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Re: Cool Stuff for Amateur Radio - APRS

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On 2/7/2014 6:26 PM, Oregonian Haruspex wrote:
> 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
>

And Amateur Radio satellites carry APRS stations..  I remember being 
able to relay messages from my TNC to a base in Antarctica via satellite 
back in the 1980s. Wonderful stuff.

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Thread

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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