Anyone using APRS?

[tsm1mt]

The FT-350R is priced just a touch higher than the TM-D710A. I expected the price to come in close to the D710, and it has, but not a "lot" more.

For those worried about digi coverage while out in rural areas, you can start by going with a better antenna and more power.

I live in Montana, and on 5w with a 1/4 wave whip, just on my drive to work each day, about 1 packet would get picked up by a digipeater. Switching to the D710 and a 5/8 wave, and at 10w a few packets got picked up, 25w a bunch more, and at 50w almost every packet gets the "digi-peated" beep from the Kenwood.

If you're still worried about being heard, and you don't want to fool with using the AMSATs, then it's time to upgrade to General and put in an HF APRS.

Running APRS on 30m should get you "heard" by an IGate under most conditions, even far from "civilization."

Those of you wanting a single, inexpensive 2m radio for voice and APRS, look into "MicE" and "Send on PTT" - you can then do APRS and voice on a single simplex frequency. Primarily only useful for those in your group, since you don't want to be talking on 144.390.

 

[Mash5]

Running APRS on 30m should get you "heard" by an IGate under most conditions, even far from "civilization."

Have you done this? Perhaps this should be a new thread but what does the antenna for 30m mobile look like? Is it practical for an off road vehicle. Most of the mobile HF antennas I have seen look like they would not do well coming in contact with trees rocks etc.
KJ6EUO

 

[arz]

Have you done this? Perhaps this should be a new thread but what does the antenna for 30m mobile look like? Is it practical for an off road vehicle. Most of the mobile HF antennas I have seen look like they would not do well coming in contact with trees rocks etc.
KJ6EUO

http://www.hamstick.com/9130.html

30m mobile antenna

# 1/2" Hollow Fiberglass Base With Loading Coil Wound Directly On Covered With PVC Shrink Tubing
# Plate Brass Fitting
# 3/8" X 24 Male Threads That Fit Most Mobile Mounts
# 17-7 PH Tempered Stainless Steel Whip
# Slides Into Base For Easy Frequency Adjustment
# 7' Long

about $31

 

[xtatik]

Have you done this? Perhaps this should be a new thread but what does the antenna for 30m mobile look like? Is it practical for an off road vehicle. Most of the mobile HF antennas I have seen look like they would not do well coming in contact with trees rocks etc.
KJ6EUO

Your callsign says you're probably in California. I run a screwdriver type antenna on my truck, and while traveling in our mountains and deserts I've rarely had to dismount it to clear obstructions. When I do dismount it, it takes only a few seconds. The "hamstick" type of antennas mentioned above are as rugged as most commercially made loaded FM antennas. The Hamsticks are monoband and can be set up to dismount or change in seconds as well. They are not the most efficient antennas, especially below 20m..... but, they can talk around the world at 100 watts..........and they're cheap!!

I wasn't aware that was anyone was running APRS on HF. I'm starting to get interested. This would be a huge benefit to sailors/cruisers.....and others that travel "out there".

 

[mmccurdy]

I have a Kenwood D-7A HT that I used with my Garmin GPS III. Other APRS stations do show up on the screen as waypoints. Not very efficient, and I haven't tried to see if they are mobile. Also, those waypoints are saved in waypoint memory and have to be deleted periodically.

So I'm about to pull the trigger on a rig, and this feature pretty much has me on the fence between the Kenwood 710 and the Yaesu 350. Yaesu seems to take more of an "all inclusive" approach to GPS/APRS, but since I'm running at Garmin 378 chart plotter anyway, I have no issue feeding the location in from the Garmin, and more than that I think it would be awesome to see other stations represented on the Garmin screen as waypoints... however I read on another forum somewhere that the Kenwood-to-GPS implementation was pretty ugly, and it would just keep dropping "new" waypoints as things moved around, so before long you would have 200+ waypoints cluttering your view.

If this is true, this is pretty much a dealbreaker, and might push me back toward the Yaesu, which is not without its share of problems as it turns out.

Any updates on this would be much appreciated....

 

[bc_fjc]

I wasn't aware that was anyone was running APRS on HF. I'm starting to get interested. This would be a huge benefit to sailors/cruisers.....and others that travel "out there".

APRS can be used on HF but I use Airmail/Winlink position reporting when on HF. http://www.winlink.org/dotnet/maps/PositionreportsDetail.aspx?callsign=VA7DRW. I get the benefit of being able to send and receive emails with anyone. Lots of sailors/cruisers use Airmail/Sailmail.

 

[chrismc]

APRS can be used on HF but I use Airmail/Winlink position reporting when on HF. http://www.winlink.org/dotnet/maps/PositionreportsDetail.aspx?callsign=VA7DRW. I get the benefit of being able to send and receive emails with anyone. Lots of sailors/cruisers use Airmail/Sailmail.

How did you make it from China to Vancouver in 3 min? I've been reading about Winlink for years, but have never run across anyone that uses it. It always looked like a great option for overland travel. I'd be interested in hearing more about your experiences. The only drawback I've seen is that it requires a fairly pricey Pactor 3 modem, no?

 

[bc_fjc]

How did you make it from China to Vancouver in 3 min? I've been reading about Winlink for years, but have never run across anyone that uses it. It always looked like a great option for overland travel. I'd be interested in hearing more about your experiences. The only drawback I've seen is that it requires a fairly pricey Pactor 3 modem, no?

I messed up typing in my position... used East instead of West. Normally I have my computer connected to the GPS in my truck when I enable Position Reporting.

Yes, the Pactor III modems are the best choice (fastest , best noise to signal ratio) but there is a selection of other modems that are compatible. I have been using SCS PTC-IIUSB with the Pactor 3 enabled for the last 2 years. It has worked perfectly for me once I learned all the ins and outs... the best part is the ability to communicate to those with out a ham radio and then there are the added benefits of being able to request weather conditions form the system and locations of nearby stations....

 

[HenryJ]

This seemed to be the most appropriate topic in which to bring the subject of APRS back to light.
I realize the SPOT has taken some of the "spotlight" from APRS, but I still see it as a good alternative. It has taken me five and one half years to get to the point of APRS implementation.
I finally ordered what I need to get APRS running in my truck. I settled on a stand alone set up by http://www.byonics.com/

The Micro-Trak RTG (Ready To Go) should be all that I need. 10 watts is not huge power, but twice that of an HT. A good way to "wet my feet" in APRS. There is valid argument for limiting transmission power with APRS use. 10W-20W seems to be the best place to be from the research that I have done. Line of sight is what it is all about and I have lots of that here. Love the big sky country.

I think the MicroTrak RTG will be a good investment. $196 to my door all inclusive. GPS, transmitter, antenna and programmed ready to go.
I should be able to toss this in any vehicle with ease. Maybe even on my TW200. My hope is this will be the poor-man's SPOT. Well a tracker at least. Others can follow my progress.

It should also suffice for vehicle to vehicle transmission. It does not receive as it is a "dumb sender" only. Still I will show up on others receivers. I am not to the point where I am comfortable with the software on the laptop yet. My mapping needs are satisfied in ways that do not include APRS. If it does not serve my "expedition" needs, it is low cost and can be put to urban uses.
Any,hoo...I dropped my dime and await shipping.:victory:

 

[craig]

Those trackers are pretty nice and work great for someone who just wants to be seen by their trail leader without setting up a mapping interface themselves.

We've been busy adding the ability to display APRS stations in Overland Navigator and the beta testers are testing it now. Our goal was to provide the ability to display others locations, but without requiring a steep learning curve to do it.

In my opinion, the easiest way to set this up is a Kenwood D710a radio and a single cable to a GPS or Overland Navigator. With the D710a you plug a cheap $35 GPS puck into the Overland Navigator computer (if it doesn't have one built in), then run a single off the shelf cable from the computer to the GPS port on the radio. Configure a couple of settings and you are on the air.

GPS ---> Overland Navigator <-------> Kenwood D710a

The snapshot shows a variety of APRS stations in the Western Washington area. When on the trail, you can zoom in to the topos and just see your friends. From top to bottom there is a sailboat cruising the San Juan Islands, the Skagit repeater, a pickup, a camper, a car, another pickup, a weather station, and the Yakima repeater on the other side of the cascade mountains. All of this was heard over the air.

Here's the feature comparison to a traditional GPS...
- Overland Navigator supports APRS specific icons, rather than generic waypoint symbols like a handheld GPS would.

- Overland Navigator moves stations when an updated position is received rather than adding a second waypoint the way a handheld GPS would.

- Overland Navigator has a configurable expiration time, after which the stations are removed. You don't have to manually delete them like you do on a handheld GPS.

- Overland Navigator will visibly fade the symbols out as they get old. This gives you a quick indicator as to how long it's been since you last heard from that station. As a trail leader, this allows you to quickly understand how current everyone's position reports are with a single glance.

 

[Chazz Layne]

Ah, I was wondering if you had implemented APRS in Overland Navigator... now I'm going to have to buy it (and a computer to put it on).

 

[craig]

Sorry I meant 710 not 110. I didn't think the GPS V would support other locations but I was hoping I was wrong. I really don't want an LCD much less a whole laptop in my rig but it sounds like if I want to see other APRS users I may not have a choice.
I wonder if there is a small net-book that could be set up with the screen upside down mounted from the roof just behind the rear view mirror.

Go with an Ultra Mobile PC. They are about 7" across, which makes the just right for the truck. In comparison, most handheld GPS units are about 2.5" with the biggest ones getting up to about 5". A typical Netbook is a 10" screen, and a small laptop is a 13" screen.

Here is a shot of mine. Note that I was leaning down to get a good angle when taking the shot. From the drivers position I can still see the hood and the corners of the vehicle with no trouble at all.

And the RAM mount holding it up.

 

[craig]

I have a Kenwood D-7A HT that I used with my Garmin GPS III. Other APRS stations do show up on the screen as waypoints. Not very efficient, and I haven't tried to see if they are mobile. Also, those waypoints are saved in waypoint memory and have to be deleted periodically.

These are the problems I was describing in my comparison to a handheld GPS above. Overland Navigator avoids all of them.

Waypoints are moved rather than having multiple waypoints for each station. Also, old stations get deleted automatically. You can configure how long a waypoint should stay on the screen before it is deleted.

I'm *really* having fun both coding and testing this feature. APRS makes the map come alive. It reminds of of the first time I took my computer online. All of a sudden it was just so much more capable and interesting than when it sat in the corner disconnected from all the other computers in the world. It's just fantastic to be able to see where other trucks are, where the repeaters are, etc.

Craig

 

[gary in ohio]

I dont have APRS in my car, but have an APRS app on my android phone that will inject me into the APRS system.

 

[HenryJ]

I dont have APRS in my car, but have an APRS app on my android phone that will inject me into the APRS system.

Yup, I use iaprs on my touch too.