free, like every amateur radio technology or facility) 
will deliver the mail to her.  I sometimes go hunting or fishing far 
from cell phone service in the real back country in Oregon, but I can 
almost always get APRS packets out to an iGate, or to somebody that 
sees somebody that sees somebody (etc) that can see an iGate.

There are many handheld radios with APRS built in, as well as larger 
units meant for installation in a home or vehicle.  Free computer 
software can also perform all the functions (often even more) done by 
commercial APRS radios so really all one needs is an old computer and 
an old radio to get started.

Thanks for listening, and I will post other periodic neat comments 
highlighting amateur radio tech that I think is cool.

Here are some links to the relevant technologies I mentioned:

APRS, the protocol itself (exhaustive web pages by the man that pioneered it):

http://www.aprs.org

APRS to email:

http://www.aprs-is.net/Email.aspx

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Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-02-07 15:26 -0800
  Re: Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS 2phar <none@example.com> - 2014-02-07 18:46 -0500
    Re: Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-02-07 16:13 -0800
      Re: Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS Massive Unibrow <unibrow@gmail.com> - 2014-02-08 07:52 +0000
        Re: Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-02-08 09:07 +0000
          Re: Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-08 11:48 +0000
          Re: Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS 2phar <none@example.com> - 2014-02-08 08:58 -0500
            Re: Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-02-08 15:10 -0800
            Re: Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS Vince Mulhollon <vincemulhollon@gmail.com> - 2014-02-10 05:41 -0800
        Re: Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS "Dirk T. Verbeek" <dverbeek@xs4all.nl> - 2014-02-08 12:17 +0000

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